Page 140 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

Reception of religion and media 129

Interviewer: Do you ever go online or through television or film seek out
inspiration?
Judy: As far as spiritual?
Interviewer: Sure.
Judy: No, not really. All of that is about money. They’re always asking if
you’ll pledge money and I don’t think it really, through TV or radio it
doesn’t really get through the waves. You have to do that face-to-face,
it’s more reality when you do it like that. As far as TV or radio it is
hard to concentrate and it seems like a lot of . . . I don’t know, too
much dancing and music and you just can’t get into it. Your
thoughts . . . you can’t even go there.

Judy is someone for whom spirituality is important, though it is expressed
in rather unconventional ways. She divides the world between religious
practice that takes place outside of the home – her conventional Catholic
practice – and that which can be accessed within the home – including the
things that she can get from television, radio, and the Internet. In the latter
category, further, there is a difference between the programs and services
that really mean something to her, and those which are presented as, self-
consciously, “religious.”

Interviewer: I know we talked before about Touched by an Angel and It’s
a Miracle. Are those different for you from preachers up on the screen
or on the radio?
Judy: Yeah, and there is another one that just came out called Crossing
over with John Edward. That’s kind of interesting to me because, I
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guess because people have had experiences and a person can relate to
things like that whether it’s miracles or healers or, you experience
things like that and you can relate to things like that, but as far as
preachers or dancing, it is a little bit more different. It’s not as
comfortable.

Judy clearly finds meaningful, even spiritually meaningful, material in tele-
vision (and might well go to the Internet to pursue such interests as well).
The thing is, she doesn’t go to the expected places. For someone who by
other measures (imagine how Judy might answer a telephone survey about
her religious preference or beliefs) should be rather traditional, she instead
defies easy categorization. This is even more the case when the Interviewer
returns to questions of media and religion later in the individual interview
with Judy. “Do you think about God or spirituality when you interact
with media?” he asks. Judy responds, “Um . . . no I don’t. That [spiritu-
ality], I do on my own time.” She goes on to describe a weekend event she
plans to attend where there will be psychics and healers as an example of
her doing spirituality “on her own time.” This is a fascinating example of the