Page 237 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

226 Representing outcomes

Donna: We did a series at church on different religions and we learned
some basics about that. So when we did that, I came home – we did
Islam one week and did Seventh Day Adventists. I came home and I
would look for some things and see if I could find anything that had
more information. And they were all pretty – I didn’t have as much
time to spend as I would have liked. But they were all pretty similar.
So there was nothing at that point that we hadn’t talked about.
Interviewer: Would you do the same thing with TV when you’re watching?
If you come across shows or maybe a movie that advocate beliefs that
are different from yours, what do you do? Or a magazine, or whatever?
Donna: I guess it depends on what it is and what the information is. If it’s
something that I find offensive, I’m gonna just not – I’m really bad
about television. I think most of it’s pretty much garbage. If I turn it
on and watch a couple minutes of a show and it’s just yucky, I won’t
even go back and look at it.
Interviewer: What’s a yucky show?
Donna: [laughing] I knew you were going to ask me that. It’s not too hard
to be yucky in my book. When they get into violence. . . .
Interviewer: Can you give me an example of a yucky show?
Donna: What’s a yucky show? This shows you how much I turn on the
television. Oh, well it’s not on now, but it was on not too long ago. I
think it was called The Bachelor. It was about this guy who was
dating all these women and they were all living in a house together
and he –Oh yuck! Oh yuck! That just made me . . . [laughing].
Interviewer: OK. Do you think that some TV programs, websites, and so
on are more truthful than others? And if so, how do you make that
evaluation?
Donna: Yes, I think that some are more truthful than others. And, boy, to
decide that, it’s hard. [but I do it by] Talking to other people to see if
they’ve seen it or heard about it or know anything about it. People that
I trust. Most of the time . . . well, I guess it depends on what it is again.
If I run across something, I try and read through it and I basically go on
instinct. And I feel like my instincts are – especially if I pursue them in
that manner – are God led. So I feel like there’s going to be some kind of
leading in either direction. Sometimes there’s not. Sometimes you just
have to – it depends on what the content is. I mean, if there’s something
that just doesn’t sit right, then. . . . And I guess it just depends on what
I’m looking for. If I’m just looking for some information that, you
know, you can verify somewhere else, then that’s one thing. But if you’re
looking for religious guidance or something like that you’ve gotta be a
little bit more choosy about your sources.

Donna does not shy away from evaluating the media. She seems to prefer
and to endorse those media that are inoffensive (in the case of entertain-