Page 313 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

302 Notes

religious artifacts also allows us to begin thinking of the religious and spiritual
practices that integrate those artifacts into individual experience, a very
different view than attributing the autonomy in the process to the medium.
47 De Vries (2001), p. 28. While I agree with DeVries (and others in that volume)
that questions of the “enchantment” or the mystery traditionally associated with
religion, and the implications of technology in that regard, are important, they
may not fundamentally address what is done when people encounter or interact
with media materials. I will discuss this in more detail in the final chapter.
48 For a complete discussion, see Warner (1993) and Yamane (1997).
49 Williams (1977).
50 Giddens (1991).
51 Giddens (1991), in particular pp. 19–35.
52 On the “positive” side, an increased level of personal autonomy, while on the
“negative” a higher level of cynicism about social institutions, including politics.
53 Gergen (1991).
54 This contrasting view of the self and media culture is an issue we will return to
in later chapters, assessing the extent to which there is evidence in our inter-
view data that supports one or the other perspective.
55 For a comprehensive discussion, see Moores (1993).
56 Denzin (1992), p. 26. This will be discussed in greater detail in later chapters.
57 For a complete discussion, see Clark (2003), pp. 3–23.
58 Warner (1993).
59 Roof (1999).
60 This has been most clearly expressed in the so-called “culture wars” that have
emerged at the boundary between Neo-Evangelical and old-line religious tradi-
tions. For a definitive discussion, see Hunter (1992).
61 Roof (1999), p. 124.
62 For more detailed accounts of interactionist theory in relation to culture, see
Denzin (1992). Erving Goffman (1959) developed the most elaborate theory of
self-presentation in relation to interactionist ideas.
63 Denzin (1992), pp. 27–8.
64 “Seeking a focus on joy in field of psychology,” New York Times, 28 April
1998, section F, p. 7.
65 Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton (1981).
66 Spiegel (1992), Sieftert (1994), and Marc (1996).
67 Herberg (1983).
68 For more complete discussions, see Rosenthal (2001) and Hoover and Wagner
(1997). In the US, the instrumentality was the so-called “sustaining time”
system through which the dominant religions were given access to local and
national airtime on commercial television. A parallel system emerged in the
UK, with the BBC establishing both its own internal religion unit and terms
through which other religions would receive airtime. Later, the authority
moved outside the BBC itself, but the fundamental dynamic remained the same:
broadcasting authorities were in the position of deciding which were legitimate
religious voices and which were not. For a critical view from a movement “left
out” of the British system, see Quicke and Quicke (1992).
69 Fore (1987).

3 Media and religion in transition
1 Much of the following discussion can be compared with received or classic defi-
nitions of mass communication, such as that offered by Charles Wright (1974).