Page 321 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

310 Notes

36 See, in particular, Diane F. Alters, “At the Heart of the Culture: The Hartmans
and Roelofs,” Chapter Seven in Hoover et al. (2004).
37 Heather Hendershot (2004) Shaking the World for Jesus: Media and
Conservative Evangelical Culture, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
38 This program aired on the US CBS network from 1960 to 1968. It featured a
small-town southern sheriff, played by Griffith, who lived with his son and an
aunt, who was his housekeeper. It was never revealed whether he was divorced
or widowed, but there was no wife present. The absence of a wife, and the
absence of any people of color on the program, are generally pointed to as
examples of the show’s catering to a time of social anxiety about changes in
race and gender relations.
39 Howard has directed such notable films as Grand Theft Auto, Backdraft,
Splash, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, and The Da Vinci Code.
While some of his earlier work was of the potboiler variety, his more recent
work has received substantial critical acclaim.

5 Reception of religion and media
1 This is a term used by one of my professors, Ray Birdwhistel, to describe social
research that unknowingly generates the results it seeks by tautologically inves-
tigating issues that are so “taken for granted,” that it is not really possible to
find informants who would answer in the negative.
2 All interview material here, unless otherwise identified, is from interviews
conducted as part of the “Media, Meaning, and the Lifecourse,” and
“Religion, Meaning, and the New Media@Home” projects of the Center for
Media, Religion, and Culture at the University of Colorado, supported by
grants from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. For more information, see www.medi-
areligion.org. This interview was conducted by Dr Joseph G. Champ.
Interviews here will always be identified in endnotes by the researcher who
conducted them. All informant names are fictitious in keeping with standard
protocols of human subjects research.
3 Lynn Schofield Clark, “Being Distinctive in a Mediated Environment: The
Ahmeds and Paytons,” Chapter Six in Hoover et al. (2004)
4 Clark, ibid, p. 96.
5 As my colleagues and I noted in Media, Home, and Family, there does not
appear to be a systematic pattern, based in religious belief, predicting who will
reject media and who will not.
6 The interview with the Fallons was conducted by Christof Demont-Heinrich.
7 My colleagues and I discuss this in detail in Media, Home, and Family as well.
See Chapter 6, in particular, where the Payton family is discussed. David
Gauntlett and Annette Hill (1999) make a similar point in TV Living, particu-
larly around the use of television by many as a “friend” or “companion.” See
also the notion of the “transparency” of media in Livingstone (2002).
8 Interviews with the Johnsons were conducted by Christof Demont-Heinrich.
9 Such rules are one of the most tangible and salient elements of family identity.
For a further discussion of this, see Hoover et al. (2004).
10 These are all half-hour programs on the Cartoon Network. Dexter, at least, has
extensive tie-ins to gaming, with an X-Box version of Dexter available, and an
online Dexter game available on the Cartoon Network’s website for free.
11 A game available for free download.
12 A website devoted to computer games, music, videos, graphics, and other
things. It is not a children’s website, and advertises alcohol, among other prod-
ucts for older audiences.