Christianity and the mass media in America : toward a democratic accommodation / Quentin J. Schultze.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schultze, Quentin J. (Quentin James), 1952-

Series:

Rhetoric and public affairs series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media in religion--United States.

Mass media in religion.

Mass media--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Mass media.

United States.

Physical Description:

viii, 440 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

East Lansing, Mich. : Michigan State University Press, [2003]

Summary:

The mass media and religious groups in America regularly argue about news bias, sex and violence on television, movie censorship, advertiser boycotts, broadcast and film content rating systems, government regulation of the media, the role of mass evangelism in a democracy, and many other issues. In the United States the major disputes between religion and the media usually have involved Christian churches or parachurch ministries, on the one hand, and so-called secular media, on the other. Often the Christian Right locks horns with supposedly liberal Eastern media elite and Hollywood entertainment companies. When a major Protestant denomination calls for an economic boycott of Disney, the resulting news reports suggest business as usual in the tensions between faith groups and media empires. Schultze demonstrates how religion and the media in America have borrowed each other's rhetoric. In the process, they have also helped to keep each other honest, pointing out respective foibles and pretensions. Christian media have offered the public as well as religious tribes some of the best media criticism -- better than most of the media criticism produced by mainstream media themselves. Meanwhile, mainstream media have rightly taken particular churches to task for misdeeds as well as offered some surprisingly good depictions of religious life. The tension between Christian groups and the media in America ultimately is a good thing that can serve the interest of democratic life. As Alexis de Tocqueville discovered in the 1830s, American Christianity can foster the "habits of the heart" that ward off the antisocial acids of radical individualism. And, as John Dewey argued a century later, themedi

Contents:

Conversing about faith and media in America

Praising technology : evangelical populism embraces American futurism

Leading the tribes out of exile : the religious press discerns broadcasting

Converting to consumerism : evangelical radio embraces the market

Searching for communion : the Christian metanarrative meets popular mythology

Communing with civil sin : mainstream media purge evil

Discerning professional journalism : reporters adopt fundamentalist discourse

Praising democracy : embracing religion in a mass-mediated society.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-422) and index.

ISBN:

0870136968

OCLC:

53045150