Quoting God: How Media Shape Ideas about Religion and Culture


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Quoting God: How Media Shape Ideas About Religion And Culture

Quoting God charts the many ways in which media reports religion news, how media uses the quoted word to describe lived faith, and how media itself influences--and is influenced by--religion in the public square. The volume intentionally brings together the work of academics, who study religion as a crucial factor in the construction of identity, and the work of profession Quoting God charts the many ways in which media reports religion news, how media uses the quoted word to describe lived faith, and how media itself influences--and is influenced by--religion in the public square.

The volume intentionally brings together the work of academics, who study religion as a crucial factor in the construction of identity, and the work of professional journalists, who regularly report on religion in an age of instant and competitive news. This book clearly demonstrates that the relationship between media culture and spiritual culture is foundational and multi-directional; that the relationship between news values and religion in political life is influential; and that the relationship among modernity, belief, and journalism is pivotal.

Published January 1st by Baylor University Press. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Quoting God , please sign up.

Project MUSE - Quoting God: How Media Shape Ideas about Religion and Culture (review)

Lists with This Book. Oct 23, Susie Meister rated it liked it Shelves: This book is interested in the cultural identity of God as ascribed to the Unknown by secular forces such as global news and mass media. Includes essays on a variety of ways religious culture has become intertwined with secular culture, blurring the lines between the sacred and profane.

  1. Das Dampfhaus: Band 2 (German Edition).
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Claims the relationship between religion and media is not a dialogue, but a "series of overlapping conversations. Lupe Ojeda rated it really liked it Oct 05, Emily Loughlin rated it it was amazing May 17, Ned Carriger rated it really liked it Dec 21, Lynne marked it as to-read Aug 18, Philosopher marked it as to-read May 23, Baylor University Press added it Jul 07, Howe added it Jul 12, Nathan marked it as to-read Nov 23, Silva is currently reading it Feb 12, Titus Hjelm marked it as to-read Jul 29, How Media Shape Ideas about Religion and Culture, edited by Claire Hoertz Badaracco, is a volume that explores the vast array of "conversations" among religion, culture, and media.

The main idea of the text explores the position that "mediated religious culture is not just a two-way street—two [End Page ] oppositional forces of theoretical and applied views in creative tension or dialogue—but a confluence of multimedia, social attitudes, political climates, and public opinion" 7—8. Through diverse essays and articles, the reader is drawn into these overlapping conversations. A fundamental theme of this book is the production of "social 'texts' in all facets of media, with an emphasis on news, but including material culture" Emphasis is placed on the protean identity of the storyteller—those reporting a story to an audience—through the exploration of social texts and the formation of cultural identity.

This approach is a great strength of the text.

In doing so, it offers an ethical challenge to the creators of media, particularly journalists, to report in responsible ways on issues regarding religion and culture. These couplets are paired by related, but not identical, topics.

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  • The Memoirs of Robert E. Lee [annotated].
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In each case a lengthier article precedes the view from the news desk. For example, the first essay is by John Schmalzbauer, who writes about "Journalism and the Religious Imagination. Immediately following Schmalzbauer's essay is one by John B. Buescher, "Radio in Tibet: A Portable Window on the Sacred," in which he discusses his experiences in radio broadcasting. He emphasizes the responsibility radio broadcasters must embrace inasmuch as the broadcast can both inform and give identity to a fragmented community.

Ebook Quoting God: How Media Shape Ideas About Religion And Culture

In particular, Schmalzbauer's and Buescher's essays highlight a main theme of the book—the nature of the identity of the storyteller "never neutral" as well as the technologies employed by those narrators. The couplets also critique a current lack of ethical responsibility that is common among many reporters when it comes to religious matters. The text highlights the ethical responsibility on the part of the storyteller in the essays by Howard Dorgan and Adam Phillips.

What these two essays provide is a critical commentary on the often intrusive—and abusive—manner in which media reporters attempt to get information for their stories concerning religion, religious beliefs, and spirituality.