research paper on media and religion

Digital Religion and Global Media: Flows, Communities, and Radicalizations

First Online: 03 September 2021

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Ruth Tsuria 2 &
Aya Yadlin-Segal 3

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This chapter reviews the intersection of digital media and religion. The chapter points to three elements: flows, communities, and radicalizations. Regarding flows, a distinction is made between studying global flows in a way that highlights dominant religious groups and studying them in a way that highlights diversity of religious expression. For communities, a division between organized global religious communities, diasporic religious communities, and grassroots religious communities is suggested. Finally, in terms of studying online religious radicalizations from a global perspective, accounting for the discursive, technological, and sociocultural elements is discussed. Thus, the chapter highlights the importance of religion and digital media in contemporary life and the benefits of interdisciplinarity as an analytical and theoretical perspective.

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Tsuria, R., Yadlin-Segal, A. (2021). Digital Religion and Global Media: Flows, Communities, and Radicalizations. In: Ward, S.J.A. (eds) Handbook of Global Media Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32103-5_10

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Religion and the Media by Judith M. Buddenbaum LAST REVIEWED: 24 May 2017 LAST MODIFIED: 24 May 2017 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0097

Churches and other religious organizations have always conducted or commissioned media research addressing their interests. Scholarly journals have always published occasional articles dealing with religion and media. However, as a distinct area for scholarly inquiry, religion and media owes its origin in the United States to a confluence of events during the late 1970s that made religion important in a way it had not been since the 1925 Scopes trial. Questions raised by the opening of television to paid religious programming as a result of changes in broadcast law and network policies led to a flurry of scholarship on the then-new electronic church by sociologists of religion and mass communication scholars. At about the same time, the election of the born-again Jimmy Carter as president, the Iranian hostage crisis, and the rise of the New Christian Right paved the way for scholarly interest in religion as news. Since then the continuing political influence of conservative Christians in the United States, an influx of Muslim immigrants in European nations, and the events of 9/11 have sustained interest in the field and broadened it to encompass both international scholarly attention and a new emphasis on the portrayal of religions beyond Christianity in news and entertainment media. In the 1990s international research conferences on religion and the media began to appear. The American Academy of Religion, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the International Communication Association all had units devoted to the subject. As a result, religion and media, although still closely identified in the United States with journalism and mass communication, developed into an eclectic, interdisciplinary field. Although European scholarly research in both the sociology of religion and communication predates that in America, the events that initially triggered the development of religion and media as an area for scholarly inquiry had little initial impact outside the United States. However, by the 1980s scholars from around the world with interest in the field had begun to find each other through organizations such as the International Association for Mass Communication Research, which scheduled a session on the subject at its 1994 conference in Seoul, South Korea, and the International Communication Association, which did the same at its Sydney, Australia, conference that year. However, the real impetus for international research came from a series of media–religion–culture conferences, the first of them in 1993 at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and from increasingly available funding for religion and media research from the European Science Foundation and similar organizations in individual countries. While the conferences moved audience-centered research from a culturist perspective to the forefront, the major funding promoted more traditional effects-oriented social science research in the wake of 9/11, European involvement in the US-led war in Iraq, and tensions between Muslim immigrants and traditionally Christian but increasingly secular host European nations.

By the 1990s a few universities had begun offering specializations in religion reporting or more broadly in religion and media. Some undergraduate journalism programs also were offering units on religion reporting within beat-based reporting courses, while others occasionally offered stand-alone courses. Although some upper-level textbooks include a chapter on religion reporting, Buddenbaum 1998 is the only available text for religion-reporting courses. With relatively few schools offering religion and media courses on a regular basis, options for those courses are also limited. Mahan 2014 and Stout 2012 are the only comprehensive, religiously inclusive texts designed specifically for religion and media courses, but Hoover 2006 is also a possibility. Therefore, many professors create their own reading lists. Books suitable for classroom use are noted in citations throughout this article. However, other professors choose from among a handful of textbooks with a Christian focus, most often Schultze and Wood 2008 , Romanowski 2007 , or Staley and Walsh 2007 . Forbes and Kilde 2004 works well for a special topics course.

Buddenbaum, Judith M. 1998. Reporting news about religion: An introduction for journalists . Ames: Iowa State Univ. Press.

This text is the only religion-reporting textbook. In addition to the chapters dealing specifically with reporting practices, there are chapters to help beginners understand their audiences and meet their needs. Other chapters provide an overview of the varieties of religions, American religious history, and the First Amendment’s religion clauses. Other features include a glossary and the “For Further Reading” list at the end of each chapter.

Forbes, Bruce David, and Jeanne Halgren Kilde, eds. 2004. Rapture, revelation, and the end times: Exploring the Left Behind series . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

DOI: 10.1057/9781403980212

Although the book deals with just the Left Behind books, the authors’ nonsectarian approach, the study guide, and annotated list of works for further reading make this an appropriate text for a special topics course or supplementary text for religion or literature courses. However, some students may question the authors’ analysis of what the Bible says about the end times and of the social and political messages in the books.

Hoover, Stewart M. 2006. Religion in the media age . London: Routledge.

Although this work from the culturalist perspective was not designed as a textbook, the relatively short chapters covering topics common in religion and media courses with an audience focus work well in both undergraduate and graduate courses. Some may question Hoover’s downplaying of the importance of institutional religion and conventional religious authority, but the author’s discussion of the media as the forum through which ideas are presented and debated and meanings constructed is well worth reading.

Mahan, Jeffrey H. 2014. Media, religion and culture: An introduction . London: Routledge.

This text takes a historical and cultural approach that covers the religious content of traditional mass media and the development of new media through which new religious voices emerge and become a resource audiences draw on and use in their own religious work of religious identity construction. Noteworthy features include case studies drawn from a wide range of traditional and new religions. At the end of each chapter there are also discussion questions and short essays by well-known scholars of religion and media.

Romanowski, William D. 2007. Eyes wide open: Looking for God in popular culture . Rev. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos.

This expanded and updated work has joined its 2001 predecessor as a popular textbook for undergraduate religion and media courses. Updates include material on movies in the late 20th and early 21st-centuries and whole chapters on media treatments of sex and of violence. Although the text combines communication theory with a basically Calvinist Christian theological perspective, it is designed to help all students understand media conventions, think critically about content, and consider their own reactions to it.

Schultze, Quentin J., and Robert H. Wood Jr., eds. 2008. Understanding evangelical media: The changing face of Christian communication . Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity.

The twenty-one chapters in this comprehensive text provide a historical overview and thoughtful critique of the efforts by evangelicals to support and promote their faith through both traditional and nontraditional modern media forms, such as theme parks, games, and Christian merchandise. Although it is written from an evangelical perspective for an evangelical student audience, concluding chapters give Jewish and Roman Catholic perspectives on evangelical media culture.

Staley, Jeffrey L., and Richard Walsh. 2007. Jesus, the Gospels, and cinematic imagination: A handbook to Jesus on DVD . Louisville: John Knox.

This book is a popular choice for use in undergraduate courses at both secular and religious schools. Chapters on eighteen important “Jesus films” ranging from the 1905 The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ directed by Ferdinand Zecca and Lucien Nonguet to Mel Gibson’s 2004 The Passion of the Christ provide background information, plot summary, description of key visuals, and references to relevant Bible passages keyed to the accompanying DVD.

Stout, Daniel A. 2012. Media and religion: Foundations of an emerging field . New York: Routledge.

This comprehensive text combines history, theory, and cultural context to provide a comprehensive overview of professional and social aspects of media and of media genres as they relate to denominational, world, and cultural religion. A special feature is the inclusion of an original play designed to help students understand and think critically about the interplay between religion and media.

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login .

Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here .

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Article contents

Religion, culture, and communication.

Stephen M. Croucher , Stephen M. Croucher School of Communication, Journalism, and Marketing, Massey Business School, Massey University
Cheng Zeng , Cheng Zeng Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä
Diyako Rahmani Diyako Rahmani Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä
and Mélodine Sommier Mélodine Sommier School of History, Culture, and Communication, Eramus University
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.166
Published online: 25 January 2017

Religion is an essential element of the human condition. Hundreds of studies have examined how religious beliefs mold an individual’s sociology and psychology. In particular, research has explored how an individual’s religion (religious beliefs, religious denomination, strength of religious devotion, etc.) is linked to their cultural beliefs and background. While some researchers have asserted that religion is an essential part of an individual’s culture, other researchers have focused more on how religion is a culture in itself. The key difference is how researchers conceptualize and operationalize both of these terms. Moreover, the influence of communication in how individuals and communities understand, conceptualize, and pass on religious and cultural beliefs and practices is integral to understanding exactly what religion and culture are.

It is through exploring the relationships among religion, culture, and communication that we can best understand how they shape the world in which we live and have shaped the communication discipline itself. Furthermore, as we grapple with these relationships and terms, we can look to the future and realize that the study of religion, culture, and communication is vast and open to expansion. Researchers are beginning to explore the influence of mediation on religion and culture, how our globalized world affects the communication of religions and cultures, and how interreligious communication is misunderstood; and researchers are recognizing the need to extend studies into non-Christian religious cultures.

communication
intercultural communication

Intricate Relationships among Religion, Communication, and Culture

Compiling an entry on the relationships among religion, culture, and communication is not an easy task. There is not one accepted definition for any of these three terms, and research suggests that the connections among these concepts are complex, to say the least. Thus, this article attempts to synthesize the various approaches to these three terms and integrate them. In such an endeavor, it is impossible to discuss all philosophical and paradigmatic debates or include all disciplines.

It is difficult to define religion from one perspective and with one encompassing definition. “Religion” is often defined as the belief in or the worship of a god or gods. Geertz ( 1973 ) defined a religion as

(1) a system which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. (p. 90)

It is essential to recognize that religion cannot be understood apart from the world in which it takes place (Marx & Engels, 1975 ). To better understand how religion relates to and affects culture and communication, we should first explore key definitions, philosophies, and perspectives that have informed how we currently look at religion. In particular, the influences of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Georg Simmel are discussed to further understand the complexity of religion.

Karl Marx ( 1818–1883 ) saw religion as descriptive and evaluative. First, from a descriptive point of view, Marx believed that social and economic situations shape how we form and regard religions and what is religious. For Marx, the fact that people tend to turn to religion more when they are facing economic hardships or that the same religious denomination is practiced differently in different communities would seem perfectly logical. Second, Marx saw religion as a form of alienation (Marx & Engels, 1975 ). For Marx, the notion that the Catholic Church, for example, had the ability or right to excommunicate an individual, and thus essentially exclude them from the spiritual community, was a classic example of exploitation and domination. Such alienation and exploitation was later echoed in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche ( 1844–1900 ), who viewed organized religion as society and culture controlling man (Nietzsche, 1996 ).

Building on Marxist thinking, Weber ( 1864–1920 ) stressed the multicausality of religion. Weber ( 1963 ) emphasized three arguments regarding religion and society: (1) how a religion relates to a society is contingent (it varies); (2) the relationship between religion and society can only be examined in its cultural and historical context; and (3) the relationship between society and religion is slowly eroding. Weber’s arguments can be applied to Catholicism in Europe. Until the Protestant Reformation of the 15th and 16th centuries, Catholicism was the dominant religious ideology on the European continent. However, since the Reformation, Europe has increasingly become more Protestant and less Catholic. To fully grasp why many Europeans gravitate toward Protestantism and not Catholicism, we must consider the historical and cultural reasons: the Reformation, economics, immigration, politics, etc., that have all led to the majority of Europeans identifying as Protestant (Davie, 2008 ). Finally, even though the majority of Europeans identify as Protestant, secularism (separation of church and state) is becoming more prominent in Europe. In nations like France, laws are in place that officially separate the church and state, while in Northern Europe, church attendance is low, and many Europeans who identify as Protestant have very low religiosity (strength of religious devotion), focusing instead on being secularly religious individuals. From a Weberian point of view, the links among religion, history, and culture in Europe explain the decline of Catholicism, the rise of Protestantism, and now the rise of secularism.

Emile Durkheim ( 1858–1917 ) focused more on how religion performs a necessary function; it brings people and society together. Durkheim ( 1976 ) thus defined a religion as

a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things which are set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. (p. 47)

From this perspective, religion and culture are inseparable, as beliefs and practices are uniquely cultural. For example, religious rituals (one type of practice) unite believers in a religion and separate nonbelievers. The act of communion, or the sharing of the Eucharist by partaking in consecrated bread and wine, is practiced by most Christian denominations. However, the frequency of communion differs extensively, and the ritual is practiced differently based on historical and theological differences among denominations.

Georg Simmel ( 1858–1918 ) focused more on the fluidity and permanence of religion and religious life. Simmel ( 1950 ) believed that religious and cultural beliefs develop from one another. Moreover, he asserted that religiosity is an essential element to understand when examining religious institutions and religion. While individuals may claim to be part of a religious group, Simmel asserted that it was important to consider just how religious the individuals were. In much of Europe, religiosity is low: Germany 34%, Sweden 19%, Denmark 42%, the United Kingdom 30%, the Czech Republic 23%, and The Netherlands 26%, while religiosity is relatively higher in the United States (56%), which is now considered the most religious industrialized nation in the world ( Telegraph Online , 2015 ). The decline of religiosity in parts of Europe and its rise in the U.S. is linked to various cultural, historical, and communicative developments that will be further discussed.

Combining Simmel’s ( 1950 ) notion of religion with Geertz’s ( 1973 ) concept of religion and a more basic definition (belief in or the worship of a god or gods through rituals), it is clear that the relationship between religion and culture is integral and symbiotic. As Clark and Hoover ( 1997 ) noted, “culture and religion are inseparable” and “religion is an important consideration in theories of culture and society” (p. 17).

Outside of the Western/Christian perception of religion, Buddhist scholars such as Nagarajuna present a relativist framework to understand concepts like time and causality. This framework is distinct from the more Western way of thinking, in that notions of present, past, and future are perceived to be chronologically distorted, and the relationship between cause and effect is paradoxical (Wimal, 2007 ). Nagarajuna’s philosophy provides Buddhism with a relativist, non-solid dependent, and non-static understanding of reality (Kohl, 2007 ). Mulla Sadra’s philosophy explored the metaphysical relationship between the created universe and its singular creator. In his philosophy, existence takes precedence over essence, and any existing object reflects a part of the creator. Therefore, every devoted person is obliged to know themselves as the first step to knowing the creator, which is the ultimate reason for existence. This Eastern perception of religion is similar to that of Nagarajuna and Buddhism, as they both include the paradoxical elements that are not easily explained by the rationality of Western philosophy. For example, the god, as Mulla Sadra defines it, is beyond definition, description, and delamination, yet it is absolutely simple and unique (Burrell, 2013 ).

How researchers define and study culture varies extensively. For example, Hall ( 1989 ) defined culture as “a series of situational models for behavior and thought” (p. 13). Geertz ( 1973 ), building on the work of Kluckhohn ( 1949 ), defined culture in terms of 11 different aspects:

(1) the total way of life of a people; (2) the social legacy the individual acquires from his group; (3) a way of thinking, feeling, and believing; (4) an abstraction from behavior; (5) a theory on the part of the anthropologist about the way in which a group of people in fact behave; (6) a storehouse of pooled learning; (7) a set of standardized orientations to recurrent problems; (8) learned behavior; (9) a mechanism for the normative regulation of behavior; (10) a set of techniques for adjusting both to the external environment and to other men; (11) a precipitate of history. (Geertz, 1973 , p. 5)

Research on culture is divided between an essentialist camp and a constructivist camp. The essentialist view regards culture as a concrete and fixed system of symbols and meanings (Holiday, 1999 ). An essentialist approach is most prevalent in linguistic studies, in which national culture is closely linked to national language. Regarding culture as a fluid concept, constructionist views of culture focus on how it is performed and negotiated by individuals (Piller, 2011 ). In this sense, “culture” is a verb rather than a noun. In principle, a non-essentialist approach rejects predefined national cultures and uses culture as a tool to interpret social behavior in certain contexts.

Different approaches to culture influence significantly how it is incorporated into communication studies. Cultural communication views communication as a resource for individuals to produce and regulate culture (Philipsen, 2002 ). Constructivists tend to perceive culture as a part of the communication process (Applegate & Sypher, 1988 ). Cross-cultural communication typically uses culture as a national boundary. Hofstede ( 1991 ) is probably the most popular scholar in this line of research. Culture is thus treated as a theoretical construct to explain communication variations across cultures. This is also evident in intercultural communication studies, which focus on misunderstandings between individuals from different cultures.

Religion, Community, and Culture

There is an interplay among religion, community, and culture. Community is essentially formed by a group of people who share common activities or beliefs based on their mutual affect, loyalty, and personal concerns. Participation in religious institutions is one of the most dominant community engagements worldwide. Religious institutions are widely known for creating a sense of community by offering various material and social supports for individual followers. In addition, the role that religious organizations play in communal conflicts is also crucial. As religion deals with the ultimate matters of life, the differences among different religious beliefs are virtually impossible to settle. Although a direct causal relationship between religion and violence is not well supported, religion is, nevertheless, commonly accepted as a potential escalating factor in conflicts. Currently, religious conflicts are on the rise, and they are typically more violent, long-lasting, and difficult to resolve. In such cases, local religious organizations, places facilitating collective actions in the community, are extremely vital, as they can either preach peace or stir up hatred and violence. The peace impact of local religious institutions has been largely witnessed in India and Indonesia where conflicts are solved at the local level before developing into communal violence (De Juan, Pierskalla, & Vüllers, 2015 ).

While religion affects cultures (Beckford & Demerath, 2007 ), it itself is also affected by culture, as religion is an essential layer of culture. For example, the growth of individualism in the latter half of the 20th century has been coincident with the decline in the authority of Judeo-Christian institutions and the emergence of “parachurches” and more personal forms of prayer (Hoover & Lundby, 1997 ). However, this decline in the authority of the religious institutions in modernized society has not reduced the important role of religion and spirituality as one of the main sources of calm when facing painful experiences such as death, suffering, and loss.

When cultural specifications, such as individualism and collectivism, have been attributed to religion, the proposed definitions and functions of religion overlap with definitions of culture. For example, researchers often combine religious identification (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc.) with cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 1991 ) like individualism/collectivism to understand and compare cultural differences. Such combinations for comparison and analytical purposes demonstrate how religion and religious identification in particular are often relegated to a micro-level variable, when in fact the true relationship between an individual’s religion and culture is inseparable.

Religion as Part of Culture in Communication Studies

Religion as a part of culture has been linked to numerous communication traits and behaviors. Specifically, religion has been linked with media use and preferences (e.g., Stout & Buddenbaum, 1996 ), health/medical decisions and communication about health-related issues (Croucher & Harris, 2012 ), interpersonal communication (e.g., Croucher, Faulkner, Oommen, & Long, 2012b ), organizational behaviors (e.g., Garner & Wargo, 2009 ), and intercultural communication traits and behaviors (e.g., Croucher, Braziunaite, & Oommen, 2012a ). In media and religion scholarship, researchers have shown how religion as a cultural variable has powerful effects on media use, preferences, and gratifications. The research linking media and religion is vast (Stout & Buddenbaum, 1996 ). This body of research has shown how “religious worldviews are created and sustained in ongoing social processes in which information is shared” (Stout & Buddenbaum, 1996 , pp. 7–8). For example, religious Christians are more likely to read newspapers, while religious individuals are less likely to have a favorable opinion of the internet (Croucher & Harris, 2012 ), and religious individuals (who typically attend religious services and are thus integrated into a religious community) are more likely to read media produced by the religious community (Davie, 2008 ).

Research into health/medical decisions and communication about health-related issues is also robust. Research shows how religion, specifically religiosity, promotes healthier living and better decision-making regarding health and wellbeing (Harris & Worley, 2012 ). For example, a religious (or spiritual) approach to cancer treatment can be more effective than a secular approach (Croucher & Harris, 2012 ), religious attendance promotes healthier living, and people with HIV/AIDS often turn to religion for comfort as well. These studies suggest the significance of religion in health communication and in our health.

Research specifically examining the links between religion and interpersonal communication is not as vast as the research into media, health, and religion. However, this slowly growing body of research has explored areas such as rituals, self-disclosure (Croucher et al., 2012b ), and family dynamics (Davie, 2008 ), to name a few.

The role of religion in organizations is well studied. Overall, researchers have shown how religious identification and religiosity influence an individual’s organizational behavior. For example, research has shown that an individual’s religious identification affects levels of organizational dissent (Croucher et al., 2012a ). Garner and Wargo ( 2009 ) further showed that organizational dissent functions differently in churches than in nonreligious organizations. Kennedy and Lawton ( 1998 ) explored the relationships between religious beliefs and perceptions about business/corporate ethics and found that individuals with stronger religious beliefs have stricter ethical beliefs.

Researchers are increasingly looking at the relationships between religion and intercultural communication. Researchers have explored how religion affects numerous communication traits and behaviors and have shown how religious communities perceive and enact religious beliefs. Antony ( 2010 ), for example, analyzed the bindi in India and how the interplay between religion and culture affects people’s acceptance of it. Karniel and Lavie-Dinur ( 2011 ) showed how religion and culture influence how Palestinian Arabs are represented on Israeli television. Collectively, the intercultural work examining religion demonstrates the increasing importance of the intersection between religion and culture in communication studies.

Collectively, communication studies discourse about religion has focused on how religion is an integral part of an individual’s culture. Croucher et al. ( 2016 ), in a content analysis of communication journal coverage of religion and spirituality from 2002 to 2012 , argued that the discourse largely focuses on religion as a cultural variable by identifying religious groups as variables for comparative analysis, exploring “religious” or “spiritual” as adjectives to describe entities (religious organizations), and analyzing the relationships between religious groups in different contexts. Croucher and Harris ( 2012 ) asserted that the discourse about religion, culture, and communication is still in its infancy, though it continues to grow at a steady pace.

Future Lines of Inquiry

Research into the links among religion, culture, and communication has shown the vast complexities of these terms. With this in mind, there are various directions for future research/exploration that researchers could take to expand and benefit our practical understanding of these concepts and how they relate to one another. Work should continue to define these terms with a particular emphasis on mediation, closely consider these terms in a global context, focus on how intergroup dynamics influence this relationship, and expand research into non-Christian religious cultures.

Additional definitional work still needs to be done to clarify exactly what is meant by “religion,” “culture,” and “communication.” Our understanding of these terms and relationships can be further enhanced by analyzing how forms of mass communication mediate each other. Martin-Barbero ( 1993 ) asserted that there should be a shift from media to mediations as multiple opposing forces meet in communication. He defined mediation as “the articulations between communication practices and social movements and the articulation of different tempos of development with the plurality of cultural matrices” (p. 187). Religions have relied on mediations through various media to communicate their messages (oral stories, print media, radio, television, internet, etc.). These media share religious messages, shape the messages and religious communities, and are constantly changing. What we find is that, as media sophistication develops, a culture’s understandings of mediated messages changes (Martin-Barbero, 1993 ). Thus, the very meanings of religion, culture, and communication are transitioning as societies morph into more digitally mediated societies. Research should continue to explore the effects of digital mediation on our conceptualizations of religion, culture, and communication.

Closely linked to mediation is the need to continue extending our focus on the influence of globalization on religion, culture, and communication. It is essential to study the relationships among culture, religion, and communication in the context of globalization. In addition to trading goods and services, people are increasingly sharing ideas, values, and beliefs in the modern world. Thus, globalization not only leads to technological and socioeconomic changes, but also shapes individuals’ ways of communicating and their perceptions and beliefs about religion and culture. While religion represents an old way of life, globalization challenges traditional meaning systems and is often perceived as a threat to religion. For instance, Marx and Weber both asserted that modernization was incompatible with tradition. But, in contrast, globalization could facilitate religious freedom by spreading the idea of freedom worldwide. Thus, future work needs to consider the influence of globalization to fully grasp the interrelationships among religion, culture, and communication in the world.

A review of the present definitions of religion in communication research reveals that communication scholars approach religion as a holistic, total, and unique institution or notion, studied from the viewpoint of different communication fields such as health, intercultural, interpersonal, organizational communication, and so on. However, this approach to communication undermines the function of a religion as a culture and also does not consider the possible differences between religious cultures. For example, religious cultures differ in their levels of individualism and collectivism. There are also differences in how religious cultures interact to compete for more followers and territory (Klock, Novoa, & Mogaddam, 2010 ). Thus, localization is one area of further research for religion communication studies. This line of study best fits in the domain of intergroup communication. Such an approach will provide researchers with the opportunity to think about the roles that interreligious communication can play in areas such as peacemaking processes (Klock et al., 2010 ).

Academic discourse about religion has focused largely on Christian denominations. In a content analysis of communication journal discourse on religion and spirituality, Croucher et al. ( 2016 ) found that the terms “Christian” or “Christianity” appeared in 9.56% of all articles, and combined with other Christian denominations (Catholicism, Evangelism, Baptist, Protestantism, and Mormonism, for example), appeared in 18.41% of all articles. Other religious cultures (denominations) made up a relatively small part of the overall academic discourse: Islam appeared in 6.8%, Judaism in 4.27%, and Hinduism in only 0.96%. Despite the presence of various faiths in the data, the dominance of Christianity and its various denominations is incontestable. Having religions unevenly represented in the academic discourse is problematic. This highly unbalanced representation presents a biased picture of religious practices. It also represents one faith as being the dominant faith and others as being minority religions in all contexts.

Ultimately, the present overview, with its focus on religion, culture, and communication points to the undeniable connections among these concepts. Religion and culture are essential elements of humanity, and it is through communication, that these elements of humanity are mediated. Whether exploring these terms in health, interpersonal, intercultural, intergroup, mass, or other communication contexts, it is evident that understanding the intersection(s) among religion, culture, and communication offers vast opportunities for researchers and practitioners.

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Introduction to Special Issue on Religion, Media, and Marketing

This special issue probes the ways in which religion and marketing hybrids are flourishing in the digital age. The powerful partnership of marketing and religion magnetically attracts consumers to products both secular and sacred. Popular media have increasingly noticed this phenomenon, but it warrants more serious and concerted attention from the academy. 1 Our article contributors consequently explore the religio-cultural and media implications of what is a two-sided phenomenon: marketing religion as a product and marketing products as religion. Each article, in turn, reflects how social and technological changes are reframing the religious and spiritual landscape, while attending to capitalist narratives, gender, race, and the intersections of religion, politics, and marketing, among other key issues, including climate change and prospects for human survival.

Provocations from the issue’s contributors include: How does marketing concertedly engage religious ideas, rhetorics, sensibilities, aesthetics, and practices? How do religious and spiritual practices—broadly defined—integrate promotional and branding strategies? And, what might various forms of religion/marketing collaboration tell us about sundry aspects of culture and society in the 21st century? The articles in this issue further raise the troubling, open-ended question of what the impact and consequences might be of religio-marketing strategies and whether they may reduce both consumer and congregant agency.

Conventional wisdom posits that the definitional category of “religion” be held separate from the realm of the commercial. Marketing professor Linda Scott has pointed out, “Ever under the influence of classical economics, contemporary observers in the West tend to think of religion and commerce as two domains that are—or at least should be—tightly sealed off from each other” ( Scott, 2009 ). Scott counters this misperception, emphasizing that “commerce has always ‘tainted’ the space of the sacred.” 2 Nevertheless, public perceptions persist of “the religious,” its institutions, and its accompanying modes of communication as set apart from the quotidian. Popular imagination often casts “religion” as somehow more noble in its “authentic” forms, and thus contaminated or corrupted by the mundane strategies, aesthetics, and transactional exchanges we associate with enterprise and the peddling of goods and services.

This special issue profoundly questions that assumption. It reexamines our propensity to set religion apart from phenomena associated with marketing, and more broadly capitalism, highlighting that there has rarely been a time when the two were not inextricably interrelated. Each of the case studies included here instead demonstrates that religious and marketing inclinations to brand, promote, tell compelling stories, target certain audiences, and make loyal converts bear striking family resemblances. The marketing industry draws its terminology of “brand converts,” “conversion marketing,” and “brand evangelism” from religion for good reason. Reciprocally, as Einstein has argued elsewhere ( 2008 ), religion effectively borrows back strategies and rhetoric from the realm of marketing that marketers once gleaned from religious worlds. Importantly, understanding religion and marketing in connection to one another provides critical insights into the dynamics of their synergistic relationship and, in turn, enriches research in both fields. Further still, understanding religion and marketing as fundamentally mutually shaping and co-constituting has become indispensable to understanding new and rapidly evolving developments for each in the digital age.

A New/Old Phenomenon

Significant to this special issue’s research questions and framing is a cognizance of religion and marketing’s intertwined history. Rather than a religion/marketing relationship suddenly descending deus ex machina -style in the digital age, these relationships are complex and have developed over time. “Church merch” dates back at least to the Middle Ages and spans the marketing and purchase of saint relics and reliquaries, vials of holy water and saint’s blood, prayer beads, painted miniatures, religious artwork, and pilgrimage “swag” ( Bell & Dale, 2011 ; Robinson, 2010 ; McDannell, 1995 ; Croft & Durbin, 2012 ). In “The Medieval Pilgrimage Business,” economic historians Bell and Dale observe, “our medieval forebears were very much aware of what we describe today as ‘brand management.’ Shrine managers targeted their clientele, promoted their advantages over competitors, and provided supporting evidence for miraculous claims with story collections” ( Bell & Dale, 2011 , p. 616). 3 By the end of the 15th century, Gutenberg’s printing press made it relatively easy and cheap to produce handbills to promote newly mass-produced Bibles ( Lamal, Cumby, & Helmers, 2021 ).

The religion/media/marketing interface continued over the centuries that followed but intensified at the turn of the last century. In 1911, Shailer Matthews, Dean of the Chicago Divinity School, extolled the virtues of running and promoting churches like “a business establishment” ( Moore, 1994 , p. 213). Francis H. Case, a Presbyterian who worked in youth ministry, published the 1921 Handbook of Church Advertising , which contended that “mixing faith and business,” with its concomitant practices of advertising, was a necessity if “civilization is to endure” (p. 213). In 1925, one of the best-selling non-fiction books of the era was The Man Nobody Knows . Written by adman Bruce Barton, the son of a Congregational minister, the book touted Jesus’s superb “advertising” instincts and acumen. In so doing, Barton rebranded Jesus as not only savior to the world but an “adman” so effective in marketing his ideas and concepts that his clients thought he literally walked on water.

As religions have borrowed marketing tools from the business world, marketers have in turn embedded powerful religious ideas, images, mythologies, and resonances into their work. In the late 1800s, Philadelphia’s iconic Wanamaker’s department store famously built a church organ and altar right into the main selling floor ( Kirk, 2018 ; Schmidt, 1995 ). Making purchasing feel like a sacred experience drove financial success, and the store thrived. In the 19th and 20th centuries, religious organizations used local newspapers and roadside billboards to announce, position, and promote their services to particular groups ( Kotler & Wrenn, 1992 ; Moore, 1995 : Einstein, 2008 ).

With the introduction of broadcast media—first radio and then television—sermons and religious services became staples of programming that were required by law ( Hangen, 2002 ; Hoover, 1988 ; Ferré, 1990 ). While not outright advertising as we might think of it, these programs marketed the notion that religion was fundamental to American life (Kruse, 2015; Brehm, 2021 ). By the 1980s, televangelists were a staple on broadcast television, especially in Sunday morning time slots, and more broadly on the newly emerging cable networks. Channels like Eternal Word Television Network ( ewtn ), the Inspiration Network ( insp ), jctv , and the Trinity Broadcast Network were solely devoted to religious content. 4 Whether on a dedicated network or not, these shows promoted not only faith, but televangelists, their congregations, and the plethora of special issues and tie-in merchandise.

More recently, with the advent of digitization, a growing number of religious and spiritual groups use increasingly sophisticated marketing techniques—from online influencers to free streaming services—to promote their content. While televangelists have unapologetically marketed themselves, making themselves fabulously wealthy in the process, more traditional institutions have been seemingly more demure, casting a critical eye on the crassness of their marketing-savvy neighbors, even while envying their successes. Ambivalence about contemporary religious marketing plans belies a history of business-minded mainline churches and their self-promotion tactics dating back to at least the 19th century. Today, however, when everyone has become a media outlet and self-marketer ( Shirky, 2008 ), religious institutions are not only following suit but in many cases are leading the way, perhaps more so now as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic ( Campbell, 2021 ). Shifting from scrolls to scrolling, religious organizations now expertly target ads on social media to recruit new members and make converts ( Wilbur, 2019 ).

Brands “Get” Religion

In early 2002, “True Religion, Clothing Company” invoked notions of authenticity, devotion, and faith to attract consumers and build brand loyalty. Women’s fashion brand Altar’d State continues in this tradition with an Anthropologie-like retail environment, dotted with spiritual fare like prayer request books available in store dressing rooms, and touting their “mission to change the world.” Beyond retail, and with the proliferation of digital media, religious ideas have been further enmeshed with marketing practice. “Marketing evangelists,” a term coined by an Apple executive, are consumers who believe so fervently in a product that their word-of-mouth promotions on social media drive sales ( Goldfayn, 2012 ). In doing so, these social media evangelists provide free marketing for companies and can be effective in “converting” others.

The designation of so-called “brand cults” invokes more religious idiom in order to communicate the unquestioning or sometimes blind consumer followings that certain symbol-intensive brands command ( Ragas & Bueno, 2002 ). These brand cults inspire community and ritual practices, which are facilitated by brands in online spaces. Cult brands such as Coke, Harley Davidson, or Apple also engender “in” and “out” dynamics and rivalries. A biker who forgoes pushing a mechanically finicky “Hog” in order to ride a more reliable Honda may be seen as a heretic or apostate. One of the latest promotional trends is “mindful marketing.” This strategy emphasizes Buddhist values of compassion, empathy, and staying “present,” while advising marketers to “listen to learn” from consumers as they consciously show them more generosity—all with the underlying goal of improving customer relationships and corporate profit ( Gelles, 2016 ; Wilson, 2014 ).

As market logics and digital technologies have come to dominate our cultural space, religious marketing has grown exponentially in terms of not only speed, scope, and scale but also becoming more fully encumbered, whereby religions employ marketing techniques, and marketing practitioners in turn use and exploit religious symbols and psychology. In a growing number of social spaces, we are seeing the impact of this expanding mixture. Gyms brand their services as places for community and fellowship on the path to a potentially perfected body. Exercise trends such as CrossFit or Soul Cycle steep their product in messages of an achieved transcendent ultimacy via ritualistic performances ( Mussleman, 2019 ; Beck, 2017 ; Burton, 2019 ). Businesses use “capitalist mindfulness,” not for spiritual enlightenment but to extract additional labor from their workers. 5 Multilevel marketing is used as a tool to grow new religious movements, while providing an opportunity for “job creation” for faith groups that frown on women working outside the home ( Shellnutt & Anderson, 2015 ).

Renewed Call for Scholarship

The American Marketing Association ( ama ) officially defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” This definition embodies the contemporary rise in consumer culture in the twentieth century. And yet, before the rebranding of persons or “citizens” as “consumers,” loyal adherents and new adherents, the devout and the proselytizing, all played vital roles in religious economies. Religious texts, from tablets to scrolls, and from the handwritten codex to the bound, printed manuscript, circulate certain ideas, concepts, and logics in the religious marketplace. They tap into and shape human existential hopes and desires for meaning, while establishing certain standards, identities, and orders of belief, practice, and authority. In conjunction with religious texts, forms of visual culture, and practice, a whole host of religious paraphernalia and accoutrements emerge: specialized clothing, ritual items, particular foods, music, large building construction projects, commissioned art, pilgrimage infrastructure and travel routes, ceremonial officiant services, the planning, staffing, and executing of community festivals, and more.

The nexus of religion and marketing received significant scholarly attention in historian R. Laurence Moore’s Selling God ( 1994 ). It would be two decades before academics would return to this topic, growing it into a new field of study ( Carrette & King, 2004 ; Einstein, 2008 ; Chen, 2011 ; Banet-Weiser, 2012 ; Rinallo et al., 2012 ; Jain, 2014 ; Wilson, 2014 ; Hoesterey, 2015 ; Jafari and Sandikci 2016 ; Lofton, 2017; Taylor, 2019 ; Campbell, 2020). While both scholarship and media attention to marketing religion have increased ( Sinha, 2010 ; Nisen, 2013 ; Criscione, 2014 ; Kaufman, 2016 ; Jafari & Sandikci, 2016 ; Hutchings 2017 ; Laughlin, 2022 ), lacunae in the wider body of research still exist. Notably, the vastness and rapid growth of the digital realm merits broader attention and additional research focus across the intersecting fields of Religious Studies, Media Studies, and Marketing Studies. Research questions to be addressed in this issue thus include: what technologies and techniques are being used to market religion online? How are different belief systems and communities of religious practice targeting their audiences? How have business marketing and religious marketing become entangled in the American mediasphere, as major companies strategically adopt resonant religious language and tropes to advance targeted consumer engagement?

Contributors to this issue challenge readers with more capacious definitions of both “marketing” and “religion” that connect their research to ongoing conversations and debates about culture, mediamaking, and the psychology of appealing to human needs and wants. Beyond marketing’s origin story of its rise in the 1950s, for instance, we may look further back to the use of strategic persuasive communication to sell goods and services during the Industrial Revolution, or further still to hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt that publicly extolled the virtues of certain market products ( Kernan, 2020 ). One might also think of multimedia curated spaces like the inside of Notre Dame Cathedral, and its varied, storied, visual culture installments, as strategic communication spaces to persuade its viewers to commit to certain beliefs and practices, while also signing on to and self-identifying with a particular kind of “branding.”

More specifically, the articles here build on the ama definition to include not simply promotion, brand positioning, and messaging, but also packaging of faith, strategic consumer journey mapping, and methods of distribution. The issue engages with newer media tools and marketing strategies to include influencers; video production and streaming as marketing and branding tools; examining how actors effectively use social media to promote religion; cultural phenomena; and capitalist interests, with religious idioms, narratives, and symbolic dimensions. Thus, subject matter includes examination of political campaigns and promotional media, a case study of religious influencers, the use of religion to market secular products, the apocalyptic tropes endemic in Mars colonization marketing, and a marketing case study of QAnon. In their respective analyses, our contributors use a combination of critical lenses, including political economy, feminist theory, cultural studies, ecocriticism, and rhetorical analysis.

Ultimately, responding to the query of what religion could possibly have to do with marketing, the scholarly contributions in this special issue point to a more incisive question: socially and historically, where can we point to instances where religion and marketing are not intertwined? Brian Hughes’s article, “The Everything Cult: Multiphrenic Faith and the QAnon Movement,” offers a fascinating dive into the world of “QAnon,” “Q’s” brilliant viral marketing, and the consequent thrall of devout followers. Hughes characterizes the QAnon “faith-brand” as one that is strategic in its decentralized circulation, cryptic anonymity, and addictive ephemerality, fostering a social environment of mass anonymous exegesis.

Chad Seales’s article, “The System Will Not Be Labeled: gm Food Marketing and American Secularism,” brings our attention to the marketing of genetically modified ( gm ) foods and their ambiguous or total lack of transparency in package labeling. Seales elucidates for us how the producer/consumer split in gm food marketing is part of a broader American secularism that skillfully obscures a hidden religion of industrial biotechnology within cultural symbols of consumer freedom, personal choice, and moral goodness.

Sarah McFarland Taylor’s “‘F*ck Earth’: Unmasking Mars Colonization Marketing, From Planetary Perceived Obsolescence to Apocalyptic ‘New Earth’ Rhetoric” similarly reveals things unseen, or at least not as they would appear. This critique of space expansionist capitalism in its myriad troubling ethical dimensions dissects SpaceX’s romantic utopian and frontierist narratives for their savvy use of marketing tools such as “perceived obsolescence” and “the manufactured crisis.” Ultimately, this article argues for a rejection of earth “exodus” and “new earth” apocalyptic rhetorics, urging instead civic media interventions into new/old forms of colonialism and manifest destiny.

Kayla Wheeler, in her article, “Marketing the Image of the Modern Muslim Woman in the Age of Black Lives Matter,” delves into how social media influencers are reframing notions of “the Modern Muslim woman” as both stylish and modest, while placing Black women and Black issues at the very center of this image. Wheeler examines how influencers can promote faith by capitalizing on the popularity of shopping vlog hauls and consumer fascination with style trends.

Eric Michael Mazur’s article, “Strange Bedfellows? Technology, Campaign Finance, and the Marketing of Religion on U.S. Presidential Campaign Buttons,” draws us into a political world in which campaign strategists marshal the combined power of religious messaging, media, and technology to “brand” (or “rebrand”) candidates, while successfully raising money to get them elected.

We present these case studies as a springboard into further research on religion, media, marketing, and digital culture, arguing that rather than being tangential to studies of religion and studies of marketing, the religion and marketing interface is integral, if not co-constituting. The peripheral attention paid to religion and marketing in academia neglects the very real alliances ongoing among industry professionals and religious communities, both today and historically.

Banet-Weiser , S. ( 2012 ). Authentic: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture . New York : New York University Press .

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Beck , J. ( 2017 ). The Church of CrossFit . The Atlantic , June 24. www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/06/the-church-of-crossfit/531501/ .

Bell , A. , and Dale , R. ( 2011 ). The Medieval Pilgrimage Business . Enterprise & Society 12 ( 3 ), pp. 601 – 627 .

Brehm , S. ( 2021 ). America’s Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself): Stephen Colbert and American Religion in the Twenty-First Century . New York : Fordham University Press .

Burton , T. I. ( 2019 ). SoulCycle, Capitalism and the Selling of Self-Care . Religion News Service , February 19. https://religionnews.com/2019/02/21/soulcycle-and-self-care/ .

Campbell , H. ( 2021 ). Revisiting the Distanced Church . https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/193368 .

Carrette , J. , and King , R. ( 2004 ). Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion . London : Routledge .

Chen , C.H. ( 2011 ). C. H. “Marketing Religion Online: The lds Church’s seo Efforts. ” Journal of Media and Religion , 10 ( 4 ), pp. 185 – 205 .

Criscione , W. ( 2014 ) “ Churches use religious marketing to draw young members. ” The Spokesman-Review . September 18: www.spokesman.com .

Croft , R. , and Durbin , D. ( 2012 ). The Veneration of Relics in Glastonbury Abbey in the Middle Ages. In: D . Rinallo , L . Scott , and Maclaran , P ., eds., Consumption and Spirituality , New York : Routledge , pp. 119 – 131 .

Einstein , M. ( 2008 ). Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age . London : Routledge .

Ferré , J. ( 1990 ). Channels of Belief: Religion and American Commercial Television . Ames : Iowa State University Press .

Gelles , D. ( 2016 ). The Hidden Price of Mindfulness Inc . New York Times , March 19. www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/opinion/sunday/the-hidden-price-of-mindfulness-inc.html .

Goldfayn , A. ( 2012 ). Evangelist Marketing: What Apple, Amazon, and Netflix Understand About Their Customers (That Your Company Probably Doesn’t) . Dallas : BenBella Books .

Hangen , T. ( 2002 ). Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America . Raleigh : University of North Carolina .

Hoesterey , J.B. ( 2015 ). Rebranding Islam: Piety, Prosperity, and a Self-Help Guru . Stanford : Stanford University Press .

Hoover , S. ( 1988 ). Mass Media and Religion: The Social Sources of the Electronic Church . Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications .

Hutchings , T. ( 2017 ). Creating Church Online: Ritual, Community, and New Media . New York : Routledge Press .

Jafari , A and Özlem Sandikci , eds. ( 2016 ). Islam, Marketing, and Consumption: Critical Perspectives on the Intersections . New York : Routledge Press .

Jain , A. ( 2014 ). Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture . New York : Oxford University Press .

Kaufman , D. ( 2016 ). “ Conservative Judaism hires marketers to give it a makeover. ” New York Post . January 3: https://nypost.com/2016/01/03/conservative-judaism-hires-marketers-to-give-it-a-makeover/ .

Kernan , S. ( 2020 ). The First Ad in Human History . Better Marketing , April 27. https://bettermarketing.pub/the-first-ad-in-human-history-f9ae6748c73 .

Kirk , N. ( 2018 ). Wannamaker’s Temple: The Business of Religion in an Iconic Department Store . New York : NYU Press .

Kotler , P. , and Wrenn , B. ( 1992 ). Marketing for Congregations: Choosing to Serve People More Effectively . Nashville : Abingdon Press .

Kruse , K. M. ( 2016 ). One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America . New York : Basic Books .

Lamal , N. , et al . ( 2021 ). Print and Power in Early Modern Europe (1500–1800) [Library of the Written Word/The Handpress World, 73, 92]. Boston : Brill Publishing .

Laughlin , Corrina. ( 2022 ). Redeem All: How Digital Life Is Changing Evangelical Culture . Oakland : University of California Press .

McDannell . C. ( 1995 ). Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America . New Haven : Yale University Press .

Moore , R. L. ( 1994 ). Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture . New York : Oxford University Press .

Mussleman , C. ( 2019 ). Training for the “Unknown” and the “Unknowable”: CrossFit and Evangelical Temporality . Religions 10 ( 11 ), p. 624 . https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10110624 .

Nisen , M. ( 2013 ). “ 18 Extremely Religious Big American Companies. ” Business Insider . June 13: https://www.businessinsider.com/18-extremely-religious-big-ame rican-companies-2013–6 .

Ragas , M. , and Bueno , B. ( 2002 ). The Power of Cult Branding: How 9 Magnetic Brands Turned Customers Into Loyal Followers . New York : Crown Business .

Rinallo , D. , Scott , L. , and Maclaran , P. , eds. ( 2012 ). Consumption and Spirituality . New York : Routledge .

Robinson , J. ( 2010 ). From Altar to Amulet: Relics, Portability, and Devotion. In: M. Bagnoli , H. A. Klein , C. G. Mann , and J. Robinson , eds., Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe , New Haven : Yale University Press , pp. 111 – 116 .

Schmidt , L. E. ( 1995 ). Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays . Princeton : Princeton University Press .

Scott , L. ( 2009 ). Religion and Commerce . Advertising & Society Review 10 ( 4 ).

Shirky , C. ( 2008 ). Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations . New York : Penguin Books .

Shellnutt , K. , and Anderson , H. ( 2015 ). The Proverbs 31 Woman Has a Facebook Page . Christianity Today 59 ( 10 ), pp. 34 – 41 .

Sinha , V. ( 2010 ). Religion and Commodification: Merchandizing Diasporic Hinduism . New York : Routledge Press .

Taylor , S. M. ( 2019 ). Ecopiety: Green Media and the Dilemma of Environmental Virtue . New York : NYU Press .

Wilbur , J. ( 2019 ). God’s Conversion Rate: Churches Are Using Targeted Ads on Social Media to Convert and Recruit . Slate . September 13: https://slate.com/technology/2019/09/churches-social-media-personalized-targeted-ads-geofencing.html .

Wilson , J. ( 2014 ). Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture . New York : Oxford University Press .

For popular works on religion and marketing, see Cultish, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World and The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices.

For examples of works historically contextualizing the intertwining of religious and commercial worlds, thereby countering popular perceptions of their segregation, see Leigh Eric Schmidt’s Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays ( 1995 ); R. Laurence Moore’s Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplaces of Culture ( 1994 ); Bethany Moreton, To Serve God and Walmart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise (2010); Darren Grem, The Blessings of Business: How Corporations Shaped Conservative Christianity (2016); Kathryn Lofton, Consuming Religion (2017); and Sarah McFarland Taylor, “Religion, Shopping, and Consumption,” in Lyden and Mazur (2018), The Routledge Companion to Religion and Popular Culture .

See also Bell and Dale’s blog, “The Medieval Pilgrimage Business,” December 5, 2011: https://blog.oup.com/2011/12/pilgrimage/ .

Today, this list includes National Christian Network, cbn , ptl , Trinity Broadcasting Network, National Jewish Television, byu Channel, and The Church Channel, among others.

https://medium.com/@theleaderoftomo/part-3-capitalist-mindfulness-how-mindfulness-is-exploited-by-business-66f8d9369797 .

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TILDA study reveals crucial insights on loneliness and death ideation among older adults

Posted on: 28 August 2024

New research from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity highlights the growing problem of death ideation and the increasing rates of both loneliness and suicidal thoughts among older individuals.

The study, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Public Health, explores the critical issue of social disconnection and its link to a ‘wish to die’ among older adults.

The ‘Wish to Die’ (WTD) involves thoughts of or wishes for one’s own death or that one would be better off dead. It is a commonly used indicator to capture death ideation which is an important clinical marker for future suicidal behaviour.

Social disconnection and deaths by suicide among older adults are both important public health concerns, particularly in the context of ageing populations. The association between death ideation and behaviours, and social disconnection is well established and both functional and structural social relationships have been identified as predictive of suicide-related thoughts and behaviours.

Building on previous research by TILDA, the study – based on responses from 8,000 community-dwelling adults - demonstrates that the subjective feeling of loneliness is more strongly associated with death ideation than other measures of social disconnection, including social isolation or living alone. The association between WTD and loneliness remained strong even after controlling for depression and other markers of social disconnection.

Dr Mark Ward, Senior Research Fellow at TILDA and lead author of the paper , said:

"Both loneliness and suicide among older adults have been increasing and are now viewed as critical public health concerns. Adding to a growing body of evidence, this study from TILDA clearly shows that loneliness in later life is associated with an increased risk of individuals wishing for their own death. This wish for death is often a precursor to suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

"On the other hand, prosocial behaviours, including attending religious services and other communal activities, protect against these negative thoughts about one's own life. Uniquely, we also show that attending religious services regularly can protect against death ideation among older adults in Ireland. Our findings again highlight the importance of promoting social activities and networks to safeguard against loneliness and related psychological distress."

RESEARCH FINDINGS

A key finding of the study is the protective effect of attending religious services. The research indicates that regular participation in such activities can significantly reduce death ideation among older adults in Ireland. Other highlights from the study include:

4% reported feeling they would rather be dead in the month prior to the interview.
10% exhibited clinically significant levels of depression.
Loneliness was identified as a particularly important risk factor for death ideation.
Regular attendance at religious services is an example of a prosocial activity that may protect older adults against loneliness, depression, and death ideation.
Interventions addressing depression and anxiety, including cognitive behavioural therapy, may also help alleviate loneliness.

Dr Robert Briggs, Consultant Geriatrician at St James’s Hospital and co-author of the study, said:

"This study demonstrates the importance of addressing mental health concerns and maintaining social connectedness in later life. 'Wish to Die', which involves wishes for one's own death or thoughts that one would be better off dead, is strongly linked with future suicide attempts. This study of over 8,000 older people found that 'Wish to Die' was strongly associated with depression and loneliness, while engaging in social activities appears to be protective. An enhanced focus on improving access to mental health care and addressing social isolation in older people should therefore be a priority for policymakers."

Regius Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Consultant Geriatrician and Principal Investigator of TILDA, added:

"Loneliness and social isolation are rising among older adults in Ireland. This issue was particularly acute during the pandemic but continues to persist post-pandemic as some older individuals remain fearful or have lost confidence. Loneliness is detrimental to health, accelerating biological ageing and disease. Addressing this problem is urgent."

You can read the paper, ‘ Social disconnection correlates of a ‘Wish to Die’ among a large community-dwelling cohort of older adults ’ on the Frontiers in Public Health website .

Media Contact:

Ciara O’Shea | Media Relations | [email protected] | +353 1 896 4204

Trump comes out against Florida's abortion rights ballot measure after conservative backlash

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump came out on Friday against a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would expand access to abortion, after spending a day doing damage control on the issue.

His announcement came a day after telling NBC News that Florida’s six-week ban is “too short” and declining to take a clear stance on a state ballot measure that would expand access to the procedure.

On Friday, Trump said, once again, that women need "more time" than six weeks to decide whether to have an abortion, but that the "Democrats are radical" and he couldn't back the amendment.

“So I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks. I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it,” Trump said in comments to Fox News. “At the same time, the Democrats are radical, because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation where you can do an abortion in the ninth month. ... So I’ll be voting no for that reason.”

The proposed amendment would bar restrictions on abortion before fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy, while ensuring exceptions to protect the health of the mother.

The backlash from anti-abortion advocates was fierce after Trump's interview with NBC News, with some warning that the Republican presidential nominee was risking losing support from a key bloc of the party’s base.

Alarmed by what she saw, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the influential anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called Trump on Thursday to ask for clarity on his comments, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation. Trump told her that he didn’t state a position on an amendment on his home state’s ballot this fall.

Dannenfelser told him that “it’s imperative that you’re clear because there’s confusion now that you may be in support of this,” the source added. She also told him the amendment is “incongruent” with his opposition to late-term abortion.

During the interview with NBC News, Trump said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” when asked how he would vote on the ballot measure. It's unclear what he meant as the Florida initiative gives voters a binary choice.

Later Thursday, Trump’s campaign issued a statement saying the former president had “not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida.”

Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists, who have provided critical support to Trump during his three presidential runs, piled on. Some also criticized his suggestion that he’d mandate that the government or insurance companies pay for in vitro fertilization treatments.

“Former President Trump now appears determined to undermine his prolife supporters,” evangelical theologian Albert Mohler wrote on X . “His criticism of Florida abortion restrictions & his call for government funding of IVF & his recent statement about ‘reproductive rights’ seem almost calculated to alienate prolife voters.”

The clash put Trump and Republicans in uncharted waters, facing the first presidential election in half a century without Roe v. Wade on the books to protect abortion rights. The GOP was largely unified behind legislation to outlaw abortion at the state and federal levels when they were able to use it to rally anti-abortion voters with no chance of it succeeding legislatively.

But some Republicans now fear voter backlash from the majority of Americans who say in polls they want abortion to be mostly or always legal, particularly as Democrats seek to further capitalize on the issue. And Trump, who has bragged about appointing three of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe, is still struggling to navigate it.

Abortion foes are caught in their own bind over whether to abandon Trump or to support him in the hope that Republicans will win in November and continue to pursue nationwide abortion restrictions, despite the former president's claims to the contrary.

"If Donald Trump loses in November, it will be his improvisational approach to abortion that alienated the pro-life community that costs him victory," conservative radio host Erick Erickson said .

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life — which has helped organize tens of thousands of anti-abortion activists, mostly on college campuses — wrote Thursday on X : “My phone is blowing up with @SFLAction volunteers who no longer will door knock for President Trump if this is not corrected. With polls neck and neck, this is the last thing we need right now to defeat Kamala’s pro-abortion extremism.”

She told NBC News the Trump campaign “personally” told leaders in her group that he’s undecided on the Florida measure. She said they expect him to vote “no” and warned that Trump’s waffling on the issue would likely hurt his support with many volunteers.

“When they hear the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, walking back past pro-life statements, it’s devastating to them,” she said. “And it’s shocking to them that Republicans would betray this very important part of the Republican Party.”

“He needs to be very careful with his words,” she added.

Taryn Fenske, a spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, pushed back against Trump’s initial comments.

“Donald Trump has consistently stated that late-term abortions where a baby can feel pain should never be permitted, and he’s always stood up for parents’ rights,” Fenske said in a statement on X . “Amendment 4 would allow late-term abortions, eliminate parental consent, and open the door to taxpayer-funded abortions. It’s extreme and must be defeated.”

The governor’s wife, Casey DeSantis, also weighed in , saying the initiative “would open the door to taxpayer funded abortions” and added, “We must spread the word and vote NO on 4!”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said Trump is lying about his shifts on abortion and his pro-IVF rhetoric.

“We’re going to hold Donald Trump and JD Vance accountable for the devastating impacts of overturning Roe v. Wade and their threats to access to IVF. So every day between now and Election Day, we are going to make sure that the communities that will decide this election know the fundamentals here and the fundamental choice this election,” Harris spokesman Kevin Munoz told reporters on Friday. “Kamala Harris is going to fight for your rights. Donald Trump will take them away.”

In response to Trump's announcement Friday about how he'll vote on the amendment, the Harris campaign issued a statement saying that Trump "will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant” and said if he's elected, he will "limit access to birth control, threaten access to fertility treatments and ban abortion nationwide, with or without Congress."

Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

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COMMENTS

Media, Religion and Religiosity in The Digital Age
Based on the themes, the texts were divided into five sections: 1) Theoretical reflections on media and religion; 2) Religious practices and experiences in digital media; 3) Religious speeches and representations of religion; 4) Politics, media and religion in digital media; 5) Media, religion and entertainment in digital media.
(PDF) Religion and Media
First, the "religion- and-media" approach rec-. ognizes that religion has become a thoroughly. mediatized phenomenon (also referred to as the. "mediatizat ion of religi on" in some works ...
Journal of Media and Religion
The Journal of Media and Religion is a juried journal publishing original research that addresses how religion as a social and cultural phenomenon broadens understanding of mass communication and society. The journal examines a full range of religious traditions (e.g., Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Eastern religious philosophies, and new/alternative religious movements) and serves as a forum ...
Media and religion
Media and Religion I. Frameworks for Studying Media and Religion A. Religious Studies/Sociology of Religion Hent de Vries, in introducing the essays in Religion and Media (de Vries and Weber 2001) pro-poses that the study of media and religion can help answer the question of the role of each in the public sphere.
The vitality of new media and religion: Communicative perspectives
Pauline Hope Cheong is Associate Professor at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University. She has published more than 70 articles and books on the complex interactions between communication technologies and different cultural communities around the world, including issues related to changing religious community and authority.
Religion and media: A critical review of recent developments
This article considers recent changes in the definition of religion and of media as the basis for framing the study of their relation to one another and recent research in the intersection they have come to form over the last two decades or so. The history, materiality, and reception of each have colored scholarly work, and made ethnography ...
Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture
The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture (RMDC) is a peer-reviewed academic journal, publishing three issues per year. RMDC is published in cooperation with the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture (ISMRC). To understand religion today, we must understand how religious ideas and practices are communicated, learned, represented, enacted and resisted through media ...
Media and the imagination of religion in contemporary global culture
Abstract. This article argues for an invigorated scholarship of religion within cultural studies. It suggests that this is justified both on its own terms and because there is evidence that the interaction of media and religion is creating entirely new forms of the religious in contemporary public life. Religion persists in history, but it ...
Digital Religion and Global Media: Flows, Communities, and
This chapter reviews the intersection of digital media and religion. The chapter points to three elements: flows, communities, and radicalizations. Regarding flows, a distinction is made between studying global flows in a way that highlights dominant religious groups and studying them in a way that highlights diversity of religious expression.
Communication, Media, and Religion Research
Relationships between religion and communication are myriad, complex, and deeply embedded in many facets of human cultures and societies. This chapter sketches the most significant development in communications and media studies - the shift from instrumental to cultural approaches - and then considers three different domains of religion and communication: religion and digital culture ...
The Effects of Media Use on Religious Individuals ...
DOI: 10.1080/153484 23.2013.845043. The Effects of Media Use on Religious. Individu als' Perceptions of Science. Billy W. Collins. Baylor University. Amanda Sturgill. Elon University. Although ...
Researching religion in a school of media and cultural studies
media and religion: as separate and separable entities that could be seen as acting. independently of one another and as having impacts or eﬀects on one another. In this. view, 'religion ...
Contextualizing current digital religion research on emerging
Heidi A. Campbell is professor of Communication and affiliate faculty in Religious Studies at Texas A&M University. She is director of the Network for New Media, Religion & Digital Culture Studies and author of over 90 articles and books on emerging technologies, religion, and digital culture. Her work includes When Religion Meets New Media (Routledge 2010), Digital Religion (Routledge 2013 ...
Religion and the Media
As a result, religion and media, although still closely identified in the United States with journalism and mass communication, developed into an eclectic, interdisciplinary field. Although European scholarly research in both the sociology of religion and communication predates that in America, the events that initially triggered the ...
Global Perspectives on Religion, Media and Public Scholarship
Abstract This article encourages researchers of religion, media and culture to develop new, global, comparative conversations about the meaning and purpose of public scholarship. Key terms like "religion", "media", "publicness" and "scholarship" can be understood and articulated differently in different social, cultural and geographical locations, and dialogue across our ...
Religion, Culture, and Communication
The research linking media and religion is vast (Stout & Buddenbaum, 1996). This body of research has shown how "religious worldviews are created and sustained in ongoing social processes in which information is shared" (Stout & Buddenbaum, ... Essays in translation and exegesis. Philadelphia: Coronet Books. Harris, T. M., ...
Media and religion
relationship between the media and religion. In one influential account of this contested term, mediatization is a phenomenon of late 20th-century modernity and is primarily concerned with the impact and effect of the media system (the daily press and broadcast-ing services) as a central social institution on other key contemporary social ...
Introduction to Special Issue on Religion, Media, and Marketing
Abstract This special issue probes the ways in which religion and marketing hybrids are flourishing in the digital age. The powerful partnership of marketing and religion magnetically attracts consumers to products both secular and sacred. Popular media have increasingly noticed this phenomenon, but it warrants more serious and concerted attention from the academy. Our article contributors ...
(PDF) The Practice of Digital Religion
Religious identity can be part of people's self-presentation on social media, and at times these media offer a safe platform to do so when users are part of a religious minority (Pennington, 2018).
Tribal mobilization for religious identity and political space: ongoing
However, in India, the debate on the recognition and protection of religious identity has been reduced to a discourse of minority versus majority religion. This paper examines the ongoing political mobilization by tribal communities in the state of Jharkhand and its demand for a separate religious column in the census of India.
Religion and politics: examining the impact of faith on political
3. The WVS questionnaire adopts an approach to religious classification based on a commonly used denominational affiliation. This approach has been criticised for concealing important variation within religious denominations that precludes meaningful interpretation of religious impacts (see, for example, Steensland et al. Citation 2000).To circumvent this problem, the WVS adapts its ...
When Facebook Becomes Faithbook: Exploring Religious Communication in a
This article takes a poststructural approach to social media and institutions by drawing on Mark C. Taylor (1992, 2007) to explore the following research question: How does social media affect the conditions for religious communication for a traditional religious organization such as the Church of Sweden? This article will use Taylor's ...
TILDA study reveals crucial insights on loneliness and death ideation
"On the other hand, prosocial behaviours, including attending religious services and other communal activities, protect against these negative thoughts about one's own life. Uniquely, we also show that attending religious services regularly can protect against death ideation among older adults in Ireland.
Trump comes out against Florida's abortion rights ballot measure after
Trump landed in hot water with conservatives on abortion after initially criticizing Florida's six-week ban and declining to take a stance on a state ballot measure.
Social media, religion and shifting boundaries in globalizing China
The volume of essays, Religion and Media in China (Travagnin, 2017), on this subject is a good representative of a small existing but growing body of work. Like their fellow citizens, the Chinese Christians who are residing in and outside China have enthusiastically embraced mobile social media apps like Weixin and Weibo. However, Chinese ...
Critical Research on Religion: Sage Journals
Critical Research on Religion is a peer-reviewed, international journal focusing on the development of a critical theoretical framework and its application to research on religion. It provides a common venue for those engaging in critical analysis in theology and religious studies, as well as for those who critically study religion in the other social sciences and humanities such as philosophy ...