MEDIA
Borden, Anne L. 2025. “Beyond Accommodation: When Religion and Popular Culture Meet.” Paper presented at Southern Sociological Society (SSS), 2025.
Abstract: Sociologists of
religion theorize that, in the face of modern secularized society, religious
organizations have two options: they may "resist" or they may
"accommodate" to the surrounding culture (eg, see Berger, Peter,
1967). Traditionally, the concept of accommodation has implied that religious
groups compete with secular society & are losing in the zero-sum game.
Recent scholarship (eg, Smith, Christian, 1988) asks sociologists to move
beyond this notion of accommodation & to recognize that religion can be
both strong & modern. Religious groups can transform aspects of the secular
world & may infuse popular culture with sacred meaning. Here, results of a
case study based on fieldwork at a Protestant high school youth conference
provides evidence of the resacralization of secular culture. TV shows, movies,
& commercials are reinterpreted & used to convey religious
messages. [Source: SA]
Dean, Kenda Creasy. 2025. “X-Files and Unknown Gods: The Search for Truth with Postmodern Adolescents.” American Baptist Quarterly pp. 3-21.
Rawson, Katie Jean. 1999. “Evangelizing East Asian Students in the United States with Special Reference to Media Tools.” D.miss. Thesis, Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission.
Abstract: This dissertation
explores issues involved in evangelizing and discipling East Asian students in the
United States. Factors necessary for the production and use of media tools with
this group are described. Chinese students from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and
Macau, Japanese and Korean students are studied with special emphasis on the
East Asian Generation X. Receptors are described from the perspectives of
acculturation patterns and worldview change, attractions and obstacles to faith
and conversion patterns. Needs of students at three points in the spiritual
decision process are identified, and sixty-four media tools which might meet
those needs are evaluated. The study concludes with guidelines for the
production and use of media tools with these students. A literature review on
acculturation and worldview change led to the hypotheses that these students
have traditional (Confucian and shamanistic), modern and postmodern assumptions
in their worldviews and that the primary social network in the United States is
the major influence on worldview change. It was further hypothesized that these
students are more similar to their American peers than previous generations of
foreign students were. Thirty-six new converts and seekers were interviewed
concerning attractions and obstacles to faith and conversion patterns. This
data was supplemented by surveys of seventy-one students. The hypotheses
introduced above were supported by interview and survey data. The strongest
attractions to faith were Christian groups and individuals; obstacles included
difficulty believing in God, other unanswered apologetics questions and failure
to experience God. The most common conversion pattern was conversion to
community before conversion to Christ; the second was crisis followed by
commitment. A third pattern, reversion to a previous faith following failure to
get results from God, was noted. It was observed that the needs of students
preparing to return home are often not met sufficiently. Many of the media
tools evaluated seemed to have been produced on the assumption of sameness
rather than the assumption of difference; this made them inadequate for
international students. It was recommended that evangelism and discipling be
based in international communities with student leadership. Media tools could
then be used to supplement relational evangelism. [Source: DA]
Clark, Schofield Lynn. 1998. “Identity, Discourse, and Media Audiences: A Critical Ethnography of the Role of Visual Media in Religious Identity Construction among United States Adolescents.” Thesis, University of Colorado at Boulder.
Abstract: Employing a
critical/cultural studies approach, this dissertation argues that
identity-construction is best understood as the nexus of public discourses and
individual subjectivities. To understand the role of media in
identity-construction, this work analyzes both the themes of discourse that are
available in mediated texts and echoed throughout the culture, and the various
social, political, economic and other contexts that frame the individual
adolescent's identity narratives and practices. The discourses of religion and
their relation to the religious identity-construction of individual subjects
provides the focus for the current analysis. The study employed ethnographic
interviews with 70 adolescents and their parents, 5 in-depth case studies of
adolescents, 3 'peer-led' discussion groups (some of the adolescents involved
in case studies were trained to lead focus groups without the primary
researcher present), and 3 focus groups with parents of teens. The dissertation
argues that there are three distinctive elements of religious
identity-construction among adolescents today. First is a flattening of
religious symbols. Religious symbols are not necessarily seen by adolescents as
authoritative and 'fixed' due to their reference to formal religious
institutions but are rather approached as somewhat autonomous and, like other
commodified symbols of the postmodern condition of late capitalism, they must
be made useful. Second, analyzing the interpretive strategies teens brought to
the popular television program Touched by an Angel, the dissertation finds that
adolescents embrace a variety of publicly-available discourses of religion
which are not solely attributable to race, class, gender, and religious
affiliation. Thus the dissertation affirms the rise in personal autonomy or the
privatization of religion and the subsequent importance of the mediated realm
(as opposed to solely the realm of religious institutions) in determining
religious identities. Third, while affirming Stuart Hall's interpretive
taxonomy of dominant, negotiated, and oppositional readings, the dissertation
demonstrates a fourth interpretive approach, a regeneration that draws upon a
dominant or negotiated reading of a text and is based on a viewer's position
with reference to the text, yet also subtly informs the individual's larger
system of beliefs, thus resulting in a subtly changed belief system. [Source: PI]
Rendon-Botello, Adriana. 1998. “Sources of Influence on Moral Decisions Made by Adolescent Females Attending a Catholic High School.” M.s.w. Thesis, California State University Long Beach.
Abstract: This
exploratory-descriptive study examined the sources of influence on the moral
decisions made by 69 adolescent females attending a Catholic high school.
Results indicate that parents are the greatest influence upon the moral
decisions made by these adolescents. Contrary to popular belief the impact of
friends, media (TV and radio), or books do not carry the impact of parents.
Additionally, the years of exposure to Catholic education did not affect the moral
decisions of adolescent females regardless of the stance of the Catholic
Church. The findings suggest that the greatest influence continues to come from
the family regardless of what different influences an adolescent may be exposed
to. Implications for social work practice and recommendations for future
research are presented. [Source: DA]
Armstrong, Jack. 1996. “Ministry in a Mass Media Culture.” Momentum vol. 27, pp. 27-28.
Abstract: Part of a special
section on the theories and principles of Catholic education. Religious
educators must take contemporary culture seriously if they are to be effective
in their role. Society and culture are being molded by the stories told through
electronic mass media, with the result that the church is no longer one of the
primary storytellers for families and youth. Coordinators of youth ministry and
directors of religious education should neither ignore the changes nor find
ways to use every new piece of communications technology, instead, they should
listen attentively and reflect. Suggestions on the changes that religious
educators need to make in the way they approach their people and their culture
are outlined. [Source: EA]
Pardun, Carol J. and Kathy B. McKee. 1995. “Strange Bedfellows: Symbols of Religion and Sexuality on Mtv.” Youth and Society vol. 26, pp. 438-449.
Abstract: Uses content
analysis to examine the use of religious & sexual imagery in rock music
videos (N = 160) shown on the cable station MTV (Music Television) in Nov-Dec
1992 to determine how frequently such images were used, & were combined
within the same video. Results reveal that religious imagery is present in
videos in significant, nonrandom fashion. In addition, religious images were
more likely to occur with, than without, sexual imagery. [Source: SA]
Gibson, Harry M. 1992. “The Influence of Television on Adolescents' Attitudes Towards Christianity.” Journal of Empirical Theology pp. 18-30.
Arnett, Jeffrey. 1991. “Adolescents and Heavy Metal Music: From the Mouths of Metalheads.” Youth and Society vol. 23, pp. 76-98.
Abstract: Interview data
obtained from 35 adolescent males in Atlanta, Ga, who liked heavy metal music
(HMM) were compared with similar data from their peers who did not like HMM.
The pro-HMM respondents said they liked the music especially because of what
they perceived as the musical talent & skill of the performers, &
because of the lyrics, often deploring the condition of the world. Compared to
their peers, the HMM likers reported going to more concerts & spending more
money on recordings & other music-related products. Politically they were
no different from their peers, but they tended to be less religious. In spite
of the grim themes of the lyrics & the dark quality of the music none
reported that listening to HMM made them unhappy or depressed; rather, many
said they listened to it when they were angry, & it helped calm them &
dissipate their anger. [Source: SA]
Greeson, L. E. 1991. “Recognition and Ratings of Television Music Videos - Age, Gender, and Sociocultural Effects.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology vol. 21, pp. 1908-1920.
Abstract: High school,
younger college, and older college subjects rated explicit, neutral, or
Christian television music videos according to theme clarity/recognition and whether
the respective videos were liked/disliked. Subjects of each age group were able
to recognize the themes of each music-video category with a high degree of
accuracy. Younger subjects and males were found to rate the music videos,
especially those selected for explicitness, more favorably than older or female
subjects. Sociocultural background factors were also found to be related to
recognition and ratings of the television music videos. In particular, working
class background subjects, subjects who watched music videos regularly, and
those that seldom or never attended church rated the music videos, especially
the explicit ones, more favorably than subjects from a college town background,
subjects who seldom or never watched music videos, and subjects who regularly
attended church. These findings were interpreted in terms of media-based social
influence processes and reciprocal determinism. [Source: SC]
Dudley, Roger L. and C. Robert Laurent. 1989. “Alienation from Religion in Church-Related Adolescents.” Sociological Analysis vol. 49, pp. 408-420.
Abstract: To explore
alienation from religion among church-related adolescents, 390 high school
students attending 3 youth conferences sponsored by Protestant judicatories
were asked to complete the Youth Perceptual Inventory, which included a scale
to measure religious alienation & 17 other scales to measure various
independent variables. This sample did not appear to be highly alienated, but
there was a wide range in alienation scores. Multiple regression suggests that
religious alienation is highly related to the quality of teens' relationships
with pastors & parents as well as to opportunities for church involvement,
their own self-concepts, & the influence of peer groups & the media.
All but one of the research hypotheses were supported by the findings, but
pastoral & church influences ranked considerably higher than parent &
home influences. [Source: SA]
Tucker, Larry A. 1987. “Television, Teenagers, and Health.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence vol. 16, pp. 415-425.
Abstract: The effect of TV
viewing on adolescents' health-related attitudes & practices & physical
fitness level is investigated using data from questionnaires containing multiple
assessment instruments completed by 406 white, Mc, high school Ms. Multiple
discriminant analysis reveals that high levels of TV watching are significantly
associated with poorer physical & emotional health, increased drug &
alcohol use, & decreased church attendance, exercise, self-control,
self-confidence, & Coll aspirations. Though the directionality of causality
cannot be assumed, it is argued that since TV viewing is a passive pastime, the
media has great power to shape attitudes & behaviors. At present, its
messages largely promote antisocial norms & unhealthy lifestyles.
Suggestions are proposed to help health professionals & other specialists
develop & promote more healthy, constructive uses of TV. [Source: SA]
Short, Robert L. 1984. “Young Adults, the Popular Arts, and the Bible.” Explor vol. 7, pp. 61-69.
Weigel, Russell H. and Richard Jessor. 1973. “Television and Adolescent Conventionality: An Exploratory Study.” Public Opinion Quarterly vol. 37, pp. 76-90.
Abstract: The degree to
which psychol'al involvement with TV is associated with conventional values,
att's & behaviors among adolescent youth in the US was investigated in 2
independent questionnaire surveys (N=132 M & 144 F Coll students & 287
M & 400 F HSch students). The findings of both studies strongly suggest
that involvement with TV is associated with a syndrome of conventionality.
Findings were consistent for younger & older adolescents & for M's
& F's at both age levels as well as for subsamples which differed markedly
in several other respects. Data confirm the general hyp that higher involvement
with TV is associated with higher value on academic recognition, greater
intolerance of deviance, less soc criticism, greater SP conservatism stronger
negative att's toward drugs, greater religiosity, & less reported
involvement with marijuana use. The exploratory nature of the study is stressed
& the possible influence of a complex of pre-existing S-cul conditions is
suggested. Some other implications are also noted. [Source: SA]