Religion and Mass Media: Audiences and Adaptations

This research on the uses of mass media across diverse Christian traditions is both original and provocative. By focusing on what audiences perceive and how they respond, Religion and Mass Media is able to illuminate the experience of faith at a time when devotion is seen as a dimension of individuality best suited to the privacy of one′s home. Professors Daniel A. Stout and Judith M. Buddenbaum should be commended for helping advance the study of religion and mass communication in the United States. --John P. Ferrè, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Louisville How do religious audiences react to and use the mass media? Religion and Mass Media is an audience-centered examination that reveals how a variety of Christian traditions experience media news and entertainment--in the context of institutional religious influences and expectations. Drawing on social science theories and empirical research methodologies, the contributors explore responses from Roman Catholics, Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, and Mormons and a variety of other traditions. In the first section, contributors set the framework by describing recent theoretical developments in the sociology of religion and communication theory. Section two provides an overview of the particulars of certain religious beliefs, section three looks at audience behavior, section four describes specific case studies (including one on rap music), and section five looks at the changing information environment and the future. Students and professionals in communication, sociology, sociology of religion, and anthropology will find this volume to be both informative and insightful--an excellent supplement.