{"title":"Brother “Killer” Kane: Resistance, Identification, and the Intersection of Rock Music and Religious Values in New York Doll","authors":"S. Church","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1651575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1651575","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay contributes an analysis of a popular culture text as a mediated representation of conversion and religious identification. Using Kenneth Burke’s (1984) critical concepts of identification and framing, the 2005 independent film New York Doll is analyzed as a site of the intersection between religion as tradition and music as resistance. An inductive analysis of the film is conducted examining a) the cultural processes of identity, oppression, and resistance and b) the tension between punk rock culture and Mormon culture. Kane, the ex-rock star and LDS convert protagonist of the film presents a locus of the tension between these cultural processes. Ultimately, though this tension remains unresolved, the author concludes that both music and religion can be mutually oppressive and resistant.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"62 1","pages":"50 - 60"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82185278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lessons from the Megachurch: Understanding Journalism’s Turn to Membership","authors":"Patrick Ferrucci, J. L. Nelson","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1651576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1651576","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A number of journalism stakeholders have begun advocating for news organizations to adopt membership models as a means to solving the industry’s audience trust and revenue problems. This small but growing group distinguishes “membership” from more traditional subscription models by emphasizing the former’s focus on collaborative – rather than transactional – relationships with the audience. In this paper, we argue that this conceptualization of membership, while uncommon in journalism, has been widely embraced within another institution: organized religion. In light of this connection, this study draws on in-depth interviews with megachurch membership directors, membership consultants and members themselves to answer the question: What does this conceptualization of “membership” look like in practice? Despite the obvious differences between news and religious organizations, we argue that understanding the latter’s approach to membership is useful for understanding the implications for the news industry and the public, should membership models become increasingly popular.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"61 - 73"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85071327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"U.S. Church Leaders’ Responses to the Charleston Church Shooting: An Examination Based on Speech Act Theory","authors":"Sophia Brown, Jonathan Matusitz","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1642008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1642008","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper uses Speech Act Theory to examine the content of twenty pastors’ responses to the Charleston Church Shooting in June 2015. Speech Act Theory rests on the premise that speakers use language to accomplish intended actions and, in doing so, hearers conclude or interpret intendedmeaning from what speakers say. In this study, Speech Act Theory examines how effective pastors were in starting antiracist programs in their communities. The method of open coding was used. Seven themes emerged from the thematic analysis of those sermons: race, anger, threats, forgiveness, God/faith, justice, and prayer. An important conclusion of this analysis is that church leaders primarily emphasized the need to acknowledge racism in society and the need to respond to the shooter with forgiveness and love. The love and forgiveness encouraged by speakers is only evident through action.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"1 1","pages":"27 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88775210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clark Callahan, S. Church, Jesse King, Maureen Elinzano
{"title":"Snapchat Usage Among Minority Populations","authors":"Clark Callahan, S. Church, Jesse King, Maureen Elinzano","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1639404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1639404","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using Hall’s essential work on encoding/decoding as a theoretical framework, this research analyzes “snaps” posted during a two-week period on the Snapchat Story at Brigham Young University, a religious institution of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Further, college students, who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are creating negotiated religious readings of Snapchat and secular college culture as a response to a perceived hegemonic moral relativism. The results indicate three categories of snaps: a) Hegemonic platform usage with oppositional messages, b) Oppositional platform usage with negotiated messages, and c) Oppositional platform usage with modified hegemonic meanings of signifiers within the message. Minority cultures can use social media to enhance minority values and behaviors in ways not envisioned by mainstream social media use.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"29 1","pages":"1 - 12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75290251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Terrorists or Pilgrims: A Comparison of Attributes of Chinese Muslims in the World Press","authors":"Mariam F. Alkazemi, Hongxia Wei, W. Wanta","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1639403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1639403","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A content analysis of 330 Chinese-language news articles from 40 Chinese newspapers and 244 English-language news articles from 122 major world publications revealed stark differences in the attributes linked to Chinese Muslims. U.S. and other western newspapers portrayed Chinese Muslims in an overwhelmingly negative way, often linking the group to terrorism. Chinese newspapers portrayed the Chinese Muslims overwhelmingly positive, linking the group to feature topics.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"165 1","pages":"13 - 26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76632510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rabbis, Rebbes, and Roshei Yeshiva: Jewish Religious Leadership in Recent Graphic Novels","authors":"M. Reingold","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1595841","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1595841","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyzes the depictions of rabbis in James Sturm’s Market Day, Harvey Pekar and JT Waldman’s Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me, Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat, and Sfar’s Klezmer. Considered together, these four recent graphic novels present a fairly negative portrait of rabbinical leadership and of the impact rabbis can have on communities. This negative depiction reaffirms Zierler’s earlier assertion about literary depictions of rabbis in American fiction. Beyond the focus on the genre of graphic novels, this essay considers the different literary rabbis in light of the historical and contemporary role of the rabbi and recognizes that within the Jewish community, three distinct models of religious leadership exist. These three models are then used to analyze the rabbinical representations to better understand how and why the rabbis are successful or unsuccessful in providing meaningful pastoral care.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"2020 1","pages":"146 - 163"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2018-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80002003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Nobody Wanted to Kill It”: The Rise and Fall of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven","authors":"Jim Y. Trammell","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1595842","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1595842","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The rise and fall of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven exposes some issues when religious faith is merged with consumable products. Christian media are marketed in part as serving ministerial roles. But how does the Christian mass media industry negotiate this perception of serving the evangelical subculture within a marketplace that privileges selling units and making profits? What does it mean when a profit-driven industry influences Christian beliefs and practices? This article examines the rise and fall of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven to explore how the Christian media industry negotiates its perception of a ministerial tool with the profit-based demands of the marketplace. By analyzing the publisher's responses to criticisms about the book's veracity, this article advocates for framing Christian media around its money-making obligations rather than Christian service.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"16 1","pages":"134 - 145"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2018-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83165372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Islamophobia, Patriarchy, or Corporate Hegemony?: News Coverage of Nike’s Pro Sport Hijab","authors":"R. Moore","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1595840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1595840","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In 2017 Nike, Inc. announced the launch of a new product, a pro hijab. Journalistic coverage of this event allows for analysis of how news reporters balance their view of religion with predispositions to cover other important elements, such as women in sport, and the growth of corporate power. Through a critical discourse analysis, the researcher discovered reporters did not manifest strong Islamophobia or patriarchy in their coverage and that they rarely questioned Nike’s corporate power.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"13 1","pages":"106 - 116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2018-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89371300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A New Kind of Church: The Religious Media Conglomerate as a “Denomination”","authors":"M. Ward","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1595839","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1595839","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Media deregulation has caused ownership concentration and consolidation across all media industries. The “electronic church” has also developed the oligopolistic structure typical of media industries, resulting in vertically integrated religious media conglomerates with interests beyond broadcasting. Salem Media Group, since 1999 a publicly traded corporation, has not only established itself as the dominant player but also acquired or developed businesses that provide goods and services to evangelical Christians and churches in every area of religious life. The present study argues Salem may be analyzed as a “denomination” for evangelicals. Using Chaves’s model of denominations as dual-structure organizations with an agency structure and a religious authority structure, the study sets forth Salem’s agency structure and demonstrates how the conglomerate legitimates its control of religious goods by deploying the language of the supernatural. Thus, the study offers a method to analyze the religious media conglomerate as a new organizational form.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"233 1","pages":"117 - 133"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2018-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88094795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"#WaitingForBoaz: Expressions of Romantic Aspiration and Black Christian Femininities on Social Media","authors":"Timeka N. Tounsel","doi":"10.1080/15348423.2019.1595843","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2019.1595843","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since the initial reports of a decline in Black women’s marriage rates in the 21st century, a confluence of Black male voices have risen to the fore of an enterprise designed to correct the inadequacies identified as the causal factors for Black women’s singleness. Against the backdrop of this dominate narrative some Black women have redefined singleness, marriage, and the terms of navigating courtship within a Black, Christian cultural context. Their counter story manifests through a culturally specific social media discourse focused on the realities and aspirations around romance for Black women that deploys the biblical figures of Boaz and Ruth. This article focuses on three themes that emerged from analysis of 100 social media posts that reference the Boaz-Ruth narrative: marriage as a divine assurance; the legitimacy of selective courting practices; and romantic relationships as a site for performing autonomous Black, Christian femininities.","PeriodicalId":55954,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Media and Religion","volume":"3 1","pages":"105 - 91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2018-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86463651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}