Readings Week 13 - Why Has Religion Gone Public Again?

by Laura Green

In this chapter, David Herbert explores the role the media has played in re-publicising religion. He asserts that we have not seen the complete breakdown of religion that secularist theories once suggested would be a product of modernity. Or, the complete degradation of cultural forms, which media theorists believed would occur through the advancement of electronic media. Herbert believes that the modern media and religion actually interact in a way that brings religion back into the public sector. One reason he gives for this is the decline of state controlled media in many countries, which has led to greater expression of religion in the media. However, by transmitting religion in this form, the shape of religion is often changed to suit modernity.

Herbert illustrates this growth in media-religion interaction and the subtle altering of religion that this produces through the example of post-communist societies. In communist regimes religion was often forced to go underground due to political persecution; this in turn made religion extremely politicised. Democratisation in these countries has led to a de-politicisation of religion, and often a major growth in religious media. Herbert states that although religion has become more public in post-communist countries, this has not meant that the religious observance of citizens has unanimously grown. It has meant that religion is more involved with social issues though. However, Herbert illustrates through an example of a polish radio station, that religion in post-communist media is often a changed form of religion. Radio Maryja, was very influential in Polish public policy, but its views were often varied significantly from the official views of the Catholic Church. The influence of this station suggests that religious media has actually changed how religious authority is produced.

In Western societies, media has also been influential in the re-publicisation of religion and in producing a subtle change in the form of religion. Herbert suggests that the ethnic minority groups who reside in Western societies are significantly more religious than their local counterparts, who are much more secular. Due to the ease of media transmittance in the modern era, these groups can still be connected to their culture and their beliefs through things like cinema, news and television. However, Herbert argues that the way such media outlets frame religion to ethnic minorities can actually alter their views on their cultural and religious identity.

At the end of the chapter, Herbert sums up how modern media interaction has often altered religion. However, he also argues that this is not a one-way street; the media too is changed by its interaction with religion. Media outlets are forced to be very observant of the expectations of religious people in depictions of faith and culture, because of the importance of religion to a significant part of most societies.

References:

D. Herbert, “Why Has Religion Gone Public Again: Towards A Theory of Media and Religion Re-publicization,” in G. Lynch, J. Mitchell & A. Strhan, eds., Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader, (London: Routledge, 2012): 88-97.

Readings Week 12- The Role of the Media in Religious Transnationalism

By Laura Green

In this article, Marie Gillespie discusses the effect that globalization has had upon peoples perception of their culture, ethnicity and religion. Globalization has caused much of the worlds, particularly the Western world’s, culture to become Americanised and commodotised. Gillespie illustrates that different groups respond to globalization differently. Some become more devoted to their traditional faiths or cultural beliefs, whereas, others explore new ideas and beliefs and see their identity as a transformative process. These are not two distinct categories though, as many people tend to bounce back and forth between both reactions.

Gillespie uses the example of Sikh and Hindu populations in Southall, England to illustrate this. She suggests that it is often the older generations who favour maintaining their Indian culture as “un-tarnished” by the Western world. These people are often first generation migrants who view Western media suspiciously. However, they do desire depictions of their homeland from the media and even if these depictions are not real, they often become a substitute homeland. According to Gillespie, younger generations often go against this trend and do not want to territorialize their homeland like their parents, but be open and flexible towards other cultures. This process often comes under the title of “cosmopolitanism”. She illustrates this growing trend of cosmopolitainism through the story of an Indian school performing dirty dancing for a school performance for the Diwali festival. The performance was highly controversial to the older head teacher, however, it was still a great success, particularly with the student population, which highlights this group of youths acceptance of Westernised media infiltrating into their identity.

However, Gillespie also illustrates that young Hindu’s in Southall are still very observant of their culture. She shows this through her observations of an Indian family viewing a Western television production of the Mahabharata. She states that it was not only the mother, but also the children who found the Western depiction offensive and lacking the right cultural knowledge.  This highlights that the younger generations may be more open to other cultural experiences, but this does not cause them to completely lose their cultural and ethnic ties.

References:

M. Gillespie, “The Role of Media in Religious Transnationalism,” in G. Lynch, J. Mitchell & A. Strhan, eds., Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader, (London: Routledge, 2012): 98-110.

Reflection 4: Lecture 11 - Indigenous Media, Film and Music

By Laura Green

I found this weeks lecture very interesting, particularly the discussion into the perpetuation of indigenous stereotypes through the media. I definitely agree that this is a major problem in the media industry, especially in Australia. Even when Indigenous Australians seem to be favourably represented by mainstream media, the fact that these representations are often constructed through racial stereotyping actually highlights the implicit racism inherent in mainstream media. This is evident in Baz Luhrman’s “Australia”, his depiction of Indigenous Australians might not be overtly offensive or negative. Yet, the characters of Nullah’s grandfather and of Magarri, seem suggestively similar to images of the “noble savage”, that were prominent in eighteenth and nineteenth century literature and which feature prominently in the modern Indigenous stereotype (Rowland, 2004: 2- 6).

As was mentioned in the lecture, this type of racial stereotyping is now being questioned in Australia. Films such as Samson and Delilah and The Sapphires, which are produced by Indigenous people, give a different view of what it is to be an Indigenous Australian and actively reject mainstream stereotypes. Some mainstream media outlets, such as the ABC and SBS have also encouraged the breakdown of such stereotypes. This suggests that Australian media may be on the right path to more balanced and inclusive representations of Indigenous people and Indigenous culture.

References:

M. Rowland, “Return of the ‘Noble Savage’: Misrepresenting the Past, Present and Future,” Australian Aboriginal Studies 2, (2004): 2- 14.

Readings Week 11: Aboriginal Spirituality in a New Age

by Laura Green

I found Suttons article very interesting, although, the article was quite hard for me to follow, as I have absolutely no knowledge of Indigenous spirituality (something I will probably try to rectify after reading this piece). I found the idea that Indigenous spiritualties could co-exist dually with the Christian faith for some people, very interesting. Sutton’s suggestion that this is because Indigenous religion, particularly that of the Wik people, has always been central to social culture and politics seems quite reasonable to me.

Sutton goes on in his article to argue that the idea of Indigenous spirituality being centered on the “earth mother” ideal is actually a new age spiritual idea that has been superimposed onto Indigenous religion. He states this is a spiritual belief that is more influenced by Native American religion and not actually directly linked to historical Indigenous Australian spirituality. This was a new idea to me, as of the little I have heard about Indigenous religion, the theme of “the earth is our mother” is a common one. However, Sutton points out that many Indigenous societies saw the land as being connected to their ancestors. In this sense they did not see themselves as coming from the earth as a whole, but from the land that their ancestors belonged to.  

It is clear in the article that many scholars view this mix up of Indigenous Spirituality with New Age Spirituality quite negatively. They think that in associating Indigenous religion with New Age Spirituality, Indigenous culture and history is threatened. Whilst this might be true if people are not fully aware of this phenomenon, I think that if people were more educated about it, then this could be seen as another example of a religion changing to meet the demands of modernity. As long as people understand that the “mother earth” philosophy that is often preached in regards to Indigenous spirituality is actually not an authentic Indigenous belief, then the merging of the two is actually quite an interesting occurrence. Sutton states in his article that the Indigenous people most likely to accept this New Age type spirituality are those who are quite distanced from their traditional Indigenous beliefs and most integrated into the industrial society. Hence, this addition of New Age religion gives them an opportunity to observe some forms of their ancestral heritage whilst maintaining their modernised lifestyle.

References

Peter Sutton, “Aboriginal Spirituality in a New Age,” The Australian Journal of Anthropology 21, no.1 (2010): 71-89.

Week 10 Readings - Benjamin Isakhan, Orientalism and the Australian News Media.

By Laura Green

I thought Isakhan’s chapter was very interesting. I agree that through many Western news outlets, Islam and Muslims are demonized as the “other”. However, I think many people would assume this has stemmed from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but, Isakhan makes the interesting point that this demonization was evident even before 9/11. Other scholars have suggested the same of Australian news; Nahid Kabir gives multiple examples of how the news negatively targeted Islam, even before the events of 9/11 started to dominate world news, in his article “Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Australian Media, 2001-2005”. One of which is the way in early 2001, that the Australian news linked female genital mutilation to Islam synonymously, ignoring that it is a practice tied more to cultural background than to religious belief (Kabir, 2006: 314-315).

Isakhan suggests the representation of Islam in the Australian media, which is similar to many other Western countries, displays a continuation of what Edward Said called “orientalism”.  He makes his argument very convincingly, through pointing out the racial bias of the Australian news media throughout its history in its coverage of Indigenous and Asian peoples. I had previously not thought about the link between the way Islam is presented in todays news and how other cultures have been depicted in the past. However, after reading Isakhan’s article I think there is a clear case to say that orientalist ideals are visible in the Australian news medias history, and they have been carried forward even into the present day.

 References:

Nahid Kabir, “Representation of Islam and Muslims in Australian Media, 2001-2005”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 26, no. 3 (2006): 313-328.

Benjamin Isakhan, “Orientalism and the Australian News Media: Origins and Questions”, in Islam and the Australian News Media, Halim Rane; Jacqui Ewart Mohamad Abdalla, eds., (Carlton: Melbourne University Publishing, 2010): 3-25.