Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Professor, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Researcher and Translator

Abstract

The first media religion studies dates back to 70s and 80s. Until the 1990s, this field had not been seriously considered by scholarships. Media studies’ affection by cultural studies and its apostasy (an important feature of cultural studies) are the main reasons for abandoning religion in media studies. Religious scholars also considered the mass media to be a factor in the weakening of religion, and therefore paid less attention to media studies. However, the emphasis of cultural approaches on the processes of meaning-making in society and the importance of religion as one of the most important components in the process of meaning-making of human agency caused attention to be turned to religion. Therefore, since the 90s, we have witnessed the growth of literature in the field of religion and media studies. Studies that began with the efforts of scholars such as Clifford Geertz and James Carey have continued up to the date and have grown due to the widespread influence of new media and their unique features at the community level. Examining the performance of religious groups, audience-oriented approach, examining religious news coverage, content analysis of religious topics, policy-making and critical content analysis have been among the main subjects of studies in this field, in recent years. However, the most important approaches to this emerging field of study can be found in Marshall McLuhan's "Technological Determinism"; Stig Hjarvard's "The Mediatization of Religion"; Stewart Hoover's "Mediation of Meaning"; Gordon Lynch’s "Mediation of Sacred Forms"; and Heidi Campbell’s "Religious-Social Shaping of Technology."

Keywords

فریزر، جیمز جورج. (1395). شاخهی زرین، پژوهشی در جادو و دین، ترجمه کاظم فیروزمند، نشر آگاه تهران.
هیوم، رابرت. (1386). ادیان زنده جهان، ترجمه عبدالرحیم گواهی، نشر علم، تهران.
Campbell, H. (2010) When Religion Meets New Media, Oxon: Routledge.
Morgan, D. (2008) Keywords in Media, Religion and Culture, New York, Routledge.
Carey, James W. (1975) “A Cultural Approach to Communication,” Communication 2 (2): 1–25.
Carey, James W. (1989) Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society, Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
Durkheim, E, Trans. Fields, K. E. (1995; first published 1912 in French). The Elementary Forms of Religious Live, New York: The Free Press.
Ellul, J. (1964; first published 1954 in French) The Technological Society, New York: Vintage.
Hjarvard, S. (2008) “The Mediatization of Religion: A theory of media as agents of religious change,” Northem Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook.
Hoover, S.M. (2006) Religion In the Media Age, Oxon: Routledge.
Hoover, S.M. (2009) “Complexities: the case of religious cultures,” in K. Lundby (ed.) Mediatization: Concept, Change, Consequences, 123-38, New York
Lundby, K. (2006) “Contested Communication: Mediating the Sacred,” Gothenburg: Nordicom.
Lynch, G. (2012) The Sacred in the Modern World: A Cultural Sociological Approach, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, New York: McGraw Hill.
McLuhan, M. and Fiore, Q. (1967) The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects, New York: Bantam Books.
Campbell, H. A. (2017). Surveying theoretical approaches within digital religion studies. New Media & Society, 19(1), 15–24.
Martin-Barbero, J. (1993) Communication, Culture and Hegemony: From the Media to Mediations, London: Sage.
Meyer, B. and Moors, A. (2006) Religion, Media and the Public Sphere, 1-25, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Meyrowitz, J. (1993) “Images of Media: Hidden ferment – and Harmony- in the field,” Journal of Communication, 43 (3): 59-66.
Meyrowitz, J. (2008) International Encyclopedia of Communication, vol VII, 3055-61, Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Stout, D. A. (2012) Media and Religion; Foundations of an Emerging Field, New York: Routledge.
Rob Kling (2007) What Is Social Informatics and Why Does It Matter?, The Information Society, 23:4, 205-220
Mia Lövheim & Gordon Lynch (2011) The mediatisation of religion debate: An introduction, Culture and Religion, 12:2, 111-117
Manovich, Lev. (2001) The Language of New Media, The MIT Press.
Logan, K. R. (2010) Understanding New Media; Extending Marshall McLuhan, New York, Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publisher.