Introduction rough draft for Research Paper

There is a plague on the earth today. It is not locusts, or fire from heaven; the rivers are not turning to blood, but it is a plague nonetheless. It affects young adults of every religious denomination and sect, young men and young women who are just beginning to grow into their newfound independence that comes with officially becoming an adult, perhaps leaving for college, perhaps working, or perhaps just in that difficult in-between stage before they feel their life really starts. No one knows exactly what the repercussions of this plague will be if it is allowed to continue, but how do we stop this plague of Godlessness that is sweeping away the youth of the nation? Young adults are falling away from religion at an unprecedented rate; (insert statistic + citation here) of (ages from study) say that they do not go to a religious services regularly (or whatever the study I can find says) Young adults of every religion are increasingly choosing to stay away from the traditional worship setting, this is a fact, but it raises two essential questions. The first: Why? The second: What is to be done? In order to answer these, other questions must find their answers as well, such as what are the young adults being exposed to that would draw them away from religion, or what about religion would push them away? Perhaps one answer to these questions will be revealed by looking at the ubiquity of modern technology, namely the internet and the rise of social media. The internet allows a vast amount of the world’s knowledge to be accessed from almost anywhere at any time, not only through computers, but also through the tablets and smart phones that many young adults carry around with them at all times. It provides a chance for them and others to share their opinions anonymously, and be exposed to other people’s opinions, which are also often shared anonymously. The opinions shared on the internet about religion are not always positive, in fact, in light of religious issues such as the struggle of Gay rights, and the war on the terrorist Islamic extremists, religion is too often painted with a negative brush.  Numbers of young adults attending church services are dwindling in part because they are becoming disillusioned with religion because online media portrays religion as backwards, militant, and bigoted. 

Annotated Bibliography

*so, this is totally the only thing I forgot to print out today, so hopefully I'll be able to go print it fast after class, but if not... here it is!!!

Works Cited

Anonymous. ReligiON, ReligiOFF. weknowmemes.com. We Know Memes. 2012. Internet Meme (picture).

This source is a popular internet meme, found on several source websites, of which the cited site is only one example. Memes are pictures with captions that are used to make a statement on current issues, similar to a political cartoon. They are often published anonymously on internet forums and express the opinion of those that create them, and those that share them. This particular meme portrays the opinion that religion is medieval is backwards.  I think that this will strenghtn my argument because it shows a common portrayal of religion in a forum that many young adults are familiar with.

Douthat, Ross. "Divided by God." The New York Times 7 April 2012. Opinion Editorial.

This is an opinion editorial, so it expresses the opinion of one person regarding religion in America; it was published by the New York Times, which is a widely read magazine all over the united states. It describes how the United States has become so religiously diverse, and increasingly secular, to where we are largely practicing a hybrid of religion and secularism, become what Douthat calls "a nation of heretics" because we can never agree with one another on anything involved with religion. The article also talks about times when churches were strong and had a wide base of support, namely the civil rights era. I am hoping that I can use this article to show that the US is becoming more secular, which contributes to the negative portrayal of religion on the internet, and I hope that by pointing to times when churches had stronger membership, I will be able to give good suggestions to the interdenominational faith council.

Gonzalez, Michelle A. "Religion and the US Presidency: Politics, the Media, and Religious Identity." Political Theology (2012). Online.

This article deals with how religion was portrayed in the 2012 presidential election which showed how religiously diverse the United States had become. It analyzes the increasingly interconnected nature of religion and politics and how religion is necessary to politics; I hope that this will help me to see and analyze how Americans feel about religion.

Hosseini, S. H. "Religion and Media, Religious Media, or Media Religion: Theoretical Studies." Journal of Media & Religion (2008). Article.

This is a scholarly source. it's a research paper about the relationship between Religion and the Media, analyzing a spectrum of ideas that ranges from the Media being completely controlled by religion and religious authorities, to the idea that the media is completely independent of, and some might go so far as to say unbiased by, Religion. This has a lot of other good sources that it can point me to, but it doesn't really have any original ideas. I'm hoping that it will help me to articulate what I think the current relationship is between religion and media, giving me a good foundation and springboard for the rest of my argument.

Rhode, Harold. Most Intolerant Religion. 29 March 2013. Article. 6 November 2014.

This is a blog post on an expressly anti-Muslim website, explaining how and why the Islamic religion and the people who practice it are backwards and poor. It makes the point that they as a society are unable to forget perceived past wrongs. I want to make the point that religion is perceived as backwards, but I don't know if this is the best source, simply because it has such an explicit bias.

Research Homework 1

Amy McLean

Research Homework 1

What is a question you want to answer with your research? What is the history behind this topic? Who are the authorities/stakeholders involved in this topic? What sources seem most useful to you so far, and why?

The question that I want to answer with my research is why young adults are falling away from religion. There are many different ways that I could take this, many different reasons why people who are in their early twenties are no longer going to church. The leaders tend to be old and out of touch. religious people in the media are sometimes portrayed as superstitious or bigoted, most often bigoted, especially with the gay rights issues: young people see the church as prejudiced and controlling. Young adults are becoming disillusioned with the concept of God and organized religion. if there's a god, they see him as loving and accepting of all people and differences, god is no longer seen as someone who expects a certain standard of moral living, besides simply accepting and loving everyone as he does. There is also that science is attacking the validity of religion by saying that everything needs to be proved. I was going to work on the science versus religion, but now thinking about it, I am going to deal with how religion and spirituality are portrayed in the media, both in news sources and in social media. How does the media portray religion? What is this doing to young people’s views of religion? How can we reverse or combat this?

The history behind this topic is the evolution of the media, with the increase of newspapers, radio, television, and especially the development of the internet. There is also the current issues of gay rights, and religious extremism and terrorism in the middle east, which has brought religion out of the private life and into public scrutiny. There is also the literal history of churches being prejudiced and close minded in the past about things that are now generally accepted such as science (heliocentrism), and divorce; it is not a far leap to believe that the churches are “wrong” again to hold back what is seen as progress today. With a history of religious violence, churches can be cast as having made mistakes and being selfish and corrupt.

The authorities on this topic. well, I can easily find authoritative and representative sources in the news about how the religion is portrayed in the media. I can probably find some studies about this, which will be helpful and authoritative. Other authorities on this topic will be the major media distributors, like New York Times, for news, or Buzzfeed for social media. the media sources that are popular that large numbers of young adults visit, could be considered an authority on what young adults believe or at least what they are being exposed to.

The sources that seem most useful to me right now are the primary sources because they accurately depict how religion is being portrayed in the media. Another kind of source material that I am finding useful are articles and journals that track the media and it’s effects. I think that online comment sections may very well be extremely useful in gaging how the young adult demographic responds to the way that religion is portrayed in the media. Hopefully, what young adults comment on these articles will reflect whether this age group agrees with what the media says or disagrees with it.

Sources:

Gonzalez, Michelle A., “Religion and the US Presidency: Politics, the Media, and Religious      Identity” Equinox Publishing, 2012

Hosseini, S. H. “Religion and Media, Religious Media, or Media Religion: Theoretical Studies” Journal of Media and Religion,Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2012

Paulson, Michael; Santos, Fernanda, “Religious right in Arizona Cheers Bill Allowing Businesses to Refuse to Serve Gays” New York Times, 2014

Paulson, Michael, “Megachurch Pastor signals shift in tone on Gay Marriage” New York Times 2014

Di Stefano, Mike, “Hillsong Megachurch Denies Supporting Marriage Equality” Buzzfeed.com, 2014