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