Introduction

Religion denotes deposit interest and a great devotional connection to a superhuman control, power, and belief (Lövheim and Heidi 5). Religion is usually an environment of a superhuman being (God or god) concerning the idea that faith, divinity, worship, doctrine, and teaching that revolve around the quest for what the superhuman requires of human beings (Jegannathan 117). Thesis: The media is the contributor of changes to the traditional religious practices, and the secularization of religion has brought about a variation on the gender perspective in religious leadership, and it is predominantly influencing beliefs and believer’s behavior, moral standards and religious teachings.

Research Question

This paper will seek to answer the following research question:

1. Is the media trying to change religion by shaping the public perception of secularism, gender perspective, and beliefs for the better or worse in the biblical view?

Abstract

Media negatively influences religious teachings (Lövheim and Heidi 5). Most religions use the media actively to air out their teachings while others make the media to be a medium that influences religion by making religion to adopt media behavior. Religious institutions are actively using the media which in turn it influences the teachings of religions, and behaviors of religious leaders. Media shapes the public perception on religion secularization and beliefs since the audience usually take part in active media debate about the elements of actual religions, secularization and the efficacy of digital religion (Hjarvard 15). Q. 1. I arrived at the essay topic after coming across various controversial statements concerning the influence of media on religion. For instance, Hjarvard (9) outlined that today, the media is a medium that is used to air out aspects concerning religion, the kinds of religion in the world, a subjective opinion concerning the true religion, and the true god to be worshipped (Hjarvard 9). On the other hand, the media is used to transmit religious aspects throughout the one by the use of social media platforms which attract different aspects concerning religion, the issues and critical concepts regarding religion like atheism, secularism, humanism, existentialism, the theories of religion and comparative religion in the quest of finding the true religion (Hjarvard 17).  Q. 2. I will relate the concepts about how the media is used to air the teachings of religion by incorporating the concepts by Cheong (27), the media is considered to be a medium that orients people on the aspects of religious practices, the true religion, the issues to be taught and the obstacles that affect the purpose of religion.  Q. 3. My argument will be structured and built on the frameworks of both positive and negative implications of the media on the issue of religious teachings. Q. 4. I have chosen the bibliographic sources since they extensively communicate about the influence of media on religion on both negative and positive perspective. Secondly, the sources are scholarly thus they will answer the research question in a more precise manner.

Works Cited

Cheong, Pauline Hope. “The vitality of new media and religion: Communicative perspectives, practices, and changing authority in a spiritual organization.” new media & society 19.1 (2017): 25-33.

Haynes, Jeff, ed. Religion, globalization and political culture in the Third World. Springer, 2016.

Hjarvard, Stig. “Mediatization and the changing authority of religion.” Media, Culture & Society 38.1 (2016): 8-17.

Jegannathan, Bhoomikumar, Gunnar Kullgren, and Kjerstin Dahlblom. “How do young people in Cambodia perceive the impact of societal attitudes, media, and religion on suicidal behavior?” International journal of social psychiatry 62.2 (2016): 114-122.

Lövheim, Mia, and Heidi A. Campbell. “Considering critical methods and theoretical lenses in digital religion studies.” (2017): 5-14.