Media and Religion

Media and World Religions Midterm
Question 2:

Comment on specific interaction between media and religion by providing an example from the media.

“The media”, as we traditionally think of it, sets out to explain the inexplicable, to frame the spectacle, and give it meaning. As a viewer of a news program or the reader of a newspaper, would you care about the news at all if it didn’t have some kind of application to you, or—worse yet—didn’t even make sense?
To much of the world, the recent “spectacle” of the raids on the FLDS polygamist compound in Texas were inexplicable. Inexplicable, because the world could not relate to the polygamist culture. Inexplicable, because the world could not abide by taking children from their loving parents. Inexplicable, because if polygamy is illegal, how had this gone on for so long and on such a scale?
In this case, the polygamist leaders originally denied the media access to their compound, fearing their way of life would be further threatened. They soon realized, however, that they needed the media to plead their case. That is when you saw teary-eyed mothers begging for their children back. The impact of that visual was enough to sway almost all public opinion in their favor.
The media destroys religion, but religion needs the media.