The mass media and New Religious Movements

2012 ◽  
pp. 121-138
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
The Mass Media

Media Treatment of New Religions in Quebec

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-155
Author(s):  
Susan J. Palmer ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
News Reports ◽  
New Religions ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
The Mass Media

This article focuses on how NRMs are depicted in the mass media in the province of Quebec, and examines some of the ethical, deontological and legal issues reflected in journalistic coverage of controversial groups known as “sectes” or “cults” in the francophone and anglophone medias. These groups include: Les Apôtres de l’Amour Infini, Le Mouvement Raëlien, L’Église essénienne chrétienne, L’Ordre du Temple solaire, La Cité Écologique de Ham-Nord, la Mission de l’Esprit-Saint, and Lev Tahor. News reports on these groups, collected over a period of fifteen years, will be analyzed within the framework of James A. Beckford’s 1994 study, “The Mass Media and New Religious Movements.” Relying on Beckford and models supplied by other sociologists, this chapter will identify various types of biased approaches used by journalists and analyzes the external pressures that shape their stories. Finally, it will attempt to explain why Quebec’s new religions are consistently portrayed by journalists as controversial and threatening, in a manner that tends to generate and perpetuate conflict.

scholarly journals New religious movements and alternative religions in France: the use of digital media as a counter-strategy against social and legal exclusion

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Christiane Königstedt
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Western World ◽  
Alternative Religion ◽  
Alternative Religions ◽  
The Mass Media

The internet is widely used internationally by individuals and groups who otherwise perceive and experience a lack of influence and even repression by authorities and whose opinions remain invisible in or are ignored by the mass media. The new media are a frequently-used means of expression in the political struggles of social and religious movements, especially as part of attempts to increase the number of supporters and to mobilise public opinion. The extent, of the usage as well as its degree of success, does vary and because of this variety, a comparative analysis can illuminate parts of the whole conflictuous configuration as well as the chances and limits of resistance and opposition via these media channels. Organisations which were chosen to be investigated here were the so-called ‘new religious movements’, or more precisely, the many forms of alternative religion in France who face significant levels of social and legal exclusion, while most of their members are themselves usually strongly committed to democracy and their identities as equal French citizens. Therefore, they choose to perform counter-actions which are within the law and act strategically, which makes them a special case compared to revolutionary political movements which may question the social order of the state as a whole. France, with its ‘anti-cult’ policy, has come to a unique standing within the Western world in this respect. Though religious freedom and state neutrality in relation to religious issues are constitutionally granted, a differentiation is made – and partially even legally enforced – between good religions and harmful ones which attempt to manipulate their adepts mentally. The debates are held in a constant dynamic between the struggling parties of ‘anti-cult’ movements and alternative religions. The exclusion of the latter from the mass media is revealed be one central means of hindering them from gaining approval within society, because positive portrayals which might counterbalance the widespread negative public view are prevented. Two umbrella associations of and for NRMs in France have been formed in oppostion to French ‘anti-cult’ activism and therefore have also started to make use of the relatively unregulated and uncontrolled internet, including social online networks and digital media. An investigation into how they do this and how far they are and potentially can be successful is the main focus of this article.

New Religious Movements and the "Acids" of Postmodernity

2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Charles Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Time Characteristic ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Growth Change

Most scholars of new religious movements (NRMs) have tended to ignore the critiques of contemporary culture offered by postmodern theorists. This article attempts to show how several of these critical perspectives can offer innovative conceptual tools with which to analyze growth, change and "distortion" in these movements. The specific elements of postmodernity considered include: 1) hyper-pluralism, globalization, and the radical relativization of truth claims characteristic of postmodernity; 2) postmodernity's "domination of simulation," by which human experience comes to be increasingly mediated by synthetic images produced and disseminated by the mass media; and 3) ephemerality and the contraction of time characteristic of postmodernity. Two NRMs, Christ the Savior Brotherhood and Church Universal and Triumphant, are used as case studies to demonstrate the utility of these three postmodern conditions in interpreting developments in new religions.

God, Guns, and Grist for the Media's Mill

2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas E. Cowan ◽  
Jeffrey K. Hadden
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
North American ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements

It is axiomatic that what North American mass media present as "news" represents only a fraction of what occurs on any given day. Because what is represented as news will be for the vast majority of news consumers the only information they receive on specific events, the manner by which newsworthiness is determined is of some importance. This is especially so in terms of new religious movements, which already suffer from a degree of cultural marginalization and social stigma. Working from the well-known model of newsworthiness first proposed by Johann Galtung and Mari Ruge, we offer a more parsimonious, value-added refinement that demonstrates that the very constituents of media newsworthiness actually contribute to and reinforce the continued misrepresentation of new religious movements.

ANALISIS BERITA POLITIK PADA SURAT KABAR HARIAN (SKH) KEDAULATAN RAKYAT TENTANG PEMBERANTASAN KORUPSI DI ERA PEMERINTAHAN JOKOWI-JK

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-250
Author(s):  
Ririn Risnawati
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
The Political ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
Political News ◽  
Local Mass ◽  
News Analysis ◽  
The Mass Media

This study examines the Political News Analysis of the Sovereignty of the People's Sovereignty on Eradicating Corruption as the Independence of the Mass Media in Proclaiming the Performance of the Jokowi-JK Government which focuses on 1 year of its administration (20 October 2014 October 20 2015). This research is based on two things, namely: first, how is the analysis of the political news regarding Corruption Eradication in the local mass media (Kedaulatan Rakyat) in reporting on the performance of the Jokowi-JK government; second, how the independence of the local mass media in reporting on the performance of the Jokowi-JK government in the area of ??corruption eradication. Media independence is seen from the method of Qualitative Approach with Critical Paradigm namely Critical Discourse Analysis; using Teun A. van Dijk's Model Analysis of text production involving aspects of cognition and social context.  The production of text in the political news regarding the Eradication of Corruption in Judging the Performance of the Jokowi-JK Government presented by the Kedaulatan Rakyat SKH is a strong text structure. The Kedaulatan Rakyat Daily Newspaper is able to provide detailed Semantic Structure and more coherent relationships between words / sentences. In addition, the Kedaulatan Rakyat Daily Newspaper minimizes graphics and metaphor as rhetorical elements so as to be able to present more real and factual news. starting from text, social cognition and social context. The news on SKH Kedaulatan Rakyat is able to present the factual news objectivity in accordance with the truth and relevance. Not only that, the objectivity of the news about justice is able to be fulfilled by the People's Sovereignty SKH by presenting balanced news and explaining it more neutral without the support of the mass media. Keywords: Political News, Independence, Mass Media, Eradication of Corruption

The De-legitimization of General Jaruzelski's Government by Official Mass Media

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-112
Author(s):  
Indira Dupuis
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Initial Point ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Public Criticism

In this article, I present the results of an analysis of print media reporting on the spectacular trial in 1984 against the murderers of Jerzy Popiełuszko in communist Poland. The aim of my research is to show how the coverage contributed to the de-legitimization of the Communist Party despite the mass media system's tight structures of control. Because of mass media functionality, the coverage of this event contributed to political transformation not only by publicizing a hitherto tabooed topic but also by establishing an initial point for informed public criticism of the government.

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