Religion and Mass Media

Turkey has witnessed a proliferation of Islamic television channels since the liberalization of broadcasting in the 1990s. The programming of these TV channels was initially distinctly theological in character, with shows focusing on the doctrinal, scriptural, and ritualistic aspects of Islam. More recently, however, they have started producing family-friendly entertainment programs as well as shows aimed at “strengthening the family.” Islamic broadcasters intend their family-focused programming as civil initiatives against what they see as the increasing corrosion of the “moral fabric of the family” and devaluation of “family values” in contemporary Turkish society. In these TV shows, audiences are provided with guidance and techniques that would help them cultivate ethical dispositions, knowledge, and skills so that they could assume autonomy and responsibility for administering their families more effectively. Islamic broadcasters explicitly identify their role as assisting the state in  fighting social problems through their programming. Moreover, the discourses and sensibilities promoted on television articulate with the biopolitical concerns of the nation-state and the emerging rationalities of governance. While Islamic television professionals’ self-ascribed mission to “strengthen the family” emerges from a religiously inspired moral imperative to provide service, it simultaneously indicates their internalization of neoliberal rationalities of governance that promote the responsibilization of non-governmental actors for providing social services as well as that of individuals for supporting and caring for their family members. [Keywords: Islam, television, media, family, family values, secularism, neoliberalism, Turkey]

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В статье приводятся данные, полученные в результате контент-анализа сообщений российской прессы о русском неоязычестве за период с 2002 г. по 2014 г. Отмечается негативный информационный фон, сложившийся вокруг этого явления. При этом источники информации, которыми пользуются журналисты при описании данного
феномена, в большинстве случаев слишком субъективны.

“Η ψηφιακή τεχνολογία και οι κάθε λογής εφαρμογές της έχουν μια ξεχωριστή ιδιαιτερότητα : παρουσιάζουν ανύπαρκτες, κατασκευασμένες, ψεύτικες εικόνες της ζωής. Εικόνες που διαστρεβλώνουν την πραγματικότητα, την αλήθεια της ιστορίας, απευθυνόμενες στο ατομικό φαντασιακό της ανθρώπινης ατομικότητας. Κάθε ομοιότητα με απόκρυφες μορφές της ιουδαιοχριστιανικής θρησκευτικότητας είναι απολύτως θεμιτή..”

Άρθρο από το περιοδικό ΘΕΟΣ & ΘΡΗΣΚΕΙΑ, εκδ. Τερζόπουλος 1999

This article examines of South Park's satirizing of Catholic practice and the church's sex abuse scandals within a sociology of religion, knowledge, and humor framework. It argues that the satire not only attacks claims to the church's sacredness (which are defended by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights), but that this humorous argument facilitates the desacralization of Catholic religiosity while sacralizing American civil religion.