Sophie Johnson Re Short coarse Year 11

Religion and the media

Part Ai

   There was a time when sitting and watching Sunday worship or going to church was a family occasion, but times have changed. Now we are a secular society and many churchgoers or viewers, who watch these religious programmes, are older. Not much is done to change this though as many religious programmes are long, dull and straight to the point so variations need to be made to these programmes to attract a wider audience. They need to be uplifting and enjoyable but in a modern way to attract the younger generation. If these programmes change many viewers will be lost due to change. So I asked myself why do the older generation turn to religion? The answer was simple; when nearing the end people seek comfort and reassurance in god. They’re reassured that they will go to a better place if they seek religion, and whatever happiness they will always have their religion, it is seen as the last resort of comfort. This is a change in it's self as in the past families were taught to live by the bible and if any one should have any troubles or decisions to make they should consult god. Now families play a large part in big decisions or trouble with a family member as we are much more open about things now and religion is very rarely consulted.

    The need to teach the younger generation about religion and how it helps to make such decision is not as important any more within families. This stops the younger generation wanting to learn about their religion or watching such religious programmes like “songs of praise”

    As the UK is a multi-faith society programming has to cover all religions equally. Persons from another intrigue many people from one religion and programmes on other religions other than the more dominant ones are more widely watched. If a certain religion isn’t covered viewers re lost and complaints are made, this is why channels must cover all religions.

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    There are many worship and magazine type programmes such as “the heaven and earth show” and “songs of praise”.  In such programmes I would expect to see a normal worship as seen in many churches and have hymns sung, prayers made and preaching read or the equivalent of this in other religions. There are then religious programmes like “everyman” and “whitness”. There would be a wider audience to these programmes because they are informative and interesting and I’d expect to be taught about worship and religion in these programmes. Perhaps all ages would watch this.

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