RELIGION AND THE MEDIA Specifically religious programmes are those created by television channels and religions, to portray an image of

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RELIGION AND THE MEDIA

Specifically religious programmes are those created by television channels and religions, to portray an image of what they are, what they believe in, their philosophy and the selling of their idea and faith to the audience. This is done to promote and convert people to follow a religious ideology or faith to be able to share values and morals, and make society better. They are also created to inform people and give opinion and advice on moral and religious issues.

Another purpose for the broadcasting of specifically religious programmes is to benefit all those people who are physically unable to attend church. The main idea of this worship programme is to bring the church to the people instead of the people going to the church; with this aim we have programmes such as “Songs of Praise” which conduct a church service with inspirational music performances and true stories.  

During the week, television channels have created a “God slot, in which religious programmes can be shown to the public, and are mostly aired at night or on Sunday afternoons. This is because on this day most Christians dedicate their time to practice their religion.  

According to the TV guide for the 4 national channels, we can see that the religions with most popularity are Christianity and Islam; there are programmes with discussion and debating involved or alternatively worship and adoration programmes with focus around these religions.

The times and days of the week mostly depend on the religion, content and target audience. If the program is Christian it’s very likely to be shown on a Sunday, as this day is dedicated for the purpose of worshipping God and resting from a long week of work or study.

However if it is a Muslim programme it is likely to be in the late night hours of the night, due to the low number of people who are followers of this religion, and the low number of audiences. This is the case of the Muslim program “the essentials of faith”, which focuses on the core beliefs of Islam.

Many of the Christian specifically religious programmes are surprisingly aimed at a wide range of generations, as there are programs for seniors and adults as well as for teenagers and young people. This is the case of “Holy smoke” a Christian programme aimed specifically at the under 25’s, as a result its content will vary from another programme aimed at a different generation.

Most of the religious programmes previously mentioned, do take into account the importance of our multicultural society. “The Heaven and Earth show” often prove this, by inviting people from different ethnical and social backgrounds that allow the presenters to interact, share, debate and hear different perspectives on issues that may affect everyone. This specially makes the program interesting and appealing to intellectual audiences.

There is some moral duty for the television producers to broadcast these religious programmes as they firmly believe that television can be used to educate as well as to entertain. This is clearly reflected on specifically religious programmes as they have an educational content, and therefore present their information in a contemporary format that can be viewed as everyday television for anyone to watch.

The most important aspect in this type of programme is that they are carefully designed to inform rather than to persuade the public. The 1990 broadcasting act forbids Christian or religious groups to “recruit” people using the media. This act is crucially important, as it would very unfair for people with a different religion or culture to be persuaded to act in a certain way by watching television.

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Programmes with a religious content may be pre-judged by a majority of people as a way of influence on making a decision upon religious inclination, but many programs include present day, non-religious issues that may appeal to the agnostic or atheist viewer as well as the religious one. This is the case of “The Heaven and Earth show”, where most of the contents are based on modern day issues and are not always directly linked to religious implication. This makes it another important factor for producers to be thoughtful of; it is their duty to create a programme which ...

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