Religion in the media.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Name: Ricky Singh

School: Hatch End High School

Candidate Number: 9253

Religious Education

Teacher: Miss Boyd

Date: 2002

Contents Page

Section A: Page:

Introduction 4

Religious Documentary Programmes 5

Religious Magazine Programmes 8

Religious Worship Programmes 11

Religion in Soap Operas 13

How a religious/moral issue is

Dealt with in a drama/film 16

Section B:

Does television always present

religious people as being “out 19

of touch” with the modern world?

Overall conclusion 22

Introduction – Religion in the Media

This is a brief introduction into my R.E coursework, which is based upon religious programmes in the media.

Since religious programmes started broadcasting on the television in 1946, many people’s knowledge about other faiths other than their own, have grown. This is due to the fact that there is a vast majority of viewers tuning into these programmes shown on the television, which are usually shown on the television on a Sunday morning or afternoon. They are usually aired at this time because many older people are unable to get access to their local church so they watch these programmes instead. These series’ of programmes are called the “God slot”.

Many other religions show programmes to do with their faith if there is a religious occasion, but it is mainly Christian programmes about the church and issues concerning the world.

Most religious programmes give the viewers either a positive or negative impression towards their religion. This often influences younger viewers against the idea of religion, if they see the church as a dull and place which only old people go to. Some programmes give the viewers this impression, but now there are many programmes in which they show the church in a much brighter and more enjoyable place to be. They show many programmes during Christian festivals (Christmas and Easter) that show the church as a fun and enjoyable place, which they hope, will influence younger viewers and increase the number of people attending the festivals in churches. This tactic is also used for other religions such as Hinduism and Judaism when they have important festivals up coming such as Deepawali and The Passover. This is quite a useful way of broadcasting other religions and showing to the viewers that the programmes on the television concerning religion are not biased.

I have concluded that if comedy is added to religious programmes, this will increase the number of younger viewers. This is because they will find the church much more than a chore or a place of no fun with loads of old people, but of a place that makes religion enjoyable and fun for others.

Religious Documentaries

Introduction

In our previous R.E lesson, we watched two videos that was to teach people from other religions about the Muslim ways of life and about a course that could make people that are not very religious, into religious people. These types of religious programmes are called religious documentaries. There are many other categories of religious programmes other than documentaries, and here are a few of them:

Worship
Magazine
Animation
Music

Here is a chart that states whether these religious programmes are documentary, worship, magazine, animation or music.

The Belief File

The programme about the Muslim faith was called the Belief File. This is on BBC 1 around 2am to 6am for 1 hour on a Sunday morning and this is classified as a documentary.

The people in this documentary about the Muslim faith, where young Muslims explaining about their religion and answering the questions put forward by the couple of children that where learning about the Muslim faith. They mentioned the 5 pillars of Islam and how a Muslim prepares themselves in their special way for their daily prayers.

I cannot recall any music being used in this presentation, but there was some prayers being read out and that sounded musical.

The audience was our class and they were watching the video and taking down notes on what they were seeing about the Muslim faith. After watching the video our teacher asked us what we had thought about the video that we watched and had a class discussion.

The pace of the programme was quite steady; they repeated a couple of the words twice so the audience could understand the pronunciation of the words. They did use subtitles for these words so the viewers knew how they were spelt.

I think that the target audience was younger viewers. I think that they want to give younger viewers a well-balanced look towards religion in the world and so that they do not think that there is only one religion dominating the world. They want them to know that they live in a multi-cultural society.

I do not think that this programme was very enjoyable, even though I thought that it taught very well about Islam.

I think that some people might have not liked the fact that it is on in the early hours of the morning and that there was no background music.

It was what I had expected from a religious point of view, as it taught people about the Islamic faith and their ways of life very well.

I think that it was a good representation of the Islamic religion as it out lined the most important things in a Muslims life.

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I think that aim of the documentary was to teach younger viewers about the many religions in the world and I think that they might have succeeded in this.

I do not think that they have taught the viewers very interestingly in this programme.

Conclusion

I think that this programme was good in terms of teaching the Muslim faith but was rather dull. Most of my classmates thought that as well.

Alpha-Will it change their lives?

The programme about the Alpha course was called Alpha-Will it change their lives? This is on ITV ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

I think that aim of the documentary was to teach younger viewers about the many religions in the world and I think that they might have succeeded in this.

I do not think that they have taught the viewers very interestingly in this programme.

Conclusion

I think that this programme was good in terms of teaching the Muslim faith but was rather dull. Most of my classmates thought that as well.

Alpha-Will it change their lives?

The programme about the Alpha course was called Alpha-Will it change their lives? This is on ITV late at night for 1 hour. This programme is classified as a documentary.

This programme was based on the Alpha course, in which many people that are not religious go along to meetings and discussions, which teach them about Christianity and bring them, closer to God. We watched a clip of the programme where a taxi driver’s wife had been going to these classes and then he decided to join also. He says ‘ it completely changed my life’ and he also said he is ‘in touch with the Holy Sprit’.

There was no music involved with the clips of the programme we watched and was no audience participation at all.

The pace was quite moderate as they got through I think 4 or 5 people in a 1-hour episode. As I only saw 1 clip, I cannot comment on the structure of the programme.

I think that the target audience of this programme was none religious people. This is because they were trying to introduce what the Alpha course is about and there would be no point showing it to religious people, as they are already aware of their religion, instead it is aimed at those less religious people.

There was nothing at all enjoyable in this programme and I didn’t expect it to be anyway.

I think that some people might not like the programme because was trying to make people turn into religious people and many none religious people might frown upon some course trying to “change” their lives.

The programme was not what I had expected. This is because I thought that it would be a bit more fun as they are trying to make people join this Alpha course and it was actually a boring programme, from what I saw anyway.

I think that it was not great representation of the religion, but was okay. It showed how the course changed people’s lives, but it was rather dull too.

I think that the aim of this documentary was to turn people that are not particularly religious, into religious people.

I am not sure if the aims were met as I only watched a bit of it, but I would guess that did meet the aims they had set themselves.

It didn’t teach interestingly also and that is the sole reason why I did not particularly like this programme.

Conclusion

I think that this programme was very dull and most of my classmates thought that as well.

A Religious Magazine Programme

Introduction

In our previous R.E lesson, we watched two videos that were both religious magazine programmes. One was called The Heaven and Earth show and the other was called Sunday Morning. They are both shown at 10am on a Sunday morning and they both last 1-hour. The Heaven and Earth show is shown on BBC 1 and Sunday Morning is shown on ITV. I am now going to analyse the two magazine programmes.

The Heaven and Earth show

There were two presenters, who were joined by guests, on each separate topic that was being discussed.

There was not much music being added to the background in this programme, but there was some music at the beginning of the programme and when they were showing the viewers what issues they were going to discuss in the programme.

There was some audience participation, as they had a phone in, where the viewers had their say on the issues being discussed and there was also an email address, so viewers could email them instead of phoning in if they preferred.

The pace of the programme was quite slow and they had quite a lot to say, which might have made it quite boring for younger viewers.

I think that the programme wasn’t structured that well. They might have interested the older people, but they might have put the younger people off, as they didn’t have particularly interesting topics. But they did have a quite good issue at the end, which might have pleased the younger people, if they were still watching, which was when the Reverend went to a dating agency. Although they did cover four different topics well.

In this programme, they were discussing many different issues. They were discussing:

War and Afghanistan
Stardom
Dreams
Reverends and dating agencies

On the discussion panels about the war and Afghanistan, there was John Torode, from the Daily Mail and Dr Scilla Elworthy. In the interview on stardom was David Essex, talking about his music career and about when he played Jesus in a play, and how he was publicly criticised as people were saying that he wasn’t religious. In the conversation on dreams, was Helen McLean. This was also when there was a phone in, where people discussed their dreams and what they could possible mean. Lastly, there was their Reverend, and how she went to a dating agency and when she met many different people.

There was not much religion mentioned in the programme. There was a bit religion coming into the Reverend and the dating agency and when they were talking about War in Afghanistan, but that was it. It was not what I had expected, I thought they were going to discuss more religious issues.

Conclusion

I thought that this programme was not that bad as I enjoyed the part at the end when the Reverend went to the dating agency. Before that, the programme was not that interesting and me and other classmates found the last bit to be the best bit.

Sunday Morning

In this programme there was also two presenters, who were joined by guests, on each separate topic that was being discussed.

There was more music in this programme than in the previous programme. They had some at the beginning and when they showed the topics that they were going to discuss, but they also had a band singing in the studio called Shine. This band is a girl band that brings up religion in their songs.

There was also some audience participation in this programme, but this had an agony aunt in the studio.

The pace of the programme was also slow like the previous programme.

The programme structure was a bit 50/50, as they might have interested younger viewers with the music at the beginning, but might have made the older people that this wasn’t a programme about religion and could put them off the programme.

They were discussing a second marriage for divorced people and how hard it is to find a church to marry them. They had a discussion with the girl band and why they are singing songs that have a link to religion and God. They had a chat with Terry Waite, who had been a hostage and also had the agony aunt at the end.

There was more religion in this programme than the previous, and it was all about Christianity.

It was a bit of what I expected, but I thought that they might have had a multifaith conversation, which they didn’t.

Conclusion

I think that this programme was very dull! It started off well with a girl band singing in the studio but the programme became quite a bore really. I’m almost certain that all of my classmates hated the Sunday Morning show and preferred the Heaven and Earth Show.

A Religious Worship Programme

Introduction

In our previous R.E lesson, we watched a religious worship that is called Songs of Praise. This is shown at 5.20pm on Sunday, on BBC1. This last for approximately 35 minutes. I was not in the lesson when the rest of the class viewed this particular episode, so I have had to watch it in my own time and therefore seen a different episode to the rest of my class.

In this programme the presenter, Pam Rhodes, was talking to people and discussing stuff such as great British musician, Elger, Christian unity in the Cathedral in Worchester, 5000 books in the church written by monks, 2 local men taking part in a rowing tournament and Terrorism in the world today. The members and choir of the church also sang about 7 hymns in the course of the programme.

In this programme, there was a few people being interviewed and the rest of the people involved were the choir and the people singing the hymns in the church.

There was quite a lot of music in this programme. At the beginning there was some and there was a lot of hymns being sung.

The audience for this programme was the church and the people watching the programme on the television.

The pace of the programme was quite quick, and they covered about 5 topics on the show.

I think that the target audience of this programme was likely to be older religious people as it had many older people singing in the church and in the choir. I think that they focus on these people as some older people might not be able to get to church and would rather watch the hymns on the television. This might be why they had the lyrics for all the hymns sung.

I do not think that this programme was interesting or enjoyable at all! It was all about people singing in the church and I found this very boring.

I think that some people might not like this programme and think that it was not fashionable because it was more for the older people that couldn’t get to the church in time for the hymns. I also think that some people might not have liked this programme because it was rather old fashioned, they talked a lot about the past and history of the city Worchester.

I think that this programme was quite good in representing the Christian religion and was better in terms of religious output than the previous programmes in the other sections. They had the church in it a lot, they had hymns and they had history about religious people.

I think that that most religious Christians would have liked this programme very much as they had lots of hymns being sung and they talk about many religious issues in the world today as well as in the past. For example, when they were talking about the terrorism, one man said that they should not be killing innocent Afghans, but they should “ kill Satan himself ”.

The people talking about their separate issues were not particularly mentioning God but I think that when the man was saying, “ kill Satan himself ” I think that had a link to God. As God does not want people killing one another, but wants them to kill Satan himself by resisting the temptation of bombing Afghanistan. I also think that the people singing the hymns were reaching out to God and praising Him.

Conclusion

I think that this programme was very boring and although my classmates did not see the episode that I did, but the one that they watched, must surely have been equally as boring and dull.

Religion in Soap Operas

Introduction

In our previous R.E lesson, we watched two soap operas. A Soap Opera is a very popular form of television in which sets of characters are followed as they live they’re lives individually and in their community. We watched them to see their religious content. Most Soap Opera’s tend to base their stories on things like abortion, euthanasia, racism, prejudice, homosexuality, theft etc. We watched Brookside, which is shown three times a week at either 8pm or 8:30pm on Channel 4 and Eastenders, which is shown four times a week at either 7:30m or 8pm on BBC1.

Brookside

Addle, who is 14 years old, has had an abortion. In many religions this is considered to be a sin, as it is considered to be murder. It also interferes with ‘The Sanctity of Life’, but in the Hindu faith, this would be okay as they believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation is when you die and then you will keep coming back to earth in another body until you are pure enough to get to Moksha. Moksha is what Hindu’s believe is heaven.

I think that the producer has chosen this topic as it is quite a well-known thing and comes up quite a lot in people’s lives. The relationship between the family members is very brittle. This is because the mum had had a miscarriage and she really wants a baby and her daughter had got pregnant and then had an abortion. The mum is angry with her husband as he drove her to the abortion. Addles’ brother is very upset about the abortion but the dad seems to be okay about the whole thing.

The minister, who comes to talk to Addle and tell her that she will meet her baby in heaven, is dealing with the whole abortion issue quite well and is comforting her although Addle is very stressed. This is when religion is brought into the soap opera.

I think that the effect on the viewers must have been quite big, as they must have all thought that she would have kept the baby and that she did not want to commit another sin.

In this episode there was quite a bit of religion mentioned as they had the minister coming to talk to Addle. I also think that it was a direct reference to religion.

I don’t think that there were the opinions two different religions in this episode.

The events that occurred in the programme were not faithful to a religious position as she had the abortion and committed another sin, which was sex before marriage, which both the Bible and the Quran say is wrong.

I think that soap operas are the best place to deal with these types of issues as they can occur in many people’s lives and in soap operas, they show how to deal with the situation. At the end of some soap operas they will have a telephone number at the bottom for people to ring if they have been effected by any of the issues in the episode.

Conclusion

I myself do not watch much of Brookside, but I think that this episode was quite good and mot of my classmates had varied expressions on the episode.

Eastenders

Frank, who is married to Peggy and Pat, who is married to Roy commit adultery. This is forbidden in possible every religion known and many people that aren’t very religious also think that this is morally wrong. In the Ten Commandments it says, ‘ Do not commit adultery ’ and also the Quran says, ‘ Resist temptation, permissiveness and adultery is wrong ’. But they can not resist the temptation and commit adultery. In this episode, Peggy and Roy discover Frank and Pat and then Frank runs away.

I think that the producer has chosen this topic, as it is the most well known issue to occur in people’s lives today.

The end result of this was that Peggy and Roy found out what was happening and therefore Peggy breaking up with Frank and Roy breaking up with Roy, although they both got back together again. It ended with them being found out, Frank running away and Roy eventually forgiving Pat.

This must have come to be a big shock for the viewers, as Pat and Frank broke up and had moved on, but they renew their love once again.

I think that what happened was not religious and that there was no religion what so ever mentioned in it. They did not think about the sins that they were committing, but more about what they were going to do if they were found out!

I do not think that the episode was faithful towards any religion as they had done what every religion tells you not to do, which is commit adultery.

I think that religion could have easily been brought into this episode, with a friend who knows what is going on stopping them or referring them to a minister or something like that.

Once again I think that soap operas are the right place to deal with these situations. I think this because many people watch Eastenders and if they see the things that are happening and if they are happening to them or friends then they will know how to handle the situation.

Conclusion

I watch a lot of Eastenders and myself and my classmates enjoyed the episode as they have Peggy and Roy finding out what Frank and Pat have been getting up to.

How a religious/moral issue is

Dealt with in a drama/film

Introduction

Very often, even if a film or drama is not a specifically religious film or drama, religious and moral issues are part of the story line. Issues such as abortion, racism, sexism, euthanasia, adultery, etc.

Four weddings and a funeral

In this film, the issues being looked at are, immorality, marriage and living in sin. These issues are all religious, as they are all going against what is written in the Bible.

Marriage is not going against what is written in the Bible, but in this film, a man is about to get married to a women that he does not love, which is not considered to be right in the Bible. He then does what would be considered to be the right thing in the eyes of God, when he tells the woman that he does not want to marry her, as he loves someone else. This was the right thing to do as in the vows that they take, they are suppose to spend the rest of their life together, not to keep secrets from each other and to love and cherish each other, etc.

Immorality comes into this film when the woman is talking to the man about how many people she has slept with and it actually came up to about 30!

Living in sin comes into this film when at the end when the man has told the woman that he was going to marry, that he does not want to marry her, he asks the woman that he loves to live with him. She accepts and then they live in sin together.

I am not sure that these issues will have a massive effect on the characters themselves, as it vastly depends on whether they are very religious, not partly religious or not religious at all.

If there was religious viewers watching this film, then they would not be pleased with the sins being committed, but would probably be pleased when the man tells the woman that he does not want to marry her, as it was the right thing to do in the eyes of God.

Religion says that immorality and living in sin are both wrong and are sins. In the Ten Commandments it says, ‘Do not commit adultery’ and also the Quran says, ‘Resist temptation, permissiveness and adultery is wrong’.

Conclusion

I think that this film was a great success and did cover the religious aspects of the film particularly well because there was a lot of sins being committed in the film, and I feel they did make the religious viewers understand that it was part of the film story line.

The Vicar of Dibley

The episode of The Vicar of Dibley that we watched during class was the first episode ever. This religious drama is shown on BBC 1 or 2. The religious issues being discussed in this episode is to do with sexism and discrimination. This religious issue as it is to do with the church ministers being sexist towards the new vicar who is a woman. The church has often been accused of being sexist and this is being fully exploited in this episode. The Bible also says that discrimination is wrong, its says to treat all equally.

In this episode, the village of Dibley was awaiting the arrival of they’re new vicar after the death of their previous vicar. Then the new vicar arrives and the are all shocked to find that the replacement of their previous vicar is a woman.

The fact that the replacement vicar was a woman shocked the village people and could had great impact on the viewers that are religious and were watching this episode. They might not have expected a woman vicar and still many religious Christians could not accept a woman vicar, although the Church of England, Protestant and other churches, except for the Roman Catholic churches say that is ok to have a women vicar.

Conclusion

I think that this programme shares the views of many religious people on a woman being a vicar but still is considered to be sexism and discrimination in the eyes of God and many other non-religious people. Some may argue that Jesus did not have any female disciples, but at that time if he did have woman disciples, he and them would have probably been killed. But Jesus did have a vast amount of woman followers and he also treated them equally.

Does television always presents religious people as being “out of touch” with the modern world?

Introduction

I am going to look at examples and evidence from both sides to come to a conclusion on whether religious people in television programmes are ‘in touch’ or ‘out of touch’ with the modern world. When we say this person is ‘in touch’ this means that they are aware of the current affairs in the world and in terms of television, music, sport, etc. A person that is ‘out touch’ with the modern world is a person that does not know much about the current affairs in the world and don’t’ know much about television, music, sport, etc.

The Simpsons – Marge Simpson

My first example of a character that is in touch with the modern world is a character in an animation called The Simpsons who is called Marge. She is a religious person and I will be analysing this religious character to decide whether she is in or out of touch with the modern world. Marge Simpson is one of those religious people that know about the world and I would say she is in touch with the modern world. She not like most religious people on the television, she is popular, knows about the modern world in the terms of music and television, she has reasonable answers to people’s questions that keep them happy. In a paper article I saw in class the writer, has included quotes from people saying that ‘Marge is my candidate for saint-hood. She is a forgiving, loving person, absolutely saintly’. Another quote was that, ‘they actually speak to God’. The producer probably had an idea that The Simpsons should be rather a hell raising family, but instead people are praising them for being very religious.

Peak Practice

My second example of a character that is in touch with the modern world is the new vicar in Peak Practice. I think that this vicar is not what you would call a stereotypical vicar. From the moment I saw the vicar, I didn’t believe that he was a vicar. Most vicars you would see would be dressed like a normal old-fashioned vicar. Although this vicar was still wearing his dog collar, he was wearing jeans and a red jumper over his it and you would not have known he was a vicar if you met him on the street. I think that he is in touch because for one, he went to the pub for the quiz night, and at the quiz night, he knew the answers to all the questions to do with sport, films and music. An old woman had also questioned him in the pub about him drinking and he replied, ‘even Jesus had a drink once in a while’. He had previously asked six local lads, if he organised a church football team, if they would play.

Vicar of Dibley

My third example of a character in a television programme that is in touch with the modern world is the women vicar in the Vicar of Dibley who is called Geraldean. She is the type of vicar that most people in the 21st Century would love to have as their vicar. I think that she is in touch with the modern world because she is a fun, loose type of woman and she also is aware of many things in the world in terms of films, television and music. She even has a picture of an actor next to her picture of Jesus in her bedroom!

The Heaven and Earth Show

My fourth example of a character that is in touch with the modern world is the women vicar from The Heaven and Earth Show. She is similar to the women vicar in the Vicar of Dibley. She is a loose type of person and she is not particularly a stereotypical vicar. As seen in this episode, she was going to a dating agency and taking part in it.

Alpha – Will it change their lives?

This is my first example of a person in a television programme that I think is out of touch with the modern world. His name is Reverend Doctor Steven Shakespeare from a church in Sheffield. We only saw a brief clip of this programme in class, but from what I saw of this Reverend, he seemed to be very dull and boring. He didn’t talk about much apart from the Bible, but you could tell from the way in which he dressed that he was out of touch with the modern world.

The Simpsons – Reverend Lovejoy

This is my second example of a character in an animation, but this time I feel that this character, Revered Lovejoy, is very out of touch with the modern world. He doesn’t seem to be aware of what is fun and good in the world and is a very boring character. He bores many of the people that go to the church on a Sunday and when anyone asks him for advise, he doesn’t seem to care or no what to say.

The Simpsons – Ned Flanders

This is my third example of a character in an animation, Ned Flanders, that is very out of touch with the modern world. He is very cautious on what he or lets his children do, as he thinks that things such as sweets with a devil on the front, are bad for his children. The way he dresses also shows how out of touch and out of fashion he is.

Eastenders – Dorothy Cotton

This is my fourth example of a character in a television programme that is out of touch with the modern world. She is a stereotypical Christian. What I mean by this is that she is always going to church on a Sunday, is very cautious on what she says and does, as she feels that it might have some affect on her religion.

Conclusion

I have come to a conclusion that there will always be at least one out of touch religious person in a television programme. I think that many in touch religious people are being introduced to television programmes, but

there will always be at least one out of touch person as I think that they are there to show that religion is not all changing because many younger religious people are not being old-fashioned and doing as they please.

Overall Conclusion

After 4 months on studying religion in the media, I have noticed and learnt many different things about how religion is acted by the characters and how it is presented on the television to the audience. Religion is not always the moral of many soap operas, but religion, most of the time, comes up in the story line, even if it was not intended to. There are programmes that are meant to involve religion and revolve around it such as religious documentaries and magazines. Films are most probably where you would least expect religion to be in, but believe or not, it is brought up quite a lot.

The actors that are playing the part of a religious person in many cases today are coming across as young, sociable people and there are becoming fewer “old fashioned” religious people in television programmes.