Christianity and the Mass Media in America: Toward a Democratic Accommodation (Rhetoric & Public Affairs) [Paperback]

Quentin J. Schultze (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2005 | Series: Rhetoric & Public Affairs

The mass media and religious groups in America regularly argue about news bias, sex and violence on television, movie censorship, advertiser boycotts, broadcast and film content rating systems, government regulation of the media, the role of mass evangelism in a democracy, and many other issues. In the United States the major disputes between religion and the media usually have involved Christian churches or parachurch ministries, on the one hand, and the so-called secular media, on the other. Often the Christian Right locks horns with supposedly liberal Eastern media elite and Hollywood entertainment companies. When a major Protestant denomination calls for an economic boycott of Disney, the resulting news reports suggest business as usual in the tensions between faith groups and media empires.
    Schultze demonstrates how religion and the media in America have borrowed each other’s rhetoric. In the process, they have also helped to keep each other honest, pointing out respective foibles and pretensions. Christian media have offered the public as well as religious tribes some of the best media criticism— better than most of the media criticism produced by mainstream media themselves. Meanwhile, mainstream media have rightly taken particular churches to task for misdeeds as well as offered some surprisingly good depictions of religious life.
     The tension between Christian groups and the media in America ultimately is a good thing that can serve the interest of democratic life. As Alexis de Tocqueville discovered in the 1830s, American Christianity can foster the “habits of the heart” that ward off the antisocial acids of radical individualism. And, as John Dewey argued a century later, the media offer some of our best hopes for maintaining a public life in the face of the religious tribalism that can erode democracy from within. Mainstream media and Christianity will always be at odds in a democracy. That is exactly the way it should be for the good of each one.
 

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Quentin J. Schultze is Professor of Communication Arts and Sciencs at Calvin College. He has published a number of books about media and Christianity, including Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Age of Information.

Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Michigan State University Press (November 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870137743
• ISBN-13: 978-0870137747
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,269,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gives Perspectives But Doesn't Draw Any Practical Conclusions, March 20, 2008

By 

Chris Forbes "gmnonprofits.com" (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Christianity and the Mass Media in America: Toward a Democratic Accommodation (Rhetoric & Public Affairs) (Paperback)

Dr Schultze has given a great critique about the typical evangelical's unquestioned trust in technology. He asks, what is all this trust in technology doing to our faith?

That is something I ask myself frequently as I watch churches chase after secular marketing gurus using marketing "technology" to turn their churches into glorified coffee shops and adding enough entertainment production values to their worship service "experiences" that they could make Cirque du Soleil jealous!

We need to use media to communicate in our age, but how is our media strategy changing us?

Schultze says, "Technology enables, but it also disables; in the process of making some worthwhile things happen, it prohibits other good things from taking place-even things that are primary matters of the spirit or habits of the heart. Moreover, the unexpected consequences of new media are sometimes more powerful than the carefully planned ones."

He also develops an interesting thesis showing that the First Amendment's constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, the press, and the right to assemble is really centered on the freedom of religion, not the press as is often assumed, thus showing that in America religion and media have long been linked.

He has a chapter, "Discerning Professional Journalism" that analyzes the press and critiques their "fundamentalist" self-assumption that they are unbiased. The most practical parts of this book relate to journalism.

Of particular interest to me is how he shows historically how modern advertising borrows from Christian evangelical evangelism. In my opinion modern Christian marketing is not merely taking concepts from advertising, as much as it is reclaiming them back from secular sources that have borrowed them. I doubt the author would see ministry marketing exactly the way I do. But I don't need to understand or agree with everything he says to improve my perspective by reading his book.

The book is an important read for any Christian communicator. But whatever your perspective about Christian media is, don't expect the author to draw any conclusions that result in practical outcomes for Christian media producers in this book. This is more of an academic hang-wringing tome. In a couple places I felt he held up the "Anabaptists" (which I read as "Amish") as examples that didn't really connect with me.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious, but it tries to cover too much material, September 8, 2008

By 

B. Adducchio - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Christianity and the Mass Media in America: Toward a Democratic Accommodation (Rhetoric & Public Affairs) (Paperback)

I just finished this book as part of a graduate course that I am taking. I thought it was very informative and well-researched. I also found it to be objective. However, the book attempts to cover far too much material in just 350 plus pages. Everything here could have taken twice as many pages, with more focus and attention to smaller details. Second, I think that Schultze writes for a very well-educated, well-informed audience in communication and religion. However, in my opinion students of journalism and religion, as well as journalists could benefit the most from this book. However, for many it would be hard to read because of the academic jargon. Finally, I was hoping Schultze would discuss his own connection to the media in greater detail. Has he ever worked in a newsroom, radio station, etc? After reading this book, I am not sure.