Customer Reviews

Sex, Religion, Media

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The editor, Dr. Dane Claussen, does a fantastic job finding a wide range of case studies that discuss the three different topics. Overall, I thought that this book was very interesting and a must read for students in media, religion, and sexuality. The only study that I felt was missing is the relationship between atheism and the media. Very good, overall.

A "valuable contribution to the literature...."
"He [Claussen] concludes with a thoughtful essay"
"This book does an admirable job of covering the subject and covering it well. Both casual readers and scholars who specialize in religion and the media will find something of interest. The book is also appropriate for use in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses on media and society and religion and popular culture. Some chapters could also themselves to use in media history, film studies, rhetoric, media effects, and communication research courses."
"There are...unexpected gems. These include Lisa R. Grunberger's 'Bernarr Macfadden's "Physical Culture,"' Anton Karl Kozlovic's 'The Whore of Babylon, Suggestibility, and the Art of Sexless Sex in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah,' and Shelly Arsneault's 'Morality Politics Associated with the Abstinence-Only Sex Education Sought as a Remedy to Welfare Dependency."
"Particularly noteworthy, from a theoretical perspective, are Robert Mendenhall's use of Reinhold Niebuhr's theory of Christ and culture in his study of Donald Wildmon's organization and its practices, Natalie Jo Brackett-Vineyard's used of the rhetorical theory of Anthony Weston in her study of media coverage of Wildmon, and Philip J. Bakelaar's used of William Gamson's 'issue culture' perspective to examine conservative and liberal rhetorical strategies in the debate over homosexuality are particularly noteworthy."

"Perhaps the trwo most valuable studies in the collection are Brian K. Simmons' 'Media Cultivation and Perceptions of Sexual Morality in Church of Christ Adolescents,' which is based on the author's analysis of survey data from 814 United Church of Christ teens, and Randal A. Wright and Mark D. Ogletree's 'Family, Peers, Religiosity, Electronic Media and the Risk of Adolescent Sexual Activity,' based on survey data from 467 Texas high school students."
--Judith M. Buddenbaum, Colorado State University; co-editor, Journal of Media and Religion

"A rich collection that does much to lay out the range of work in the field. Claussen demonstrates a keen sense for the issues in this collection that includes a broad cross-section of method, theory, and writing style . Well structured, engaging, entertaining, and thought provoking. It would serve [as] a substantive reader on the topic for an academic audience or as a text for senior/graduate level students in an appropriate course."- Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

"A superb integration. [This] book is an unsurpassed reference source for sociology of religion. I will begin using it immediately in religious studies classes and in religion in media classes."-Allen Podet, University of Potsdam

THIS BOOK HAS BEEN AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK SINCE NOVEMBER 2002