Media portrayals of religion and the secular sacred: A longitudinal study of British newspaper and television representations and their reception

The project addresses two themes: ‘Religion, media and the arts’, in particular the under-researched empirical study of media representations of religion; and ‘Meaning, defining and being’, that is, how the media continue to shape assumptions about the nature of religion, and how religious and secular beliefs, practices, values and interests continue to work themselves out in the context of the media. The project will draw on an existing data resource - created in 1982-3 as part of an 18-month study, ‘Media Portrayals of Religion and their Reception’ including an audience reception study, an analysis of television media and an event analysis of the response to the 1982 papal visit - and add to it to facilitate a longitudinal and comparative study from data gathered in 2007-8. In contrast to the dominance of the Christian church in the media portrayal of religion in the 1980's, research conducted on the twenty-first century British media will, we suggest, reveal very different issues, priorities and assumptions – about faith communities and interfaith encounter, the resurgence of religion in public life, the relationship of Islam to the global ‘war on terror’, the intersection of religion, ethnicity, gender and race in the formation of British identities, spirituality outside the church and the impact of new age ideas and alternative rituals and therapies.