Private v.Public Religion
Perhaps no development in the sociology of religion is more significant than the shift from institutional religious worship to personal religious practice(Hoover,2001;Roof,1999;Wuthnow,1989).Both types are present in mass media.Some texts focus on specific denominations,while others depict religious practices common to all denominations(e.g.,prayer,faith,etc.).The recent TV programs touched by an Angel and Joan of Arcadia are examples of the latter.The first question,then,is whether Time is giving greater emphasis to similar manifestations of private religiosity.
One reason private religiosity might be growing is that journalists may be treating this type of worship with less skepticism compared with coverage of institutions.While some argue that mass media are often supportive of religion(Silk,1995;Underwood,2001),and that mainstream religious values work their way into journalistic discourse(Schmalzbaur,2002),other studies conclude that reporters often view religious organizations and institutions with greater suspicion(Chen,2003;P.Kerr,A.&Moy,2002;P.A.Kerr,2003;Scott&McDonald,2004).Perhaps this is what Underwood(2001,p.175)had in mind when he said:“The commitment to secularism and modernism runs so strongly in Western media that any concept which smacks of theocracy or intrusion on press freedoms arouses instant hostility”(p.175).
Of particular interest is whether personal religion benefits from the critical tension between the press and religious institutions.This study explores this possibility by comparing visual representations of institutions with those portraying personal religious worship.In this way,greater insight is obtained about whether one religious worldview is emphasized over another by a major media vehicle.
Repetition of Images and Symbol“Flattening”
Another reason for the emergence of personal religion in the media has to do with the proliferation of religious symbols in general.In the present information age,concern is expressed about the democratization or over-reproduction of sacred icons.Boorstin(1962)saw this coming 40 years ago in his classic work,The Image,and Postman(1992)explores it further in technopoly.According to Hoover(2001),“religious symbols,traditionally legitimated by religious doctrine,history,and practice,today struggle to find any particular or special place”(p.56).The cross is a common example of this phenomenon.The icon has been duplicated to the point where few members of the youth culture understand its historical or religious significance.Repeated representations of religious symbols make them even more common or“everyday”in the experience of readers.In this paper,we explore how such repetition is occurring in a major news magazine.The goal is to determine which images and elements of religion are made most familiar by the covers of Time.
The Sacred Versus the Profane:Blurring Distinctions
Increased duplication of religious symbols raises another question about the potential impact of Time covers.If religious symbols are more common,are they increasingly more profane?(see,Eliade,1987)Consider a magazine at a grocery store with a cover illustrating a crucifix.While the symbol is clearly sacred to some Christians,it is appropriated by capital;it is used to sell a magazine that,most likely,is surrounded by other magazines celebrating excess(women,diets,automobiles,or other objects of desire).Because magazine covers combine both secular and sacred representations,the purity of the religious message could be undermined.For example,Haley,White,&Cunningham(2001)found that conservative protestants are often divided on the question of whether the name,“Jesus”should be used to symbolize or“brand”commercial products.A valid issue,then,is whether the depiction of the sacred on Time covers is likely to offend the sensibilities of denominational audiences.
Research Questions and Methodology
The research method of this article is a close-text analysis after the qualitative approaches of Hall(1975,p.16)and Sampson(1993).This approach requires that we treat Time covers as“literary and visual constructs,employing symbolic means,shaped by rules,conventions,and traditions intrinsic to the use of language in the widest sense.”This method seeks to find in the text under investigation“the latent,implicit patterns and emphases”(Id.,p.16).By so doing,we move beyond the counting-method of content analysis(which offers insight into the“explicit”meaning of the text)in an effort to“uncover the unnoticed,perhaps unconscious,social framework of reference”which together shapes the meaning imbedded in these covers.Similar methods have been used to identify dominant themes in magazine covers through interpretive analysis(Pompper&Feeney,2002;Spiker,2003).The following questions guide the research:
1.How is private and public religiosity represented?
2.What symbols are relevant and pervasive,and what do they possibly suggest about the writers and readers of Time magazine?
3.How are constructs of the secular and sacred blurred by these representations?
A decade of Time covers(from January,1995 through March,2005)was examined.Using the search term“religion”on the Time website,we located 33 matches.One cover on the WACO incident was eliminated from our analysis due to its political rather than religious framing,leaving 32 covers for analysis.