Veidlapa Nr. M-3 (8)
Study Course Description
Religion and Media
Course Code
KSK_279
Branch of Science
Communication Theory; Media and communications
ECTS
3.00
Target Audience
Communication Science
LQF
Level 6
Study Type And Form
Full-Time
Study Course Implementer
Course Supervisor
Klāvs Sedlenieks
Structure Unit Manager
Ieva Puzo
Structural Unit
Faculty of Social Sciences
Contacts
Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf@rsu.lv
About Study Course
Objective
To foster awareness of the interrelationship between religion and media.
Preliminary Knowledge
None required.
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge
1.Understanding of different types of communication media, different forms of religion that interact with such media, and theories and concepts related to religion and media.
Skills
1.Capacity to analyse meaning and intentionality of religious content of media products, ability to write papers summarizing and analyzing course content, facility for oral presentations utilizing communication media such as video or PowerPoint.
Competences
1.Ability to apply theories of religion and communication to the analysis of religious media products from different historical and cultural contexts.
Assessment
Individual work
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Title
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% from total grade
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Grade
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|---|---|---|
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1.
Individual work |
-
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-
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Student writing of brief papers responding to readings, class presentations on course topics utilizing media examples, final research paper or group presentation.
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Examination
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Title
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% from total grade
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Grade
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|---|---|---|
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1.
Examination |
-
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-
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Comphrehension of course materials as exhibited in student response papers (33%), group presentations (33%) and final research paper (34%).
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Study Course Theme Plan
FULL-TIME
Part 1
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Religion and media in early human history. Examination of religious function of Paleolithic cave art and goddess figures. The use of art as visual scripture for non-literate people and cultures.
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Oral tradition to written texts. Exploration of how religion operated in early, oral-based cultures, and how the transition to written texts changed the nature of religion, creating “religions of the book.”
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-
Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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The printing revolution. Investigation of how the new availability of books triggered wider literacy and opened space for varying interpretation, triggering the Protestant revolution in Europe and similar challenges to authority in other religions.
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Religion on the Radio. Discussion of how the new electronic media of the 20th century altered religious life, beginning with radio as a new vehicle for religious communication and community in 1920s.
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Religion on Television. Examination of how the new medium of television affected religious life, including the rise of “televangelism” in the USA from the 1950s onward, and the popularity of mythological dramas in India.
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-
Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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"Jesus Goes to Hollywood". Further exploration of the representation of religious themes in the medium of film from the 1980s to the present, focusing on three controversial versions of the life of Jesus: Jean Luc-Godard’s Hail Mary (1985), Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1987) and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004), and the rise of Christian cinema as a distinctive genre of 21st century film.
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Science fiction: escapist entertainment or alternative spirituality? Visions of the future and existential questions in classic science fiction films from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to Andrei Tarkhovsky’s Stalker (1979), and their influence on popular culture and worldview.
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Into the darkness. Religion-oriented horror films such as The Exorcist and vampire representations from Nosferatu to Dracula to the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer showing rising interest in the occult.
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Cult phenomena. Examination of pop culture phenomena that become quasi-religions to their devoted followers, from Star Trek to Harry Potter to The Lord of the Rings.
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-
Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Religion on the Internet. Exploration of the internet as a new vehicle for religious communication and community and the interaction of New Age spirituality and Neo-Pagan religious movements with multiple forms of media, from pagan-themed rock music to films such as The Wicker Man to internet guides to witchcraft and Neo-Paganism.
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Total ECTS (Creditpoints):
3.00
Contact hours:
20 Academic Hours
Final Examination:
Exam (Written)
Bibliography
Required Reading
1.
Selections from Gregory J. Wightman, The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic; selections from E.O. Tyler, “Religion in Primitive Culture;” Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System;” Talal Asad, “The Construction of Religion as an Anthropolo
2.
Selections from Walter S. J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word; Donald S. Lopez Jr.; “Authority and Orality in the Mahāyāna;” Brian Stock, “The Implications of Literacy. Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the El
3.
Klaus Kreiser, “The Beginnings of Printing in the Near and Middle East: Jews, Christians and Muslims;” Koen Goudriaan, “The Devotio Moderna and the Printing Press (ca. 1475-1540);” Mary Kay Duggan, “Bringing Reformed Liturgy to Print at the New Monas
4.
Selections from Tona J. Hangen, Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America; selections from Donald Warren, Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, the Father of Hate Radio; M.C. Havey, “A Master of Religious Media: The Career of Rev
5.
Selections from Jolyon Mitchell and S. Brent Plate, The Religion and Film Reader: “Introduction to the Reader; Part 1: The Dawn of Cinema: Adherents and Detractors;” “Part 2: The Birth of Film Theory: Realism, Formalism, and Religious Vision;” “Part
6.
Selections from Janice Peck, The Gods of Televangelism; Jeffrey Hadden, “Religious Broadcasting and the Mobilization of the New Christian Right;” Howard Davis, “Mediating Religion in Post-Soviet Russia: Orthodoxy and National Identity in Broadcasting
7.
Jolyon Mitchell, “New Directions in the Study of Film and Religion;” Richard Last, “A Style-Sensitive Approach to Religion and Film;” Anton Karl Kozlovic, “Christian Education and the Popular Cinema: the Creative Fusion of Film, Faith and Fun;” Alan
8.
E. Allen Jones, “A Terminator, a Transformer, and Job Meet: Creator-Created Relations in Film and Scripture;” Dan Chiasson, “ANYBODY THERE? Fifty years later, the tedium and the triumph of “2001: A Space Odyssey;” William Lempert, “Decolonizing Encou
9.
Joseph Laycock, “The Folk Piety of William Peter Blatty: The Exorcist in the Context of Secularization;” Wendy Doniger, ”Sympathy for the Vampire;” Susan A. Owen, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” Matthew Pateman, “ “That Was Nifty;” William Rosenberg Sav
10.
Laura Ammon, “Where We Have Gone Before: Star Trek Into and Out of Darkness;” Diana Walsh Pasulka, “The Fairy Tale is True": Social Technologies of the Religious Supernatural in Film and New Media;”; Yo Zushi, “Guardians of the Galaxy: How Star Trek
11.
Selections from Lorne Dawson and Doug E. Cowan, eds., Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Interne, “Introduction,” pp. 1-16, Elena Larsen, “Cyberfaith: How Americans Pursue Religion Online,” pp. 17-22; Christopher Helland, “Popular Religion and th