Religion in fictional broadcasting

Ailsa Hollinshead looks at representations of religion and how they are produced and received

This article outlines why studying media representations of religion is useful. It provides a highly condensed summary of my three-year research project. It also provides suggestions for ways in which students can do a small-scale version of the study, thus exposing them to an important but under-researched aspect of media studies.

Since the 1970s there has been a growing interest in the ways in which different groups are represented in the media. Ten years ago, in Feminist Media Studies, Liesbet van Zoonen commented, ‘Cultural studies nowadays appears in many different disguises that share among other things a concern with manifestations of popular culture and issues of representations and collective identities, such as national, ethnic and gender identities’ [editor’s italics]. (1994:6). But a look at mass media and cultural studies texts nowadays shows that the representation of religion is missing. It’s not that nobody studies religion in the media; but it tends to come out of either Theology or US Communication Studies departments, with an emphasis on how the representations either ‘assist’ or ‘hinder’ spiritual development. The aim of my doctoral research was to ignore the spiritual assistance that might be given through broadcast media and instead to consider the social consequences in a way that has already begun for areas such as gender, sexuality, disability and race/ethnicity.

Many authors have expressed the arguments for the importance and relevance of media representation so I will not repeat all of them. The following statement from Anthony Smith summarises my own view about the impact of fictional representations:

Our most influential images of authority today derive ultimately from television, usually from television fiction; from this we register at various levels of our minds the status of police, cabinet ministers…; we learn to judge the relative measures of respect we offer to soldiers, priests [my emphasis], business leaders. (1995:4).

Whilst many people of faith have argued that religion is still an important issue in this country, the events of September 11th have forced everyone to think more seriously about religion. One of the key issues that it has raised is the idea of social inclusion and exclusion. Television is a medium where people expect to see themselves represented in some form or another. If those representations are limited or non-existent for some groups, what does it say about their social importance?

John B. Thompson refers to symbolic dislocation, which means that in the modern world people are affected by events which they don’t actually experience but encounter through the media. The decline in formal religious affiliation in the UK is one example of symbolic dislocation. For most people their experience of religion comes through the media, with the most obvious representations coming through fictional broadcasting. If all we know of religious people is based on media representation how does that affect our attitude towards them, especially if the representations are quite limited?

My own research set out to discover what impact fictional representations of religion had on viewers around Scotland - with particular reference to social inclusion/exclusion - and to talk to producers about why they created the characters that they did. Due to a number of constraints I concentrated on terrestrial broadcasting. I used qualitative research methods: a combination of focus groups (which were naturally occurring groups) and individual interviews1. I am convinced that this - rather than questionnaires - is by far the best way of finding out what people think and do, and it provides a model for students to carry out their own small-scale studies. If students can conduct even a couple of focus group interviews with people of different ages and/or backgrounds it should demonstrate some of the factors that affect audience responses. It could also be used as a classroom activity.

Activity
This activity could be carried out by the teacher in the classroom or students could ask each other the questions, either within the classroom or by finding their own focus group. It might be useful, as preparation and a memory-jogger, to draw up a list of all the fictional programmes on terrestrial television in the previous week, using one of the listings magazines. Satellite or cable channels could also be included. It is also important to remember that these are questions about fictional broadcasting, not factual or religious broadcasting.
Question 1:Out of all the fictional programmes you watch, who are the religious characters? Give the programme name and the character’s name.
Question 2:How do you know that they are religious (as opposed to being either a ‘good’ person or an ethnic character)?
Discussion:compare the answers and see if there are any gaps. If so, what are the gaps: e.g. how many of the differences are not religious but denominational (Protestant and Catholic for instance)? How many different religions were identified? Were the characters clergy or non-clergy? What are the differences/similarities between and within the two groups? How well do the representations fit with your own experiences (it might be useful to find out at this point what experiences people have of different religions)?

Findings from my own research

  1. All of the religious characters to be mentioned first came from either soaps or sitcoms and were Christian.
  2. There was a mix of clergy and laity.
  3. Most of the religious characters were not very pleasant though occasionally they would be seen as having a ‘heart of gold’.
  4. They were mostly older women with a habit of quoting the bible and moralising about other people’s behaviour.
  5. Interviewees struggled to think of any non-Christian characters. They eventually referred to ethnic characters as being the same as religious characters. Most non-Christian characters came from programmes that had been shown a number of years ago.
  6. Clergy characters were seen as being prone to temptation (and usually giving in to it) but there was a split amongst interviewees on whether or not this made them more humane and representative of modern clergy or just weak, corrupt and not fit to be in the church. A smaller distinction was made between sitcom and soap clergy.

Activity
Discussion:what explanations can be offered for the findings? Look at each area separately rather than collectively. In particular, think about the different levels of representation for non-Christian religions and what explanations can be offered for the difference. This can be done in small groups with each group feeding back to the main group.

Findings from my own research
Interviews with broadcasters
Producers were interviewed once the audience interviews were completed, and were selected on the basis of responses)2.

  1. Constraints: these were finance, time and planning. How much money a programme had, what their shooting schedule was and how much forward planning was possible. These were closely linked to the need to maintain ratings.
  2. Knowledge of religion: this produced a variety of responses. Some script-writing teams had members with a personal faith, as did some producers, which was brought to bear in the development of characters. For others there was a ‘common-sense’ knowledge of religion, which was based on the idea that we live in a secular country so nobody is really interested in religion and therefore stereotypes are fairly accurate.
  3. Dramatic limitations: again this produced varied responses. Most producers saw religion as something that was tagged on to a character rather than being central to their identity. This view made it difficult to include religion into the wider plot. However, a couple of those interviewed had realised that religious tension within and amongst characters could provide interesting storylines that were not so reliant on stereotypes.
  4. Ethos of broadcasting: this finding drew on interviews with people who had been involved with broadcasting (religious and fictional) for decades. There was a mainly secular view of the world amongst broadcasters and they worked in a mainly secular environment. There was greater interest in cultural diversity (which usually meant ethnicity, in this context) than religion. There was also an assumption that if they had ‘done’ ethnicity then they had ‘done’ religion.

Point 4 could provide the basis for two further activities:

Conclusion
This is a neglected area of media studies and yet it raises many important questions, particularly in relation to social inclusion/exclusion and identity formation. Most of my interviewees who were religious did feel that their religion was treated badly, leading to a sense of exclusion. By exploring representations of religion, students should gain some understanding of the power the media has to shape social attitudes. Finally, it demonstrates the importance and complexity of researching the media in terms of production, reception and socio-political context.

© 2005 Ailsa M Hollinshead

 

1 Focus groups were conducted around Scotland with naturally occurring groups. Half were overtly religious groups and half were overtly non-religious groups. The religious groups comprised four Christian denominations, two Muslim and two Sikh groups. Attempts to interview Jewish and Buddhist groups were unsuccessful though interviews were obtained with individual faith representatives.

2 Obtaining interviews with producers was extremely difficult but the following programmes were covered: Brookside (Channel 4), Coronation Street (ITV), EastEnders (BBC1), High Road (STV), Hollyoaks (Channel 4), Peak Practice (ITV), Taggart (STV).

References

Hollinshead, A. M. (2002) The production and reception of discourses concerning religion in fictional broadcasting. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Glasgow.
Seul, J.R. (1999). ‘Ours is the way of God’: Religion, identity, and intergroup conflict. Journal of Peace Research, 36, 5: 553 - 569
Smith, A. (1995) (ed) Television: an international history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thompson, J.B. (1995). Media and modernity: A social theory of the media. Cambridge: Polity Press
Van Zoonen, L. (1994). Feminist media studies. London: Sage
The following websites are useful for finding out the policies of different channels. The OFCOM website gives details of audience research carried out by OFCOM and its predecessors, the BSC and the ITC. The multi-faith site provides details of different religions, and by typing in ‘religious discrimination’ to the search box, a number of useful articles can be found that are relevant to the exercises as well as providing background information.
http://www.channel4.com/about_c4.html
http://www.itv.com/page.asp?PartID=1145&depth=2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/
http://www.five.tv/accessibility/aboutfive/corporate/businessreview/programming/
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/consumer_audience_research/tv/tv_audience_reports/?a=87101
http://www.multifaithnet.org/