Media Portrayals of Religion: Christianity

http://mediasmarts.ca/diversity-media/religion/media-portrayals-religion-christianity

Media Portrayals of Religion: Christianity. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/diversity-media/religion/media-portrayals-religion-christianity

Basically, this article states that there are three types of "Christians" that are portrayed by mass media. "Christian Extremists", "fallen Christian", and "liberalizing young Evangelical." Christian extremists are shown as crazy and weird with extreme views and beliefs, the "fallen Christian" is someone who used to be a traditional Christian and have traditional Christian morals but ultimately lost these qualities through some sort of temptation or sin. The "liberalizing young Evangelical"  characters are 

young Christian Evangelicals presented as favoring progressively more liberal positions on combative social issues. 

"Edward Caudill, professor of journalism, discusses how this stereotype appeals to common mass media values that are not necessarily compatible with a responsible portrayal of religion. Stories with a high potential for conflict and drama are crucial for generating profit and retaining readership of newspapers or viewership of television shows." 

"Christians are often represented in media as intolerant, racist or even violent – not because these assertions are true, but because they allow conflict to be presented more easily."

"An example of this type of stereotype can be seen in The Shawshank Redemption, where the prison warden, who mistreats prisoners, also distributes Bibles and recites Biblical verses to the same prisoners he abuses. His Christianity is associated with his tyranny; he is portrayed as a radical Christian."

This article is important because it portrays the main arguments against wrong and misleading representation of religious people in media. TV shows such as Glee and films such as The Shawshank Redemption present the different stereotypes that media portrays of religious people, and more specifically, Christians.