RELIGION AND MEDIATIZATION Nordic Perspectives Nordic Perspectives This book presents new research on the changing relationship between the media, religion and culture from a Nordic perspective, while engaging with the theory of the mediatization of religion. In contemporary society, news journalism, film and television series, as well as new digital media, provide critical commentary on religion while also enabling new forms of religious imagery and interaction. Religious leaders, communities and individuals reflexively negotiate their presence within this new mediatized reality. In an increasingly globalized Nordic context, the media have also come to play an important role in the performance of both individual and social identities, and in the representation and development of social and religious conflicts. Through empirical analysis and theoretical discussions, scholars from film and media studies, the sociology of religion, and theology contribute to the NORDIC PERSPECTIVES development of the theory of the mediatization of religion as well as to the broader research field of media, religion and culture. Edited by Stig Hjarvard and Mia Lövheim Edited by Stig HjarvardLövheim Stig and Mia Edited by NORDICOM Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research University of Gothenburg Box 713, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden Telephone +46 31 786 00 00 (op.) | Fax +46 31 786 46 55 www.nordicom.gu.se | E-mail: [email protected] NORDICOM’s activities are based on broad and extensive network of contacts and collaboration with members of the research community, media companies, politicians, regulators, teachers, librarians, and so forth, around the world. The activities at Nordicom are characterized by three main working areas. • Media and Communication Research Findings in the Nordic Countries Nordicom publishes a Nordic journal, Nordicom Information, and an English language journal, Nordicom Review (refereed), as well as anthologies and other reports in both Nordic and English languages. Different research databases concerning, among other things, scientific literature and ongoing research are updated continuously and are available on the Internet. Nordicom has the character of a hub of Nordic cooperation in media research. Making Nordic research in the field of mass communication and media studies known to colleagues and others outside the region, and weaving and supporting networks of collaboration between the Nordic research communities and colleagues abroad are two prime facets of the Nordicom work. The documentation services are based on work performed in national documentation centres attached to the universities in Aarhus, Denmark; Tampere, Finland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Bergen, Norway; and Göteborg, Sweden. • Trends and Developments in the Media Sectors in the Nordic Countries Nordicom compiles and collates media statistics for the whole of the Nordic region. The statistics, together with qualified analyses, are published in the series, Nordic Media Trends, and on the homepage. Besides statistics on output and consumption, the statistics provide data on media ownership and the structure of the industries as well as national regulatory legislation. Today, the Nordic region constitutes a common market in the media sector, and there is a widespread need for impartial, comparable basic data. These services are based on a Nordic network of contributing institutions. Nordicom gives the Nordic countries a common voice in European and international networks and institutions that inform media and cultural policy. At the same time, Nordicom keeps Nordic users abreast of developments in the sector outside the region, particularly developments in the European Union and the Council of Europe. • Research on Children, Youth and the Media Worldwide At the request of UNESCO, Nordicom started the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media in 1997. The work of the Clearinghouse aims at increasing our knowledge of children, youth and media and, thereby, at providing the basis for relevant decision-making, at contributing to constructive public debate and at promoting children’s and young people’s media literacy. It is also hoped that the work of the Clearinghouse will stimulate additional research on children, youth and media. The Clearinghouse’s activities have as their basis a global network of 1000 or so participants in more than 125 countries, representing not only the academia, but also, e.g., the media industries, politics and a broad spectrum of voluntary organizations. In yearbooks, newsletters and survey articles the Clearinghouse has an ambition to broaden and contextualize knowledge about children, young people and media literacy. The Clearinghouse seeks to bring together and make available insights concerning children’s and young people’s relations with mass media from a variety of perspectives. www.nordicom.gu.se Mediatization and Religion Mediatization and Religion Nordic Perspectives Stig Hjarvard & Mia Lövheim (eds) NORDICOM Mediatization and Religion Nordic Perspectives Stig Hjarvard & Mia Lövheim (eds) © Editorial matters and selections, the editors; articles, individual contributors; Nordicom 2012 ISBN 978-91-86523-44-2 The Nordic Ministers of Culture have made globalization as one of their top priorities, unified in the strategy: “Creativity – the Nordic response to globalization”. The aim is to create a more visible Nordic Region, a more knowledge-based Nordic Region and a more prosperous Nordic Region. This publication is part of “Creativity – the Nordic response to globalization”. Published by: Nordicom University of Gothenburg Box 713 SE 405 30 Göteborg Sweden Cover by: Daniel Zachrisson Printed by: Ale Tryckteam AB, Bohus, Sweden, 2012 Ale Tryckteam AB, Bohus, Sweden, 2011 Contents Acknowledgements 7 Stig Hjarvard & Mia Lövheim Introduction 9 MediatizatiON, PUBLIC MEDIA AND THE NatiONAL CHURCH Stig Hjarvard Three Forms of Mediatized Religion. Changing the Public Face of Religion 21 Peter Fischer-Nielsen The Internet Mediatization of Religion and Church 45 Henrik Reintoft Christensen Mediatization, Deprivatization, and Vicarious Religion. Coverage of Religion and Homosexuality in the Scandinavian Mainstream Press 63 Marcus Moberg & Sofia Sjö The Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Media in Post-Secular Finland 79 THE MediatizatiON OF SOCIAL CONFLICTS Knut Lundby & Kjersti Thorbjørnsrud Mediatization of Controversy. When the Security Police Went on Facebook 95 Johanna Sumiala Ritualising Death in the Media. Symbolic Immortality, The Immanent Frame, and School Shootings 109 RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND A CHANGING MEDIA ENVIRONMENT Mia Lövheim A Voice of Their Own. Young Muslim Women, Blogs and Religion 129 Ehab Galal Belonging through Believing. Becoming Muslim through Islamic Programming 147 RELIGION AND POPULAR MEDIA Culture Line Nybro Petersen Danish Twilight Fandom. Transformative Processes of Religion 163 Liv Ingeborg Lied Religious Change and Popular Culture. With a Nod to the Mediatization of Religion Debate 183 Index 203 Notes on the contributors 207 Acknowledgements Letterstedtska föreningen and The Department of Media, Cognition and Com- munication, University of Copenhagen, have given financial support for the publication of this book. The Nordic research foundation NordForsk has funded the Nordic Research Network on the Mediatization of Religion and Culture (2006-10). The editors would like to thank all of them for their kind support that has made this publication possible. 7 Introduction Stig Hjarvard & Mia Lövheim The aim of this book is to present Nordic perspectives on the interplay between media, religion, and culture. The book has grown out of the Nordic Research Network on the Mediatization of Religion and Culture (funded by NordForsk 2006-2010) that has proven to be a highly fruitful cross-disciplinary collaboration between Nordic scholars from sociology of religion, film and media studies, and theology. While many of the theoretical and empirical studies emerging from this network have already appeared in a variety of international publications (e.g., Sumiala et al. 2006; Northern Lights 2008; Lundby 2009; Culture and Religion 2011), we have deliberately sought to emphasize a Nordic dimension in the present collection. This Nordic focus should not be seen as part of an exercise in introspection, but rather as an attempt to join the international dialogue on media, religion, and culture from a particular regional perspective. In the last twenty years, research into the interplay between media and re- ligion has become a significant area of academic interest (cf. Engelke 2010) in which Nordic researchers from an early stage have been influential. In 1993, an international conference on the theme “Religion, Media and Culture” was arranged in Uppsala, Sweden. This initiative, taken by a research project with the same name and based at the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University, became the starting-point for a biennial International Conference on Media, Religion and Culture. These conferences have provided a stimulating forum for scholars conducting international and interdisciplinary research in the area, as indicated by publications such as Rethinking Media, Religion and Culture (Hoover and Lundby 1997), Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media (Hoo- ver and Clark 2002), Mediating Religion. Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture (Mitchell and Marriage 2003), Key Words in Media, Religion and Culture (Morgan 2008) and Religion, Media, and Culture: A Reader (Lynch, Mitchell