IN THIS ISSUE May 2007 Published by the American Academy of Religion Vol. 22, No. 3 News, Media, and www.aarweb.org Teaching Religion Ways of Truth-Telling in a Wired World ........................ ii Rachel Wagner, Ithaca College News, Media, Deconstructing the Media in Virtual Classrooms ............ iii Claire Badaracco, Marquette University Dolly, Fluffy, and Teaching and Teaching Ethics 101 .............................. iv Kiki Kennedy-Day, American University in Cairo Swimming in the Sea Religion of News .................................. v Whitney Bodman, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary From the Editor’s Desk “Authentic Material”: Ads, Pictures, and Krishna Utensils ...................... v Prothero’s point is that dumb is dangerous, YouTube and MySpace. An emerging trend Rebecca J. Manring, and has truly terrible consequences. is lifelogging, namely, documenting every Indiana University moment of one’s life using audio recorders, Juxtaposed with religious illiteracy, howev - digital video cameras, GPS tracking sys - er, is a popular culture that is suffused with News, Popular Media, and tems, and other surveillance devices. Orientalist Islam .................... vi religious symbols, and a political establish - Rubina Ramji, Cape Breton ment that readily deploys language laden University with biblical references. Wading into this stupefying mixture of ignorance and bliss, With the arrival Teaching Religion, Media, and duly amplified by digital networks beyond Culture in Haifa .................... vii our wildest imagination, are religion pro - of the electronic age, fessors in the classroom. truly profound Michele Rosenthal, “ University of Haifa Tazim R. Kassam With the arrival of the electronic age, truly shifts have taken Spotlight on Teaching Editor profound shifts have taken place in the way Reporting on Religion: A students learn. On the one hand, they con - place in the way Journalist’s View .................. viii sume a burgeoning diet of wireless data students learn. Adelle M. Banks, Religion instantaneously delivered through their lap - N HER ARTICLE “Americans get an News Service tops, iPods, cell phones, and TiVos; on the ‘F’ in Religion” (Mar 7, 2007), Cathy other, this intensely saturated and limitless Grossman of USA Today writes: I data stream of text, sound, and moving Using the news to teach religion thus offers “Sometimes dumb sounds cute: Sixty per - image provides little guidance on how to an opportunity to engage students to think cent of Americans can’t name five of the Ten evaluate its reliability or significance. critically about their own understanding of Commandments, and 50 percent of high ” what constitutes news, and to develop their school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah It is an irony that students, and most ability to distinguish between fact, fiction, The AAR Committee on were married.” She was reporting on Americans, are oblivious not only to the argument, and interpretation, as well as to Teaching and Learning (Eugene Stephen Prothero’s new book, Religious history of religions, but also of world cul - extend their horizons beyond narcissistic V. Gallagher, Chair) sponsors Literacy: What Every American Needs to tures and international affairs despite infotainment. Spotlight on Teaching . It appears Know — And Doesn’t (HarperSanFrancisco: instant access to the knowledge of the twice each year in Religious 2007). world at their fingertips. When students analyze how religion is Studies News and focuses on reported in the news media, how this Prothero argues that although religion plays “News” itself often means little to students. teaching and learning around a impacts public opinion, and how reli - a salient role in national and international In their experience, it occupies the same particular theme, concern, or gious communities also generate and setting. events, Americans are not even conversant virtual space as the World Wide Web, manipulate news media, they get with their own religions history and tradi - CNN Headline News , reality TV, and video Editor involved with the study of religion more tions. His students, for instance, are regu - games. A disquieting example of the meld - actively as seekers, and hopefully pro - Tazim R. Kassam larly stumped by questions such as “Name ing of the visual effects of primetime news ducers, of reliable knowledge. Syracuse University the Four Gospels” and “What is the broadcasts and that of blockbuster movies Golden Rule?” — let alone “What is is the fact that video stores in Canada Contributors to this issue of Spotlight Ramadan?” reported a steep increase in rentals of ter - describe various ways that they have Spotlight on Teaching rorist movies after 9/11 (see p. vi). used the news media as an entry point This isn’t news to most religion scholars in is published by the for students to appreciate the complexi - the United States. But what is interesting is Indeed, technology has advanced so fast American Academy of Religion ty of religion(s), and to acquire religious that it’s newsworthy for Grossman, and, if that students can literally produce their 825 Houston Mill RD literacy. Suite 300 dumb is cute, even amusing. If anything, own “news” or vlogs, and broadcast it via Atlanta, GA 30329 Visit www.aarweb.org Religious Studies News Ways of Truth-Telling in a Wired World Rachel Wagner, Ithaca College sion of religious experience. However, the of the modernist perspective for scholars of may see The Onion as a legitimate source of integration of online news material into my journalism, who have given up “the notion public opinion, it seems imperative that we courses has not been without its headaches. that [journalism] is clearly and unequivocally provide students with the skills to recognize a search for truth.” Most journalism scholars different kinds and qualities of “reporting.” Perhaps the most obvious issue I have today, he says, openly “concede that a set of addressed is the problem of defining “news” In my “Women and Religion” course, I conventions influences or determines the today and the hidden questions about require that students select and critique a selection and interpretation of fact in the authorship, authority, and the interpretation single news story in a bit more detail. For press.” Thus, teaching students about the of “facts” that the analysis of news implies. In each “newsworthy” assignment, students nature of the news means teaching them an informal poll in one of my courses, I must consider why the story they select about the tricky relationship between facts found that only a handful of students think about women and religion has been report - and interpretation in a journalist’s creation of first of print sources when asked where they ed in mainstream media. I ask them ques - a news report. Religious studies has long read the “news,” and predictably most tions such as: Why do you think this issue been concerned with the problem of facts responded that they get their news on the made it into mainstream news? What can and interpretation, so bringing such concerns Internet. Although many expressed a vague you learn about the author that might Rachel Wagner is an Assistant Professor of to the surface in the analysis of the news can sense that different news sources have differ - enlighten your understanding of the Religion at Ithaca College. She wrote a have compelling collateral results in discus - ent biases, they could not clearly articulate author’s views and intentions in reporting dissertation on the humanistic function of sions about the formation of sacred texts how one might recognize what these are. My this story? Why might this story about biblical forms in William Blake’s poetry. Her assumed to be the product of “reporting.” recent interests have centered on religion and students agreed with me that stories drawn women’s role in religion sell papers or draw popular culture. She has written pieces on (online or in print) from national papers like Critical analysis of news in the classroom also readers? This assignment has met with Islam and video games, on Harry Potter the New York Times or from broadcasting raises an interdisciplinary problem: Does my mixed success, primarily because I find that and The Matrix , and has appeared in a companies like CNN, PBS, and the BBC PhD in religious studies de facto qualify me students have great difficulty assessing what Warner Brothers documentary about the should be considered “news,” along with as an instructor of journalistic technique, just a “mainstream” news source might be and film series. print and online versions of mainstream because the topic in a given news article has will just as likely pull material from grass - news magazines like Time , U.S. News and to do with religion? I wonder how my col - roots magazines, local flyers, and the col - World Report , or Newsweek . But these are not leagues in the School of Communications lege paper as from national news outlets. EIL POSTMAN prophetically the only sources that students consult for would feel if I told them that I am teaching They also struggle with the realization that remarked in 1985 in Amusing their news — they also get it from a host of students how to understand the rhetorical news is not news from the beginning, but NOurselves to Death that “we face the Web sites, from discussion boards, even from purposes of different types of journalistic was selected, arranged, and interpreted by rapid dissolution of the assumptions of an personal e-mail. When asked if a blog could writing. Of course, religious studies is typi - somebody with a particular purpose in education organized around the slow-mov - be considered “news,” my students expressed cally an interdisciplinary endeavor, but the mind, usually commercially driven. ing printed word, and the equally rapid some uncertainty, arguing that it depends on question remains how religion professors can One could convincingly argue that the peda - emergence of a new education based on the the journalistic associations and training of be certain that they have attained the appro - gogical problem of assessment of sources is speed-of-light electronic image.” Although the blogger.