Custom «Media Religion and Culture» Essay Paper Sample

Media plays a vital role in increasing the level of awareness across the globe. The present awareness of immigration across the globe is the result of media either it is through TV, internet, newspapers, magazines, or some other source of information. Media's role in imparting the knowledge about cultures, histories, religions, traditions, festivals is also vital. Along with hundred of benefits of media there are some negative points which comes in the court of media. Presently all the nations are the victim of the media war because it is media which is going to delineate right as wrong and wrong as right and vice versa. Media's longstanding struggle is also appreciable when we have to see its struggles in the areas where the rights of a particular community are not accepted and the communities or groups have to suffer a long state of discrimination. So media is also a voice of human rights for example if we see the history the awareness about war of racial discrimination in US, the awareness about the basic rights of Kashmiris in Pakistan, and the awareness about war of Tamil in Sri Lanka is the result of media's struggle.

The element of "immigration" in US has changed not only the landscape of America rather it played a vital role in the change of the environment of the whole globe. Media has iterated this thing again and again that the very cause of this changing scenario is the result of Muslims in US and the admittance of Islam by American nationals. Kaya in 2005 said that there is no information exact number of the Muslims and according to media estimation there are round about 7 to 8 million Muslim residents in US. In US the Muslim community is comprised of a diverse sort of population from different nationalities and in media it is reported that according to survey the Muslim community is highly educated in US and round about 49% of the people hold Bachelor's degree. Media has depicted the landscape of Muslims in US by showing full information about the Muslim community. There are now more that 3000 mosques in United States of America. According to Wuthnow and Hackett two third of the mosques are developed after 1980 and it indicates that most the Muslims in US are recent immigrants.

Media has shown the image of Muslims as marginalized or as a trivial one i.e. which is of no importance. The reason for this statement is in US Islam is being considered as an unknown religion because in America the religion of Holy Christ or Christianity is in its full domination. The history and media represents a highly suffocated relationship of Muslims and West and these relationships have created a negative image of the Muslim community in the heart and mind of other religious communities across the globe. Media's representation of longstanding enmity, between Muslims and Christianity in terms of Crusades, intervention of Western intruders in Muslim areas and Colonialism, has also created the negative impact of West and this negative impact also changed the mind of Muslims that a loving and peaceful nation has turned to terroristic or aggressive attitude. Said in 1997 says that media's role and role of "Orientalists" in presenting a vague image of Islam and Muslim community has made the Muslims a suspicious creature which can be dangerous for West and United States.

Media is an instrument which is vital in terms of presenting the stories of past years and it serves as a hard disk of a computer which has saved a lot of data that can be used at any time so the data in the memory of media is not only helpful in the war of media rather it is also helpful to understand the past mistakes and after analysis of these mistakes one will be able to adopt the remedial measures for a prosper nation. The historical examples show this side of the face of media for example the Muslim infiltrations in the areas of Non-Muslims, either in terms of war or in terms of aggressive acts, forced the people to take Muslims as suspicious. Considering this the researchers said that

This thing has created distrust between the nations and even it also distorted the social and cultural environment of America due to the bad relationship of American Muslims and other religious communities in US. (Armour 2002, Armstrong 2002, Said 1997)

The distrust is the result of mere ignorance because both Muslims and Non-Muslims are viewing each other without sanity. Charles Kimball says that this ignorance is not the cause of lack of education rather it is due to the concept which people have in their minds is altogether incorrect. So Charles is criticizing the thinking of the people. Kimball says media is the one which is representing wrongly with its sensational statements and media is only the advocate of extremists so media represents those ideologies which represents a small group in a community or religion and is not the voice of whole nation or religion. So media's this face is going to create a horrible anarchy in the world and this thing also produce misunderstandings across boundaries. Both consider each other as their enemies rather all the religions are advocating peace while from the very concept of Trinity of Christianity it is evident that Christianity's basic aim is peace but for the last few decades media presented other religions as terrible on the basis of the actions of few groups and forced Christians to fight against them and this thing has shown the followers of Christianity as brutal rather its not the case. So when Muslims have to see such representation of Islam they consider it unfair and based on historical rivalry of Muslims and Christians. So it's the obligation that:

Those who work in the media could also benefit from experiments with fresh approaches that engage a broader and more nuanced range of voices, thereby promoting dialogue, contextual analysis and in-depth reporting to create humanizing portraits rather than demoralizing public arguments. (Meena Shrify-Funk, 86)

Religion is major element in creating boundaries across the globe and these boundaries are even found in the map of a country also e.g. we can see the different areas based on different sects like in Islam the Sunni, Wahbia and Shia sects are most common same is the case in Christianity the popular sects are Catholic and Protestant. Media represents the ideas of extremist groups in a more efficient way in order to make their channel of information more important in the society or in order to get fame. The boundaries which are taken into account in terms of religion are not fixed rather they are more dynamic and these boundaries are changing in a brisk pace due to the migration of a diverse sort of religious community in different areas of US, Australia and across the globe. US is considered as a protestant country but in media also presented a lot about Judaism and Catholics and media has represented these two sects as the most prominent in the mainstream of religions in US. The reason for this is media has presented here the true picture of Judaism which is a result of the immigrants of Jewish ethnicity and now it is not considered as a strange one.

Same is the case when we think about India and Pakistan that media is playing a vital role in representing the images of both sides in a wrong way and it resulted in a long enmity between the two sates one (the advocate of so-called democracy) and other one ally of America in war against terrorism. Media's representation of India is quite true either it is on TV or some other source of information and the recent image of Indian Army, on Wikileaks by Julian, is also horrible and in these secrets Indian Generals are being called as the animals or brutal with no sense and humanity. India the follower of Hinduism is busy in killing the innocent people of other religions either they are Christians, Muslims, Sikh or belonging to some other religion. Indian media is representing the image of its country in a more positive way but the black deeds of India are not hidden from international media. The brutal riots of Indian Arm in Gujrat, in which so many innocent people were killed just because they were Muslims and on other occasion the killing of Christians and Sikhs, were presented by international media more beautifully in order to awake the international community that how brutally and forcefully the rights of the nations are being ignore.

The reason which the media has stated that why Islam is being considered as a problematic religion is that the people residing in a country for centuries consider Islam as an alien or strange religion. Because most of the people don't have awareness about the preaching of Islam in its true sense as stated in the media rather media has tried its best to show Islam the religions of frustrated one and dissatisfied people. Instead of all that Muslim immigrants are increasing in a linear fashion or radically across the globe. Media has provided the information that most of the African Americans are accepting Islam in its true spirit. The reason for this is perhaps the concept of equality in Islam because in Islam there is no difference between white and black rather all are of the same status except the difference which exists due to good deeds. One who is more pious is considered as most respectable in eyes of God and the man with black deeds will be punished by Him. Media has written this that it is very difficult for Protestant people to accept other religion but on the other hand Catholics and followers of Judaism have the inclination to accept Islam or some other religion. Media presents that the Jews and Catholics are considered as a part of the same tradition or Christianity but it is not so in case of Islam. The discriminating role of Islam in media has made more problems for the religion of Islam and especially in a country like US where the words of media forced the government in defining that who is American and who is not. Interviews of different people by media show that in US religion is an important part of America because a European can easily get the nationality of America rather a man from a Muslim country.

In media everyone is well aware of the US policy against war after 9/11 and the enactment of this policy is also the result of the religious and ethnic differences. Media's representation of secular groups results in the acts of terror or aggression. Media has described well the role of influential groups in a nation. The influence of stronger one is the cause of problems and this dominant attitude resulted in a vast difference between nations. The ultimate result of dominance and misinterpretations of media results in terrorism. Because each and every time one side of the picture is seen and the other one is neglected that what actually is going to be happened behind the cutter. These differences occur because of the difference of ideology or religion. One of the examples which are a difference of race is very famous in America i.e. the war of black and white. Another example is of Babry Mosque of Muslims is a hot issue in South Asia which shows the power of influential or dominant groups. Media's role is vital in all its spirit either it is in war or it is in peace. After 9/11 in media the desire of war against civilizations was considered vital and the very base of this war is religion i.e. once again the war between Islam and Christianity. The result of this war is nothing except frustrations and killings of innocent people. Actually this is a war of survival because no one is fighting for the sake of sacred deeds rather for materialism. Media has iterated this thing again and again that only solution to terrorism is war but according to my views war is mere a story of bloodshed and nothing else and the only solution to this act is the table talk so it is the obligation of media that to hear the voice of the opponents and must try to resolve the issues.

The role of TV as media is rather more positive because the governments in different nations try their best to use it for positive purpose. As in most of the nations the corruption has become a part and parcel of the culture and people have to adopt different black deeds in order to earn money. Different programs are being arranged in order to show the unethical and unreligious deeds of different communities which make the nations as suspicious one. The recent examples of corruption which are being highlighted in media are enormous in volume but if we have to see the issue of RPP (Rental Power Plant) in Pakistan and the issue of Hajj which is a religious issue (Pilgrimage to Mecca) in which Government Officials have charged too much rents of residence. The issue of Universal Church in Brazil is also a prominent religious issue highlighted by media when Church started its involvement in media and politics after purchasing a TV channel in 1990 and main purpose behind all that was to collect millions of dollars as quoted by Birman and Lehmann:

The Church in their view is merely a vehicle for the enrichment of Macedo and his cronies at the expense of the ignorant poor who naïvely believe in their cures and their promise of riches, and it seems indeed that the Universal Church does collect millions of dollars every week, with which to finance its TV network, its building operations, and the salaries of its pastors and employees. (Birman, Lehmann)

So people came to know all these issues through media or TV channels. Further media plays a vital role in presenting the cultures of different nations in their wider sense e.g. the representation the festivals which held in different countries and nations throughout the year. The role of TV is vital in the sense it did its best in awakening those civilizations which were leading their lives in oblivion. Now through media those nations are also busy in protecting their culture, traditions and basic rights. Media is a sort of intruder in the lives of the people and this intruder forced the communities towards basic knowledge of their life style, religion and rights. But there are some negative impacts of the TV media which it is representing with great courage and cleverness. Media has represented the women as a showpiece in each and every culture and trying to spread the sense of vulgarity or sexuality across borders. Rather in most of the religions especially in Islam Women has got a very respectable status. Women on media are being used in order to sell commodities with their tights and other dressing styles. Janice Winship writes about ads in media as:

In ads as elsewhere, femininity is contradictorily constructed. Ideologies of 'motherhood', 'domesticity', 'beauty', 'sexuality', and 'feminine independence' as they are cut across by an ideology of the free individual, are all separately and sometimes jointly mobilized and constructed anew. In this extract, however I want only to consider some elements of an ideology of sexuality. (Janice Winship)

Janice is talking about the vulgarity of the media in its full sense. The ideology of sexuality is very dangerous for any community and it does not matter to which religion or race it belongs. Most of the programs on TV are not showing the culture of a nation in its true spirit rather they are busy in distorting the shapes of real cultures and religion. One will judge that even there would be some people who will be denying directly their religion in implied meanings that they were saying themselves the true followers of Christianity, Judaism or Islam but they were showing themselves as the hypocrites and media will be supporting them in its true spirit. The cultural programs of media are not the delineation of the true culture of a social group rather these programs will be more sensational and lacking the true representation of a group. Media shows spinning tactics and the spinning tactics are termed as that to represent the real things in distorted way and vice versa. Media's role in finding the positive aspects of an individual, religion, culture, social or ethnic group and a nation is not effective rather in most of the countries media remains always busy in finding out burning news which will add a business value. For them their business is everything and remaining all is trivial.

Electronic media has done its well in presenting the Biblical interpretations. With the advent of communication technology the change in the media means is vast and writing culture has also grown well. One of the major sources of information for general public is the printing press which is utilized for writing but now with the advent of electronic media the scenarios have changed altogether because with the use of electronic media the major change is the use of paper which is abolished in case of electronic media. Electronic media is the core way to represent the religious ideas and social culture of a given group. On electronic media the conservative sort of people are interpreting Bible and they don't have too much scholarly approach in presenting the true spirit of Bible as quoted by Thomas:

The most powerful interpreters of the Bible in electronic media are conservative evangelicals and pentecostals, most of whom have little or no scholarly training. In my judgment, the interpretation of the Bible in the present world of electronic media is a capitulation to American media culture and is profoundly flawed in ways that do not maintain essential continuity with the tradition. The new culture that has developed with electronic media has become the norm for Biblical interpretation.

The electronic media is a more horrible one due to its one aspect because the information on electronic media is easily available across the globe and any unethical action against anyone can be the cause of severe problems. One of the recent examples of an unethical issue on Facebook is evident when someone has drawn the pictures of Prophet of Islam and this thing also created a severe enmity between Muslims and Christians rather on the other side Muslims also show their great reverence for Holy Christ. But electronic media is more beneficial in the sense that one can easily read the material about the culture of a given community or social group.

In media's voice it is evident that the nations are worried about different religions and cultures because of their own individual identity because the assimilation of other cultures and religions is posing a severe threat to the very existence of their own traditions, cultures and religions. So the religious or social groups think the increasing number of a particular or some other group as a threatening one. Media presents in US other groups as extremists, fundamentalists, terrorists and the phrases like that.

So we can conclude with respect to certain obligations of media which media is not performing occasionally. It is the responsibility of media to find out the factors which can be good for the humanity or mankind. Instead of enhancing the hatred among nations the element of unity and brotherhood can be enhanced. Instead of introduction of vulgar ideas the positive and more informative ideas can be shown in writings or in films and on internet. Instead of merely explaining a story with spicy context it is the obligation of media that to separate the wrong and right honestly. In case of TV journalists are the key identities to represent their society. So the very slogan "freedom of press" does not mean that to create a situation of havoc and kill the innocent one just for the sake of some pennies. This is the result of competition in the world of media that for the creation of huge sums of revenue the journalist and media executives don't mind to present black as white and white as black. All the above scenarios show the media workers as the paid workers of the opponents. Image building is one of the most difficult objective for media that to conform to the projected mission as told in the beginning of a media agency. So it's the obligation of media to present every thing in its right direction rather than of accumulating money using wrong tactics.