1. Teen TV
Religion

2. Religion and the Media
• Media functions as
portal/gateway to
other religions
• Religion functions as
“attraction” for media
• Religion is part of
reflecting society –
enters fictional/reality
context
• Religion utilizing media
as messageboard

3. Which religions do we encounter?

5. Teen TV “Gods”

6. Multicultural USA?

7. Gateway…?

8. Trying and Failing
Supernatural
“Hammer of the Gods”
5:19;12:41

9. Religion an Teen TV

10. Religion utilizing Teen Media

11. Making ‘Belief’ on TV
• Renewed cultural conservatism  Religion
• Virginity Pledges (teen sexuality) linked to religion
• Abstinence programs funded by federal
government ($1 Billion)  religion, teen
sexuality, and society
• Secular world connects to religious nature of US
social structure and thereby media
• Teen Media depictions of religion and abstinence
are still extremely rare

12. Teen TV for Female Audiences -
A Gendered View on Representation and Virginity Pledges
Positive Deviance

13. “I, _____________, promise to abstain from sex until my wedding night. I want to reserve my
sexual powers to give life and love for my future spouse and marriage. I will respect my gift of
sexuality by keeping my mind and thoughts pure as I prepare for my true love. I commit to
grow in character to learn to live love and freedom.”
Sex Respect, Parent Guide, p. 16
“Recognizing that abstinence enables me to experience:
Freedom from: worry, guilt, pregnancy, pressures to marry before I am ready, abortion,
sexually transmitted diseases, being used by others, and the bother and worry of
contraceptives, and
I make a commitment to myself, my family, my friends, my future spouse and my future
children to be sexually abstinent from this day forward until I enter into a marriage
relationship.”
Choosing the Best LIFE, Student Workbook, p. 44

14. National/Ethnic Environment

15. Real Religion?
Positive Deviance or
Rate-Busting?

16. Television Fandom can be like Religion…
• Personal and group
generated interactions
with media texts can be
similar to those of spiritual
and religious believers
• Behavioral patterns,
traditions, and rituals
provide similar stimuli to
participants as religious
practice

17. 7 dimensions of “religion”
• Ritual: Forms and orders of ceremonies (private and/or
public)
• Narrative and Mythic: stories that work on several levels;
often narrative provides a complete and systematic
interpretation of the universe and human's place in it.
• Experiential and emotional: guilt, awe, mystery, devotion,
liberation, bliss
• Social and Institutional: belief system is shared; often rules
for identifying community membership and participation
• Ethical and legal: Rules about human behavior
• Doctrinal and philosophical: systematic formulation of
teachings (intellectual)
• Material: ordinary objects or places that symbolize or
manifest the sacred or supernatural

18. Fandom shifts with its contexts