Book Review: Media Power and Religions: The Challenge Facing Intercultural Dialogue and Learning and Religion across Media: From Early Antiquity to Late Modernity, edited by Manfred L. Pirner, Johannes Lähnemann and Knut Lundby

Two on Religion and the MediaMedia Power and Religions: The Challenge Facing Intercultural Dialogue and Learning. Manfred L. Pirner and Johannes La?hnemann, eds. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2013. 161 pp. $60.95 hbk.Religion across Media: From Early Antiquity to Late Modernity. Knut Lundby, ed. New York: Peter Lang, 2013. 215 pp. $38.95 pbk.The academic study of media and religion is maturing. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) has had a Religion and Media interest group since 1996, the Journal of Media and Religion is now in its thirteenth volume, and the ninth conference of the International Society for Media, Religion, and Culture will take place in Canterbury this summer. The Center for Religion and Media was founded at New York University in 2003 and the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture was founded at the University of Colorado three years later. The Library of Congress catalog lists 111 titles under the heading "Mass Media in Religion" published between 1962 and 2014 for an average of more than two per year for more than a half century.Eighteen of these titles are in German, largely inaccessible to North American scholars. However, with the most recent German book, Media Power and Religions, being published in English, German scholarship in the field has begun to make itself more widely available.A slim volume comprised mostly of papers given at the 10th International Nuremberg Forum, Media Power and Religion, edited by Manfred Pirner, Professor of Religious Education at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and Johannes La?hnemann, retired Professor of Religious Education at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, analyzes ways that media treat Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and presents the predominant ways that these religious traditions understand media theologically.The analyses of Part 1 converge on the need for freedom of expression and freedom of religion and impediments to their realization. In Islamic countries, both freedom of expression and freedom of religion are weak, although University of Erlangen- Nuremberg law professor Matthias Rohe points out that authoritarian governments, and not Islam per se, cause these problems. Consumers of Western journalism are likely to miss this distinction because news reports emphasize Islamic terrorism and oppression of women and ignore normal everyday life. Indeed, consumers of Western journalism are also likely to have the misimpression that Muslims have a history of anti-Semitism that precedes the founding of the state of Israel. Middle East correspon- dent Peter Philipp reminds readers that Jewish citizens in Iran enjoy considerable free- dom even as Iran considers Israel a satanic U.S. ally. This volume blames the news media for distorting the way citizens understand religion. Markus Weingardt, a research associate at the Global Ethic Foundation, gives numerous examples of reli- gions being reported as sources of conflict but ignored in their often successful efforts of negotiating peace and reconciliation.In Part 2, Media Power and Religions moves from highlighting problems in reli- gion news coverage to proposing ways to improve the public's understanding of reli- gion. It features statements from representatives of the three Abrahamic traditions who argue that these traditions can contribute to media literacy. Jewish proscriptions on dishonesty and gossip teach skepticism toward much media content. Islamic rejection of representational art (because it served as a gateway to idolatry) is evolving into judi- cious acceptance of contemporary art and film. And Christian emphasis on inclusion serves as a reminder to pay attention to marginalized peoples. …