Religion, Media and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Religion, Media and Ethics - Essay ExampleMedia ethics as such is a complex subject, as it is formulated on the basis of the concurrent culture, economy and national policies.It has been observed by a number of researchers that the media symbolizes societal values. Slinger (1983) has mentioned a number of examples in which media comes up with advertisements which prompts the views to connect the product being advertised to societal values specific to the viewers. One important value that a someone relates to is his personal beliefs and ghostlike beliefs. Its generally considered that the popular programs in the secular media do not have religious intentions. Considering the recent development of secularizing of religious earthise sponsored by religious organizations, the identification of religiously persuading content becomes difficult. Programs and specifically labeled content dealt by religious media are the ones which are bracketed as of the ones which settle the public rel igiously. However, there are arguments that this is not the case. Mark Pinsky (2001, p.5) observes that he found God, faith and spirituality in abundance on The Simpsons.Jana Reiss (2004, p.xii) claims that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off nonsuch are two of the most religious programs on network TV. These arguments suggest that cartoon programs and other popular programs may also be considered as religious.I agree with this argument. The earlier argument that only religious media can contain religious content is based on the assumption that religion is associated with religious institutions and organizations. Schultze (1990) has argued that being religious does not mean belonging to a religion but its a way of life with its own world view. Anything which would influence this world view thus must be considered religious persuasion. Thus there is no wonder in Pinsky finding spirituality and god in the cartoon