The Framing of Fundamentalist Christians: Network Television News, 1980-2000

Abstract

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Having the Last Word, but Losing the Culture Wars: Mainstream Press Coverage of a Canceled Evangelical Benediction

“…Little has been done, for example, to specifically study how evangelicals have been portrayed in news media. Kerr and Moy (2002), and Kerr (2003) engaged in groundbreaking work about how media treat "fundamentalists," a group that has some overlap with evangelicals in the contemporary religious landscape. Their findings indicate that news coverage generally tends to be somewhat cool, or negative.…”

Approaches to the study of media and religion: Notes from the Editors of theJournal of Media and Religionwith recommendations for future research

“…Kerr (2003) asserts that Fundamentalist Christians are portrayed ''in a consistent, mildly negative manner'' (p. 203) while Bantimaroudis (2007) observes that Greek media depictions of Protestants are strongly stereotypical. Chen (2003) argues that news coverage during the 2002 Olympic games in Salt Lake City perpetuates an enduring stereotype of Mormons as ''unduly conservative, rigid, and overbearing'' (p. 45).…”

Religious Involvement, Audience Demographics, and Media Bias

“…First, research suggests that religion may be an increasingly important dynamic in the U.S. democratic process. According to Kerr (2003), American people consistently place a high priority on religion in their lives. In fact, recent Gallup polls (Gallup Organization, 2007) have showed religion is still strong in America, with the rate of Americans reporting it as very important or fairly important to their lives at 84% in 2007.…”

“…One study that has examined media bias and religion is Kerr's (2003) study of Christian Fundamentalists (a strain of Christianity which strongly encourages its members not to separate religion and politics). Kerr analyzed media portrayals of Fundamentalists and found that political involvement (i.e., trying to avoid a separation between church and state) was a primary reason that Fundamentalists received news coverage and may be "the reason news about them is often less than flattering" (Kerr, 2003, p. 224).…”

“…Kerr discovered that Fundamentalists were generally portrayed in the media as "somewhat intolerant, somewhat imposing of their views on others, and somewhat violent when violence was shown: : : : They are also portrayed as being at least a little racist, somewhat patriotic and politically involved, and growing in numbers" (p. 224). Kerr (2003) concluded that journalistic conscience and objectivity may be the underlying issue, as the media, specifically network television news, "has not portrayed fundamentalist Christians neutrally" (p. 227).…”