Religion in the Media Age

Looking at the everyday interaction of religion and media in our cultural lives, Hoover’s book is a fascinating assessment of the state of modern religion. This revised second edition now looks at the digital age, ＂new media＂ and the significant role of social media on religion today. While the sheer volume and variety of information traveling through global media changes modes of religious thought and commitment, the human desire for spirituality also invigorates popular culture itself, recreating commodities - film blockbusters, world sport, politics, and popular music - as contexts for religious meanings.

Drawing on research into household media consumption, Hoover charts the way in which media and religion have continued to intermingle and collide in the cultural experience of media audiences. This second edition of Religion in the Media Age is essential reading for everyone interested in how today’s mass media relates to contemporary religious and spiritual life.

Stewart M. Hoover is Professor Emeritus of Media Studies in the College of Media, Communication, and Information, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he funded and is Director Emeritus of the Center for Media, Religion and Culture.