Background: In this critical media analysis essay, you are being challenged to engage with the complicated history
and common practice of identifying and marginalizing new religious movements and/or cults within popular media
or popular society (think politics, law).
At its core, this assignment asks that you offer insight into the broader meanings and controversies surrounding the
emergence, designation, and study of new religions through an analysis of media and mediated representations.
There is no single way to approach this, and you can use your critical media analysis essay to engage a group we did
not cover or one of our class subjects.
While it is essential to unpack carefully a true and accurate account of your chosen subject, this assignment is
ultimately concerned with engaging the consequences and implications of not only how, but why media represents
NRMs the way it does and, in turn, what this tells us about religious normalization and ostracizing.
As you begin engaging your subject and expressions of representation, please keep the following questions in mind:
v How does the media inform our understanding of religion, new religions, and “cults” in America?
v How do mediated representations work to advance the perspective of mainstream society? Why?
v How do new religious movements use media to advance their cause/vision?
v What role does popular culture play in establishing norms that function to legitimate acceptable expressions
of religiosity?
v How is this connected to reifying, by representing, what a society deems normal and/or taboo?
v How, collectively, do the media, political positionings, and legal wranglings work to marginalize
movements?
o For what reason(s) and with what costs (for the group marginalized as well as the dominant group)?
In the end, as a critical analysis essay, you are not only being challenged to accurately describe the nature and aims
of your subject, as well as the meanings and implications of how they have been represented, but also to analyze the
significance of your subject as it relates to religion, religious identity, and religious rights in America.
Necessary Components:
¯ Topic/Subject: Essentially, you may choose any example/subject drawn from the long history of new,
emergent, and alternative religions in the United States, particularly those labeled or identified as “cults.”
Most importantly, you must locate a subject that has been the explicit subject of the media or
popular culture. The subject of your critical media analysis essay can be drawn from our course material,
dedicated to another subject, or to broader discussions/analyses in relation to our class themes. Overall, this
assignment is asking that you explore new religions and our class themes through mediated representations,
questioning how media and popular culture often create, manipulate, and narrativize the nature, trajectory,
and realities of new religious movements, peoples, and beliefs.
¯ Media Response/Example/Caricature: More than simply identifying a topic, you must choose a subject
that has, in some way, been an object of media intrigue or popular culture parodying that contributes to
socio-political ostracizing, religious marginalization, and historical reductionism. Remember, the aim of
this assignment is to engage how your subject has been represented in an effort to tease out the
relationship between religious inclusion and exclusion.
¯ Critical Perspective: You must establish a critical perspective that is clearly developed by a purpose
statement and backed by research-based evidence. This is not simply a history of your subject, nor a
descriptive essay of how it has been represented, but an exercise in applying critical approaches to the study
of religious expressions, positionings, representations, and responses. Meaning: you are not judging, but
exploring and evaluating—using objective, critical, and scholarly perspectives—the costs and
consequences of religious representation.
SHIPLEY, REL 380 – SUMMER 2019
¯ Theoretical Grounding: Throughout this semester, we have both implicitly and explicitly drawn from a
wide variety of theorists and methodologies when it comes to the study of NRMs. In developing your
critical perspective, you must explicitly draw from ONE of our authors who offer theoretical perspectives
or methodological approaches for studying the nature and place of NRMs.
¯ Sources & List of References: In addition to one theoretical source, your critical media analysis essay must
include direct citations from a minimum of FOUR additional sources (for a total of FIVE sources); at
least ONE of which must be a media or popular culture representation. PLEASE NOTE THE
FOLLOWING:
o In general, academic sources—and primarily secondary (or academic) sources—are works that have
been “peer-reviewed,” which means that before they are published, other researchers in the
particular subject field have read them, commented on them, suggested improvements, checked the
data, and determined whether the research is rigorous enough to be published. This is important. It
means that when you read academic sources you can have a level of trust in the data/perspective on
which they are based. It doesn’t mean that academic sources are always “right” since there can be
multiple interpretations of the same data. It does mean, however, that the works meet a certain
standard of expectations, and you can cite them with confidence that they represent generally welldone research and analysis. Examples of academic sources include academic journals and books
published by, primarily, university presses.
o In general, Internet sources should not be used; in particular, Wikipedia will not be considered
citable. There may be particular exceptions to this (e.g., your media example, a site from a specific
movement [please confirm as some are legit and others are quite questionable], an academic site
such as the World Religions & Spirituality Project, or a site published by a religious studies
department or professor or national institution); if you plan to use an online source, please check
with me first.
Due Date: Sunday, June 30 – Final essays must be posted to D2L no later than 11:59 PM.
Requirements: A minimum of four-six, double-spaced pages of writing (meaning, this does not count your
bibliography); 12-point Times New Roman font; one-inch margins; title page; and full citation of your choosing
(e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago), including a works cited or full citation in footnote/endnotes.
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