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The Handmaid's Tale is a novel by Margaret Atwood that has won numerous awards for its frightful dystopian imagery. It was recently adapted for series television, an adaptation that has led some to see beyond the confines of the printed word. Columnists for a number of newspapers and magazines have suggested the television series provides insights into contemporary politics and religion. This study examines the way these essayists wrestled with various interpretations of the show. Some writers based their fearful reaction to the show on the Trump administration. Others, though, scoffed at this interpretation and seemed to enjoy doing so. In this study I examine how these dissonant interpretations might raise very good questions about how scholars think about media, religion, and fear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017 Nike, Inc. announced the launch of a new product, a pro hijab. Journalistic coverage of this event allows for analysis of how news reporters balance their view of religion with predispositions to cover other important elements, such as women in sport, and the growth of corporate power. Through a critical discourse analysis, the researcher discovered reporters did not manifest strong Islamophobia or patriarchy in their coverage and that they rarely questioned Nike's corporate power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how mainstream news media reported the withdrawal of a popular pastor from the 2013 Obama inaugural ceremony. Louie Giglio was originally chosen for a role in the event but relinquished his position when focus was placed on a sermon he once delivered about homosexuality. Analysis of framing and sourcing of the stories raises serious questions about the role media played in reporting about this skirmish, which is clearly part of the larger culture wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silk (1995) proposed in Unsecular Media that journalists operate with a limited series of topoi and that these are borrowed from religion. Silk thus claimed when journalists write about religion, they do so in a way that ultimately supports religious values. In this study, I apply topic analysis to recent news coverage of Jesse Jackson's marital infidelity to determine the extent to which the topos of hypocrisy was employed and whether this employment supported or challenged a religious as opposed to secular world view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]