The question of the impact of globalization on religion is fraught - caught between the advantages and the drawbacks. With social media, as well as the impacts of reporting religion, thrown into the global mix, debate over the effects and mediated outcomes become a complex thread linking the superficial reporting of national and international religion-related conflicts, the skewed (mis)representation of religious adherents, especially Muslims (Rane et al 2011), and the scant coverage of positive stories around religious themes.
Social media has enhanced the global spread of religion outside of news and current affairs reporting. Through tweets, youtube imagaries, and websites, news of internal conflicts like in Syria, or anti-government/pro-democracy perspectives, e.g. the 'green wave' movement in Iran, the wider public has been informed of people power.
But media coverage of these issues has all but ignored the significant foundations of religious teachings and values. Not all religions are reported in the same way. It would be interesting to monitor the coverage of world religions and compare the media reports of Islam, Christianity and Judaism with reports on Buddhism for instance. Would there be a difference and why?
