The Mediatisation of Religion Debate: An Introduction

Within the growing literature on religion and media, a more specific debate has recently developed in relation to the mediatisation of religion. The Danish scholar, Stig Hjarvard, has undertaken leading work in articulating a detailed theory of the mediatisation of religion, arguing that contemporary religion is increasingly mediated through secular, autonomous media institutions and is shaped according to the logics of those media. This special issue is the first extended discussion of Hjarvard's thesis by researchers working across different disciplines and areas of study. This introduction sets out the background and key concepts for this debate, discusses why the mediatisation of religion debate is important for sociological and cultural understandings of contemporary religion, and provides a brief summary of the arguments of the individual articles within this collection.