Religion and Media

As we have been examining with our posts since the beginning of the semester the different impacts of media on us as individuals, on our interactions, perceptions, beliefs and on our society we came to one common realization, which explains how we are massively effected with the media channels around us regarding of their purpose or the kind of information that they represent to us.

It is a very broad and varied topic to talk about especially concerning the specialized media channels due to the different functions each one beholds. There are different kinds of those channels ranging from news channels to religious channels and we cannot generalize or equalize their impact on the society. If we were to examine the impressive burst of some of the religious channels, we see that they as well have different functions, purposes and audiences. Ahl Al-Bait or Al-Zahra channel have a total different impact on the people than Iqraa for example. I do not believe that any of these are being biased toward a specific religious sect or that they hold some discrimination because each one is targeting a very specific audience and yet they have a very high dignity and respect to the other religion sects and just because their news does not include them or doesn’t give them justice does not mean they create negative perceptions within their viewers of the others and it does not mean that our interactions with our fellow Muslims are going to be broken or dysfunctional. As a regular viewer of Ahl Al-Bait channel and other various religion channels, I find them extremely educational, and that on its own made my perceptions about who I am as a Muslim grow and it heightened my sense of pride and belonging to the bigger group as a Muslim and an Arab. Those channels do not only improve our perceptions and interactions with one another (Arabs and Muslims) but it also improve our interactions with other religions and cultures for they promote respect and high moral standards.