REL3042S RELIGION AND MEDIA
30 NQF credits at NQF level 7
Convener: Professor A Ukah
Course entry requirements: Completion of any two REL 2000-level courses; second- or third-year status; or permission of the Head of Department (second year students who are majoring in FAM would be given standard HOD allowance to take this course).
Course outline:
Religion’s relationship with media begins with the voice and the text – the written word and the oral tradition of storytelling – as well as with accompanying visual signs. The investment of these means of communication with a sacred power is foundational to both religion and myth. This course will examine some of the foundational elements of oral, written and visual traditions and how the sacred power inherent in media are interpreted and amplified across cultures into new technological forms such as the printing press, radio, film, television and the internet. Religion has become increasingly textual, densely visual, intensely mediated. We will, for example, analyse religion in its connection with films, videos, and music both within and outside Africa; Japanese popular culture (manga and animated movies, or anime); as well as other instances of religion in and through the media worldwide. Further, we will investigate the diverse and complex relationships between religious theory, practice and media and the technologies that enable their transference. Students taking this course are expected to engage with the different ways in which religion is theorised, interpreted and practiced as a medium of communication and the ways religion is publicised, textualised, mediatised and visualised.
Lecture times: Monday 5th period and meridian, Tuesday, 5th period.
DP requirements: Mandatory attendance at lectures and tutorials in all sections of the course. Submission of all work by due dates.
Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%.
