Giving Satirical Voice to Religious Conflict: The Potentials of the Cultural Public Sphere

Stig Hjarvard, Mattias Pape Rosenfeldt

Abstract

This study concerns the Danish public service broadcaster DR’s television satire and comedy show Det slører stadig [Still Veiled] (2013) and its influence on public discussions and controversies concerning religion. Whereas news media’s coverage of Islam is often criticized for having a negative bias and thereby serving to escalate conflict, the cultural programming of public service broadcasters may provide different representations and enable more diverse discussions. In this study we consider how and to what extent Still Veiled gave rise to discussion and controversy concerning religion in both the general public sphere and in smaller cultural publics constituted through various social network media. The analysis shows that several, very different framings of religion appear in these debates. These debates furthermore involve a significant proportion of minority voices. The analysis suggests that a cultural public sphere may work as a corrective to the political public sphere dominated by news media.
Original languageEnglish
JournalNordic Journal of Religion and Society
Volume30
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)136-152
Number of pages17
ISSN0809-7291
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Nov 2017

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Comedy
  • Satire
  • Mediatization
  • Islam
  • Public Service
  • Conflict
  • mediatization of religion

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