Introduction
As directed by the project of modernity, media is presumed by the secular narratives as the agent of social change. ( Deacy, C. & Elisabeth, A. 15). It is actually suppose to be the intermediate between pre modern and modern, should not be oppressive but free, egalitarianism is considered to hierarchical, tyrannical to democratic, it should also be religious rather than being secular and finally should decease from the background information to enlightened. The narratives originated fro Europe helped in transforming the TV channels from states to the markets. This move was strongly opposed by the Muslims in the Arab Islamic world and preferred it to remain very critical to secular narratives of media. Despite this, they remain supportive to professional acts and etiquettes. Because of the two thoughts, generally the Arab Televisions and to be specific, the Islamic religious channels have gone as far as developing their own Arab Islamic narratives. This paper will entirely consist of the interface of media on religion, more specifically, the cult of star wars and the jeddism. One cannot ignore the role of media which it has played as far a s the background of the two religions are concerned. There is a big gap which exists between the two religions more so as the media depict them.
As depicted by the media, Jediism is a religion which is generally based spiritual ideas as well as the philosophical beliefs. This type of religion is more selected and considered as most alternative. This was according to 2012 census of England and Wales in the e-mail campaign of tongue-in-cheek.( Hume, L. & Kathleen, M. 78).However, this religion was not recognized by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It was ignored for many years with the assumption that it was undergoing a transitory period. Furthermore, jedism was recognized by the Statistics New Zealand but with a condition of it being combined with some other big religions such as The Church of Elvis" and "Rugby, Racing and Beer. This was because it had no enough number for it to be declared a full religion.
The attention of Scientologists of religion was highly attracted by this act and was once analyzed by a sociologist Adam Possamai as hyper-real religion.( Deacy, C. & Elisabeth, A. 35). As depicted by the media, this type of religion has no founder or central structure. This religion was found by two brothers Daniel Jones and Barney in the year 2008.They believed that according to the 2001 UK census, Jediism was recognized as a religion since there were more Jedi than Scientologists in Britain by that time. Statistically, according to the figures 176,632 which are according to the 2012 census released in England and Wales belonged to Jediism religion. This was the most alternative faith and overall, it was seventh. But the same report had it that the majority of the respondents claimed this faith as a joke.
When the Racial and Religious Hatred Act was being drafted, an amendment was put forward that the Jedi knights was not given any protection. Later on, the amendment was lifted. The person who proposed this said that defining religion in terms of legislation was very difficult. The founder of the International church of Jediism in 2009 was removed from a Tesco Supermarkets in Bangor; the reason was being refusal to remove his hood on a religious basis.
While discussing the cult of wars and the media, it is quite clear that there is a distinct difference between cult and mainstream media. Just to begin with, a certain type of film known as the film pink flamingos is always known or associated with very disgusting scenes. Consequently very small amount of people are attracted by this movie. Because of the dirty and very disgusting scenes on this move, it is always associated with cult. This is one of the major areas in which media has played a great role in the background of cult. (Deacy, C. & Elisabeth, A. 65).
Franchises such as Seinfeld, and Star Trek have at least some group followers and at the same time, still attract some audiences.( Hume, L. & Kathleen, M. 67).There was an argument by the author of 100 cult films that when the above stated movies are followed by individuals, they become addicted to cult.
It is known that a certain cult groups are only known by some subculture. for instance, within the hippie subculture only the film of Woodstock is popular. The next cult film known as clockwork of orange is only known by the punks and the skinheads and other groups included. In can be analyzed that, certain mainstream icons can be considered another icon which belongs to cult in a different context for certain people. Even though Reefer madness was initially considered to be warning people against marijuana, especially the youth, but in now being watched by great marijuana smokers. The reason is that it had very cheap jokes and ridiculous plot as well as high amount of factual errors. By now, it is considered to be watched by many cult followers a cross the world who smoke bang.
Many people through the media find it very easy to follow cult since they can easily access the religion and learn about it here. To justify this point, the actor Bruce Campbell confirmed that the cult movies are so popular such that 1000 people can watch them 100 times. Quentin Tarantino films are said to have borrowed statically from the classic cult movies and they are being watched by large audience.( Hume, L. & Kathleen, M. 159). They are considered to lie somewhere between cult and mainstream. It is very funny and amazing that certain types of cult can grow a proportion to become mainstream.
In many occasions, it takes quite some times before cult starts to revolve a round any media. Through the media they come out as films and even through the news but the former is mostly applicable. There are several movies and TV series which were not initially successful as far as cult is concerned but we find that of late they have gained a greater potential. Such TV stations include but not limited to the album of Captain Beef heart, Trout Mask Replica, Jim Carrey’s film The Cable Guy and last but not least ,The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show TV series. ( Deacy, C. & Elisabeth, A. 98). In some status like the Disney films, the cult is not expected but they become re-appreciated later on increasing the number of cult followers. On the other hand, some scientific fiction horror movies were originally meant to attract the cult followers. The obvious example of this movie is the drug oriented movie which is entitled fear and loathing in Las Vegas and most of the films by Terry Gilliam also serve the same purpose. This category was further given a name a name of intentional cult and it has some other examples such as Repo Man, The Toxic Avenger and finally the Evil dead horror. Examples of the countries which had great followers of these movies were Brazil. This does not bring out the opinion that Brazil had the greatest number of cult followers by then but is was just pointed out.
Just because of the rapidly growing number of cult followers through the media in the world, many televisions specifically those had a short life run were closed down. Consequently, they had great difficulties in fan followers because as the say goes that it is very difficult to teach abig dog new hunting tricks. The best and clear example about the same is Invader Zim which was an animated show that was on air for strictly two seasons before it was cancelled.( Hume, L. & Kathleen, M. 50).
The BBC had a review known as the Farscape episode with the title Throne for A loss; it was said by the review writer which was known as Richard Manning that this type o series was officially a cult series reason being that it was not being shown in order of sequence. The episode which was being talked a bout was now being shown as the second episode after the premier episode.( Hume, L. & Kathleen, M. 89). It was not sequential because it was suppose to be shown as the fifth episode. Some of the media shows were being depicted differently as per the country it was being shown. Some of the countries treat them as cult while the others treat them as mainstream. A good example being the Anime, manga, kung fu films and kaiju which according to Japan culture are being treated as mainstream entertainment ,while some other countries treated this as cult.
Conclusion
It was mainly depicted out from the paper that cult and Jediism was mainly spread through the media. The hypothesis might be true to some extended but some of the media houses also had negative publicity towards them. All in all, media and religion go hand in hand and religion also depends with the culture.( Hume, L. & Kathleen, M. 59). Presently around the world, there are several TV stations which only air the practices of specific religions which fall in their interests. Good examples are the family TV and the good News Broadcasting Television both are found in Kenya. The former belongs to the Chinese and they both air out Christian teachings and preaching. Through the media, many people can follow their faith and ignore some other religions not because they don’t like them but because they can access only specific types of media which air specific religion. Therefore, they can be considered o be misleading to some extend as far as language is concerned. As it has been discussed about the two religions, they were being spread by the media stations which were closer to them. So, we could find that some people turned to follow cult instead of Jediism and some followed Jediism instead of cult.
Work cited
Deacy, C. & Elisabeth, A. Exploring religion and the sacred in a media age. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.2009.Print.
Hume, L. & Kathleen, M. Popular spiritualities: the politics of contemporary enchantment. Ashgate Publishing,Ltd.2006.Print.
Peary, D Cult Movies. New York: Delacorte Press.Print.
