ABSTRACT

The present study sets out to investigate religious narratives of conversion in the British press with a view to exploring the public dimension of religion and the general attitudes to religious behaviours and beliefs shaped by popular media. To this end, a small-scale sample of 61 news articles published between 2016 and 2017 in two quality papers, The Guardian and The Telegraph, and two tabloids, The Daily Mail and The Sun, was collected. The analysis has focused on narrative construction, i.e. who is converted, by whom and why, where and when, as well as rhetorical encoding, i.e. voicing, modality, transitivity and lexical sets. Findings show that representation of Muslims in the media is largely based on the upholding of ‘negative values’, e.g. traditionalism and women’s submissive role, while news reports on Christian conversions are supportive of a ‘flock’ of helpless refugees. Conversions to Christianity and to Islam are both consistently associated with material benefits though of a very different nature: food, clothing, housing, asylum and healthcare for Christians; protection, power and sexual gratification for Muslims. References to the spiritual aspects are in both religions downplayed, suggesting a secular paradigm.

Abbreviation: CDA

摘要

本研究着手调查英国报刊中有关宗教转换的叙事，以期探索宗教的公共层面以及大众媒体对宗教行为和信仰形成的普遍态度。为此，在2016年至2017年期间，在《卫报》和《电讯报》两份优质论文以及《每日邮报》和《太阳报》这两个小报上发表了少量样本的61篇新闻文章，已收集。分析的重点是叙事结构，即谁被转换，被谁以及为什么，何时何地以及修辞编码，即语音，情态，及物性和词汇集。调查结果表明，穆斯林在媒体中的代表性主要是基于对“消极价值观”的坚持，例如传统主义和妇女的顺从作用，而有关基督教信徒conversion依的新闻报道则支持了一群“无助的难民”。nature依基督教和：依伊斯兰教，尽管本质上截然不同，但始终与物质利益相关联：基督徒的食物，衣服，住房，庇护和医疗保健；保护，权力和对穆斯林的性满足。在两种宗教中，对精神层面的提法都被淡化了，暗示了一种世俗的范式。

缩写： CDA