@conference {51,
	title = {Crossing Over or Crossing Out? Mass Media, Young People, and Religious Language},
	booktitle = {Papers from Trans-Tasman Research Symposium},
	volume = {xx},
	year = {2005},
	month = {2005},
	pages = {95-99},
	publisher = {RMIT Publishing},
	organization = {RMIT Publishing},
	address = {Melbourne, Australia},
	abstract = {This article offers readers some background and preliminary findings of what will be a research paper into the interplay between mass media, religious identity and young people living in Australia. The working title of the research is {\textquotedblleft}Crossing Over or Crossing Out? The Media{\textquoteright}s Influence in Young People{\textquoteright}s Religious Language and Imaginings.{\textquotedblright} This project seeks to answer the following questions: 1. How does the interplay between media, culture and religion set the {\textquotedblleft}rules of play{\textquotedblright} for religious language to form and communicate a religious identity? 2. How are individuals freed by, and constrained by, media and culture to seek a religious identity outside the confines of religious institutions? The task involved in this research is two-fold. The first is to provide a theoretical framework that seeks to explain how religious language responds to cultural change. This framework should take into account the role of mass media in cultural shifts within contemporary society, provide an overview of the changing religious landscape in recent history, and seek to identify the relationship between them. The second part of the project is to set the framework against human research. It is hoped that some qualitative research may offer clear insight into the ways in which young people use mass media to inform their opinions about organised religion, as well as their own religious beliefs and values. It is also expected that interviews with young people will throw light on how mass media have influenced the ways in which they understand and use religious language to shape and communicate these opinions and ideas. This article will offer some background findings into the development of a theoretical framework for religious language, and some initial discoveries into young people{\textquoteright}s attitudes towards traditional religion and the bases behind them.},
	url = {http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=038923684171545;res=IELHSS},
	author = {Paul Teusner}
}
