Media, ritual and contemporary public cultures Essay

Media, ritual and contemporary public cultures - Essay Example In this process, the media became an important tool for communication, sharing information and influencing people (Garnham, 2000). Therefore, in Europe and the western world, the media become dominant and important whilst religion and the role of the European church waned (Viault, 2013). This paper examines the concept religious rituals as it is presented in Durkheim’s analysis and how this gives an explanation to the social significance of contemporary media. In order to attain this end, the following objectives are explored: The paper will begin by evaluating and analysing what rituals are and why they exist. This will be done by assessing and evaluating the processes and views presented by Durkheim in his attempt to philosophise and conceptualise religion in the context of rituals. This will be expanded and extended to cover various aspects and processes of interaction and social significance in order to provide answers to the fundamental questions and concepts. The research will therefore proceed to compare rituals and the media and how the media plays a role in presenting different views and ideologies about people in the society. This will help to provide a background for juxtaposition and contemporary analysis of religion and rituals in order to provide important commonalities and discussions. Religion in Europe was mainly based on the Church with its core nucleus in Vatican (Viault, 2013). This had its root and origins steeped in the ancient elements of the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. However, after the Protestant Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment, European citizens began to make demands for fairer and just methods of promoting justice, liberty and equality. This is mainly steeped in the French and American Revolutions that challenged the traditional system that was based on spirituality and religion (Brennan, 2010). Emile Durkheim emerged as a philosopher at the turn of the 20th Century and he sought to