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A film on social media, nationalism, and the Indian diaspora India is home to the second-largest online user community globally. Its global diaspora adds to its expansive scope. Sahana Udupa’s film Nationalism 2.0 dives into the worlds of social media users in India and the diaspora in the United Kingdom and how they post, repost, joke, troll,…
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An analysis of social media amid religious and political conflict in India India, one of the largest and most diverse democracies in the world, faces a turning point. The now-infamous 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) included a pathway to citizenship for migrants from neighboring countries—but specifically excluded Muslims from this pathway. This law combined with…
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A film about one Somali youth’s search for belonging under the surveillance of the FBI Barkhad Abdi is most widely known for his portrayal of a Somali pirate in the 2013 film Captain Phillips by Paul Greengrass. Unfortunately, Captain Phillips continues a long cinematic history of movies that frame Black people from the developing world…
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Two “God and Government” episodes on the rebirth of religion in China Patrick James’ 2011 book Religion, Identity, and Global Governance asks one of the most enduring questions about religion: the question of whether or not it contributes to political extremism. Karl Marx famously declared religion the “opium of the people,” and this line of…
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A podcast episode on religion, nationalism, and anti-gay persecution in Russia In 2013 both houses of the Russian Federal Assembly passed the so-called “gay propaganda” law which was signed by President Vladimir Putin. Formally known as “for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating a Denial of Traditional Family Values,” the legislation penalizes individuals,…
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A training program to combat Islamophobic reporting According to Islamophobia in the Eyes of Muslims, a report by the Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, “Muslim women tend to be the primary targets of Islamophobic incidents (74.3% of the time). ” The report adds, “The lack of reporting by victims (87.5%…
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A dialogue between Emma Green and David P. Gushee Donald Trump’s Electoral College victory in the 2016 presidential election exposed fundamental flaws in the way the media covered major social and political issues. When it came to issues such as racism, gender and sexual violence, migration and citizenship, and poverty, mainstream media outlets amplified the…
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Ruth Tsuria is an associate professor at Seton Hall University’s Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts. Her research, which investigates the intersection of digital media, culture, and feminism, has been published in various prestigious academic outlets, such as the International Journal of Communication and Social Media + Society. She is the recipient of the…
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A workshop on new approaches to portraying religious traditions in the media. Have you noticed any patterns in the way that religion is portrayed in the media? For instance, how are Muslims usually characterized? Does the depiction of Muslims differ from how Christians or Buddhists are portrayed? What images or concepts come to mind when…
