Page - 17 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

Editorial | 17www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 9–19 goal the “evangelization” of Catholics, according to the homepage of that initiative.9 Peterson’s organisations Virtue film and Catholics Come home call the commercials “evangomercials.” They were aired, for example, during major college football games and on television (CBs and NBC) in 2011. These three commercials have been distributed through the internet on platforms such as youTube, Vimeo and organisations’ homepages. Therefore, their transmission can be seen in light of Marshall Mcluhan’s “global village” in contemporary culture. all three commercials are products of the Us market that can be received worldwide. The values and norms formed in the narration are transmitted within the global in- ternet community. This network functions, however, in effect as one-way communi- cation, from the United states and to the rest of the world, while the global village Mcluhan had in mind was probably more balanced, as a product of information ex- change. Nevertheless the three commercials provide fruitful examples for thinking about methods in the field of media and religion. ThiNKiNG MeThODs iN MeDia aND reliGiON The first section of this first issue of JRFM, entitled Religion, Media and Communica- tion, deals with spaces of communication in the field of media and religion. Analysis of a particular communication presupposes a specific approach to the spaces in which that communication takes place. Production, representation and reception/consump- tion are all considered here as fundamental aspects of communication theory, but with a particular interest in the interaction of production and reception/consumption. in his contribution, Religion and Communication Spaces. A Semio-pragmatic Ap- proach, roger Odin opens the section by noting the basic distinction between mental and physical spaces of communication. People’s ideas and expectations are mental spaces based on experience, whereas the physical spaces of media are found in real places where films are received, such as cinemas, homes or schools. The institutional framing crucially influences reception processes. The experience of watching a film with friends at home differs from the experience of watching that same film sur- rounded by strangers, and thus alone, in the cinema. With this distinction in mind, Odin seeks to understand how religious spaces of communication operate. in her contribution Documentary Media and Religious Communities Marie-Therese Mäder dis- cusses methodology by considering four spaces of communication in the context of religious communities’ use of media, with people as active participants in each space, in production, distribution, representation and media communication. in Methodo- logical Challenges by (New) Media. An Essay on Perspectives and Possible Consequences Christian Wessely identifies the need for an altered approach to media literacy in an 9 http://www.catholicscomehome.org/invite-tom-to-speak/ [accessed 21 September 2015].