Page - 31 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

Documentary Media and Religious Communities | 31www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 31–35 Marie-Therese Mäder Documentary Media and Religious Communities aBsTraCT The article considers four spaces where media processes involve religious communi- ties and agents: the spaces of production, of representation, of media communica- tion, and of distribution network and institutional framework for circulation. These three spaces systematise the research question posed to the specific source. Further- more the concept documentary media as viewed from a semio-pragmatic perspective is introduced. Discussion of the commercial series I’m a Mormon shows how different modes define documentary media according to the three spaces. KeyWOrDs documentary media, Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, self-representation, spaces of communication, religious communities BiOGraPhy Marie-Therese Mäder is a teaching and research associate at the Centre for religion, economy and Politics and a member of the research group Media and religion at the University of Zürich, switzerland. her monograph Die Reise als Suche nach Orien- tierung, published in 2012, explores the interface between film and religion in arthouse cinema. in 2015, she is a visiting scholar at the Comparative Media studies/Writing department (CMs/W) at Massachusetts institute of Technology, United states. her current research deals with audio-visual media and their interactions with the (self-) representation strategies of religious communities in documentary media with the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints as a case study. The public appearance of religious groups in the media has many different purposes, but one thing is clear: if you want to be noticed, you need to be present. Many reli- gious communities have active agents in media production, as producers, directors and in front of or behind the camera. The religious institutions themselves often em- ploy different kinds of media for diverse purposes, such as education, mission, infor- mation, exchange or self-representation. likewise, members of religious communi- ties use media for various reasons. for example, their consumption of the media in their leisure time may have no obvious relation to their religious affiliation, but they