Page - 54 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

54 | Mia lövheim www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 45–56 Post-feminist media analysis studies emphasise the potential for resistance and em- powerment within this play with stereotypes of femininity such as sexual attraction and fashion. however, despite these signs of a blurring and perhaps challenging of traditional female and male attributes, other traditional norms of femininity remain, such as beauty and heterosexual (male) attraction. as Winston points out, without these conventional female attributes of attraction “the package would be a harder sell”.28 This insight shows that an analysis of the potential for alternative representa- tions of gender and religion in entertainment media needs to take into consideration the interplay between commercial interests and media logics. as argued by British media scholar rosalind Gill,29 the ideals of individual choice and sexual competence as connected to consumption and self-regulation in, for example, in the TV-series Sex and the City (1998–2004) introduce new gender regimes rather than represent a po- tential for women’s agency. CONClUsiON The Catholics Come home and Coca Cola commercials illustrate the ambiguity of me- diatisation as a process changing traditional or conventional understandings of reli- gion. in this article, i have presented two approaches to the mediatisation of religion that represent an important complement to the emphasis on the structuring influence of the media in Stig Hjarvard’s original presentation of the theory. These approaches al- low an analysis of mediatisation as a process where the impact of a particular media technology and genre on religion is related to an analysis of how religious actors, institutions such as the Catholic Church but also individual users, negotiate and make use of the media to communicate their messages. Both commercials show how me- diatisation challenges the control of religious institutions over narratives and sym- bols. in a mediatised world, religious institutions adapt to the forms and rules for communication and interaction used by media institutions, and media institutions as well as commercial companies use religious symbols in order to communicate other values than might have been intended by religious institutions. Both of the commer- cials show that this situation holds a potential for changing traditional religious teach- ings, values and positions. The Catholic Church needs to incorporate the values of individual choice and plurality into their image of the Church, and the practice and value of sexual abstinence for a higher good in religious teachings is used to play with gender conventions to create attention for a popular drink. By using gender as a lens for an analysis of the potentials for religious change in mediatisation, we can also see how, despite the reduced control of religious institu- 28 Winston 2013, 165. 29 Gill 2007, 249.