Page - 32 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/02

32 | Mirko Roth www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/2, 17–35 Media sociology, media studies, performance studies and communication studies suggest the following perspectives:36 • Media constitute the situational context of communication as such. Signifi- cant differences emerge depending on whether communication takes place directly (so face-to-face) or is mediated indirectly (at a spatial and/or tempo- ral distance). • Media dictate the communication process, for example when not all actors are able to use every medium to the same extent or in the same way (owing to lack of knowledge or lack of competence, or because of social sanctions or distinctions, etc.). as a result, asymmetries emerge that the more media- competent actors can use to control communication in their favour. further- more, the so-called symbolically generalised communication media (money, power, faith, love, etc.) exert a clear influence on the course of communica- tions. • Media influence the communicable contents: not every form of content can be communicated in any and every medium. the plan for the construction of a bridge, for example, cannot be transmitted via olfactory coding. the medium thus defines the limits of the communicable, and the content being communicated can acquire a specific form that can have a particular effect or can trigger specific emotions. • Media stand in interrelation to the structure of a group and society. in the course of social differentiation processes, (new) media must emerge to en- sure or re-establish the principle accessibility of disparate parts of society. Media thus play an important role in the social (re)construction of reality with its cosmologies, epistemologies and norms as well as its social structures and conceptions of gods, humans and roles, etc. Media change religions – and re- ligions change media.37 these arguments suggest that considering religions as mediatised “spaces of perception” provides reliable and fruitful access to the field. Furthermore, we can keep in sight the issue of how and in what ways re- cent medial transformational processes change religions, and by association be aware of the challenges for religious studies or the discipline itself. on these grounds it does not seem farfetched to suggest that religious stud- ies should be carried out in close correspondence with media studies.38 analy- ses of forms of cultural, religious and social media production, types and uses and of their interrelated processes make it possible for concrete conclusions to be drawn based on the facets described above that are relevant for religious 36 on the following remarks see Krämer 2004, Münker/roesler 2008, schützeichel 2004, Ziemann 2006. 37 Cf. Rüpke 2007, 35–43. 38 following Mohr 2009, rüpke 2007.