Religion and Media Multimedia Projects
For my midterm and final projects in Introduction to Religion, Media, and Culture with Dr. Sarah Taylor at Northwestern, I created multimedia presentations about the intersections of religion and media integrating course concepts and original research.
For my final presentation, I explored how LDS trad wife influencers Nara Smith and Hannah Neeleman, along with the cast of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, utilize social media to create an image of the modern LDS woman encompassed by having it all. As a Utahn, I wanted to demystify this view of Mormon women perpetuated through media. I argued that these influencers romanticize empowerment through tradition while monetizing their domestic lives. I said they offer an aspirational solution for a generation seeking stability amidst hypermediation through their charismatic image, creating a cultlike following by encouraging their followers to buy their affiliated products to become just like them. Simultaneously, they reflect and fuel today's younger generation's increasing return to traditional religion by allowing for a balance between social media and reality. I framed this argument using scholarly sources and establishing the official LDS Church's view on the role of women. I analyzed TikToks from Nara Smith and Hannah Neeleman and episodes of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, illustrating how these influencers portray themselves having it all while drawing in viewers to buy into this ideal through their products. I used over thirty sources, both academic and journalistic, along with class notes, images and videos, to support my claims.
For this presentation, I analyzed how The Good Place uses satire of traditional Christian and Buddhist ideals of the afterlife to question and fuel Gen Z's increasing focus on spirituality in secular sources and more personalized religion. I illustrated how the show questioned the pros and cons of ethics-based spirituality over traditional religion. I framed the argument with different scholars we discussed in class like Marshall McLuhan and Deanna Sellnow, analyzing the content and religious subtext of three episodes of the show. I used analytical thinking and evidence from different religious scholars to support my claims about how the show centers the human, reflecting the rise of religious "nones" and humanist spirituality today (Taylor). I looked at the cultural conversations the show prompted, from entertainment articles to scholarly inquiries. I created a recorded PowerPoint presentation with visually appealing slides.