“We Are Open-Minded, Tolerant, and Care for Other People”: Comparing Audience Responses to Religion in Documentaries

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article presents a semio-pragmatic analysis conbined with an audience study to examine how religion can be communicated through documentaries. The research considers the extent to which cultural differences impact the reception process. A semio-pragmatic analysis was applied to a documentary about Mormons. Subsequently, a reception study was conducted with undergraduate participants from Spain and Switzerland. These participants watched an extract from the documentary and completed questionnaires about values perceived, and their opinions and attitudes about it. In a second study, the process was repeated with a documentary about Muslims, and with similar participants. The results show that (1) the semio-pragmatic analysis is an effective tool for understanding how religion is mediatized in documentaries and (2) the perceived values, attitudes and opinions for both documentaries differ significantly according to the cultural context in which they are received.