How did you become involved with AJHA?
I attended my first AJHA meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1987 and my second in Lawrence, Kansas five years later, but I became a regular after Roanoke, Virginia in 1994. When I saw the call for the convention at the Roanoke Airport Marriott, I remember thinking, “Either these folks are clueless, or they care more about their papers than their location.” Wanting to find out, I went. And I wasn’t disappointed. I met Maurine Beasley, Janice Hume, and Steve Knowlton there. It didn’t hurt that the bus returning us from our excursion to Thomas Jefferson’s retreat, Poplar Forest, just happened to break down at a roadside bar with a nice selection of draft beers.
How do your undergraduate and master’s degrees in religion shape your understanding of journalism and/or film history?
Communication and religion are inseparable. Religion is always mediated by communication. Oral storytelling, exhortation, and suggestion helped tribes find cohesion. Print added the dimensions of documentation and permanence, creating the idea of “going by the book.” And electronic media foster a compelling sense of immediacy. In so many ways, my study of media shapes my understanding of religion. Along this line, I have to recommend Dennis Ford’s illuminating 2016 book, A Theology for a Mediated God: How Media Shapes our Notions about Divinity. His subtitle says it all.
But the opposite is also true. Among its many features, religious faith is a way of valuing intensely. As Kierkegaard understood, religion reminds us of the enduring subjectivity of human experience. So my study of religion tells me that all communication, journalism included, is subjective.
How have your experiences holding visiting teaching and research positions outside of the US informed your teaching or research at the University of Louisville?
When I joined the University of Louisville as an assistant professor, I had briefly visited just two other countries: Canada and Mexico. Since then, I have had the good fortune to give papers in Europe, South America, and Asia, to serve on the ecumenical jury at the Montreal World Film Festival, and to participate in a faculty development seminar in Jerusalem and the West Bank offered by the Palestinian American Research Center. I have also taken students overseas, most recently 18 honors students who studied Irish Tourism and Identity here on campus and then accompanied me to Ireland.
The effect, I hope, is to make me less provincial. I like the title of the PBS documentary series, "The American Experience." My teaching and research focus on American experiences, appreciating that we live in an interconnected world. My Faith and Film course, which examines the history of the most significant films about religion from the silent era to today, includes movies from Italy, Sweden, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Poland. I hope my teaching helps to mitigate xenophobia in my corner of the globe.
How have you seen your field change since you started?
I contribute to two subfields of media studies—media ethics and religion and media—and they have developed in parallel ways since I joined the faculty of the University of Louisville in 1985. First, each professionalized. The Journal of Mass Media Ethics (now the Journal of Media Ethics) started publication in 1985, and Media Ethics became a division of AEJMC in 1999. Similarly, Religion and Media became an interest group of AEJMC in 1996, and the Journal of Media and Religion began in 2002. Both journals are now Taylor & Francis publications. Both subfields increasingly focus on digital media and embrace publications from scholars across the globe.
The gender composition of the journals’ editorial advisory boards differs, though. Volume 1:1 of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics listed an editorial advisory board that was 84% male and 16% female. Today’s board is nearly equal: 51% male and 49% female. By contrast, volume 1:1 of the Journal of Media and Religion listed an editorial advisory board that was 78% male and 22% female. Today’s board shows a similar imbalance at 76% male and 24% female. The Journal of Media and Religion is currently in the process of “repopulating” its board, presumably to correct this imbalance.
What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?
I’ve loved music at least since I watched the Beatles play on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964. My taste ranges from rock to symphonic. These days I sing bass in a church choir directed by a Ph.D. in musicology who treats us like session musicians.
I also enjoy cooking, especially when I have fresh vegetables from my garden. And then there’s travel—mostly to see my children and grandchildren, but sometimes to international destinations. In another life, I’d be Phil Rosenthal, creating season after Netflix season of "Somebody Feed Phil."
John Ferré is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Louisville where he teaches courses on media history, media ethics, and religious media.
