This book explores British media coverage and representation of religion and contemporary secular values and is set in the context of wider debates about the sociology of religion and media representation. The authors consider the media portrayal of Christianity and public life, Islam and religious diversity, atheism and secularism, and popular beliefs and practices, and draw on research conducted in the 1980s and 2008-10 to assess what has changed in the last 25 years.

Introduction; Chapter 1 Media, Religion and Society: Terrain and Debates; Chapter 2 Changing Media Portrayals of Religion and the Secular Sacred; Chapter 3 Media Representations of Christianity in Public Life; Chapter 4 The Reporting of Islam and Other Religious Traditions; Chapter 5 Media Representations of Atheism and Secularism; Chapter 6 Popular Belief and Ritual Practice, and their Media Representations; Chapter 7 The Case of Geert Wilders, Multiculturalism and Identity; Chapter 8 Reclaiming Religion in Secular Public Life: The Media on the Papal Visit; conclusion Conclusion:Religion, Media and Society Revisited; appendix1 Appendix 1:Main Categories and Subcategories used in Coding References to Religion and the Secular Sacred in 2008-2009; appendix2 Appendix 2:Percentages of Newspaper References to Main Categories of Conventional Religion, Common Religion and the Secular Sacred, 1982 and 2008; appendix3 Appendix 3:Percentages of Television References to Main Categories of Conventional Religion, Common Religion and the Secular Sacred, 1982 and 2009;