Is Religious Violence Provoked Via Media Coverage?

On April 21, 2019 a series of bombs tore through three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. It was Easter Sunday and therefore each of the six locations were packed with people. The bombings left 269 people dead and 500 injured. The event was quickly deemed an act of terrorism and horrendous religious violence. People from all over the world followed the story closely and extended their prayers and condolences for the country. Though this act of terosim was determined to be carried out by an Islamic extremist group, there was much speculation that it was a retaliation for the Christchurch Mosque shootings. Fear struck the people of Sri Lanka, but specifically Christian churches and organizations.

This incident is was not unlike many others that have taken place in history, as religious groups and individuals of all kinds are often victims of religious persecution, genocide, and overall violence. But a distinction between religious violence in this era compared to previous can be made regarding how quickly the news makes it across the globe. In the year 2020, modern technology enables us to stay up to date in real time with incidents like the one that occurred in Sri Lanka. Within minutes of the bombings, several high profile news platforms such as New York Times, CNN, and BBC had begun live coverage on the event.

Having such easy access to unfortunate incidents specifically regarding religious violence makes it nearly impossible for one to go about their routined life being ignorant to the fact that these events occur. Yet, they continue to happen seemingly increasingly often across the globe with little to no sign of slowing anytime soon. This is interesting considering those who practice religion would likely argue that a common denominator found in any belief is the desire for peace.

If we turn the tables for the sake of perspective, could it be that having access to such descriptive and specific examples of religious violence is in fact more harmful than it is good? One would think that the fact that extremist ideology can be so easily examined and therefore inadvertently spread regardless of intentions has the ability to spark more of these events. The more examples of hatred against religion one can observe via news and media outlets, the more likely it may be for such principles to spread. We can see examples of this in the context of movements rather than events, such as the discrimnation and violence against a religious organization in South Korea, Shinchonji New Heaven New Earth. Media coverage surrounding persecution against the church has seemed to spread across the country causing the church to undergo severe and violent persecution, restricting their religious freedom and human rights. Some incidents have even resulted in the death of its members.

Overall the concern lies with whether or not high coverage of religious violence is more harmful than good based on the risk of spreading ill-intentions. Does raising awareness motivate individuals to form peaceful opinions overall, or does it make a violent stance more likely to be adopted, even if it is subconsciously.