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ABSTRACT
In the context of the George W. Bush presidency’s reawakening of public religiosity, journalists delegitimized, to borrow wording from Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Chronicles of Narnia film and its funder, Philip Anschutz. Journalistic concerns about the film were articulated in describing Anschutz’s reputation as greedy, hyper-religious, and geared toward imperialistic business ventures. By critiquing Anschutz more than the film itself, the journalists framed the film with language that predated, but coincides with, contemporary cancel culture. Treatment of the film’s depiction of war violence and notions of religious guilt served journalists in suggesting that the film was dangerous for audiences. The growth of journalistic empowerment for delegitimation demonstrates the process of resistance to traditional establishments of power, reacting to the influence of religious resonances in the shadow of the previously released The Passion of the Christ, and was precursory as the early emergence of public cancel culture.
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Brent Yergensen
Brent Yergensen (Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln) is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Texas at Tyler. His research focuses primarily on the rhetoric of film and popular culture and has been published in the Journal of Religion, Film & Media, Journal of Visual Political Communication, Explorations in Media Ecology, Journal of Religion & Society, and other scholarly journals and book anthologies.