MUN holds lectures on religion and popular culture
Faculty
members from Memorial University spoke at length Friday on the connection between religion and popular culture, the importance of social media branding, and the evolution of The Beatles from pop stars to innovators.
It was all part of a Havin’ A Time: Reunion 2012 event sponsored by The Telegram and hosted by arts reporter Tara Bradbury.
Religious studies professor Jennifer Porter focused on how Star Trek and Disney are linked to religion through the stories they tell.
In the case of the popular science fiction series that has spawned several spin offs, Porter said Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was a staunch humanist who chose to highlight the capabilities of mankind in his work.
More often than not, she said Star Trek depicted religion as an element that limited various forms of human expression.
With Disney, Porter said the company’s works often have questions of morality that are central to the stories portrayed.
MUN business professor Lyle Wetsch’s talk looked at how social media can be used for personal branding, a subject he lectures on in the faculty.
He said organization are now commonly using social network sites to identify and evaluate potential employees.
Wetsch said people can have two forms of a negative presence online — either no presence at all or through actual bad news pertaining to yourself.
“What’s happening now, from a reputational standpoint, is how visible you are is what’s going to lead to creating your opportunities,” he said.
Wetsch encouraged audience members to build up their social media profiles and to make sure they present the right image.
The last speaker was music professor and composer Clark Ross, who tackled The Beatles rise in sophistication from driving young girls wild during its Ed Sullivan days to the group’s headier era of musicmaking that produced sounds people listened to on a more serious and intellectual level.
Ross offered a variety of reasons for what made the group evolve to its highly-regarded “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” phase in 1967.
Among them were the band’s accumulated experience, the influence of singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, their competitive nature, and the successful partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney.