ABSTRACT
The media are not merely communication agencies of a technologically advanced kind engaged in the transmission and diffusion of information. Sensational stories about the "new religious movements" do not require knowledge of religion on the part of users of the mass media. The way the Ordre du Temple Solaire (OTS) was treated by the media revealed the existence of what we might call the "religiously correct", which expresses the expectation or representation that religion cannot be a source of conflict in a secular society. The term "spirituality" indeed denotes the personal, experience-based beliefs characteristic of this generation, which are differentiated from a religion conceived in terms of dogmas and tradition is currently the generation which is in control of the media. Faced with the media, the sociologist can only take note of the successive collapse of all monopoly positions when it comes to interpreting the phenomenon of religion.
