The history of the ISMRC goes back to a series of meetings for research on Media, Religion, and Culture initiated by an invitational meeting held in Uppsala, Sweden in 1994. An international public meeting in 1996 in Boulder, Colorado, launched these as a regular series. That conference, attended by over 200 scholars and interested individuals from throughout the world, was directed by Stewart Hoover and Lynn Schofield Clark, and was the first major effort of what subsequently became the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture. The Center for Media, Religion and Culture serves as the global secretariat for the biennial international conferences. The first meetings were supported by a grant from the Porticus Global Foundation.

At the 2008 meeting in Sao Paolo, Brazil, strong sentiments were expressed by participants concerning the value of an ongoing scholarly organization or association for the study of media, religion, and culture. The Steering Committee which then oversaw the conference series took this under advisement and began exploring options and taking input. A public forum on incorporation took place at the 2010 conference in Toronto, Canada. Following that, the Steering Committee proceeded to forming and formally incorporating an association. Following a strong sentiment expressed at Toronto, the association was called The International Society for Media, Religion and Culture (ISMRC). The society was inaugurated at the 2012 meeting in Eskesehir, Turkey.

Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture

The ISMRC partners with Brill to publish the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture. ISMRC Board members serve on the editorial board of this journal and the journal publishes special issues related to the biennial conferences of the organization while also publishing other articles of interest to friends of the ISMRC organization. Additional information is available on the Brill website.