The American Media Needs To Take A Theology Class (Or Three)

[cbayer]

http://thinkprogress.org/media/2013/05/04/1951621/media-religion-coverage/

By Jack Jenkins, Guest Blogger on May 4, 2013 at 10:35 am



Credit: CNN
There’s no way around it: Religion plays an especially powerful role in American public life. More than 90 percent of Americans profess a belief in God, and one need only examine the recent religiously-infused national debates over religious liberty, access to contraception, and marriage equality to see how crucial religion is to millions of Americans.

Yet religion seems to be having an increasingly hard time getting a fair shake from another major player in American life: the media. The breadth and quality of religion reporting in the United States has atrophied in recent years, with once-robust religion sections now all but erased from the pages of the nation’s leading newspapers. Meanwhile, religion reporters have either been laid off or forced to re-shift their professional focus to covering religion “on the side.”

The result is a mainstream media sorely lacking in quality religion reporting, a fact that calls into question the press’ ability to paint an accurate picture of modern American life. In light of the recent confused coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing and Islam, it’s worth reminding the press why they (we) should try harder to get religion right. So, in the spirit of modern journalism, I’ve put together five reasons why journalists need to get working on their religion coverage:

1. Failure to understand religion can lead to embarrassingly inaccurate stories. When Roman Catholic cardinals descended on the Vatican in March to cast their vote for the next pope, journalists were quick to solicit the opinion of Sister Simone Campbell, a Catholic nun who rose to fame last year for her public opposition to Rep. Paul Ryan’s federal budget proposal and her rousing speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. But in midst of her interviews, Campbell was also repeatedly asked another question: Which papal candidate did she intend to vote for?

more at link

[rrneck]

1. Probably because they can't compete with

the media empires that are the religions themselves.

[okasha]

2. I think a good part of the problem here--

and in other subject areas--is the primacy of visual media. Networks don't hire journalists any more; they hire «news readers» whose chief qualifications seem to be good hair and toned bodies. They aren't required to do research, much less think.

[skepticscott]

3. To be honest, you could substitute

just about any other topic for "religion" (except maybe sports) in the author's statements about the media, and they would still be true. Reporting in general has atrophied.

[goldent]

4. I would encourage people to write to the "religion" editor of their local paper

if it still has one. Not necessarily a "letter to the editor" but a personal letter with comments about the writing, including what you see as biases. The can be very receptive (personal experience).