At first glance, the issue of journalism and religion might seem to be no more significant than, say, journalism and ethnicity, or age, or any of the other distinguishing characteristics that keep the ACLU in business. However, if the mission statement of BYU is to be believed, religion is a characteristic that goes “more than skin-deep.” In addition to a person’s upbringing or social expectations, religion affects worldviews. In organized religion, people are not just allowed but encouraged to evaluate every aspect of their lives by a set of values.
Religion is important to individuals. So, it should be important to journalists. A reporter needs to be able to tell the story of an individual, complete and unfettered by bias, regardless of whether he or she is Episcopalian, Jewish, or agnostic.This is personified by Barry Bearak's quote. Bearak, a Jew, wrote an article about a Catholic community that won a Pulitzer Prize. According to Bearak, great stories are "hard to do well. They need time and space. They need reporters and editors with talent and with patience." I admit, in the light of all the added stress that is being placed on journalists right now, I am a little worried about the continuing ability of the media to produce such great stories about religion.
Just for fun:
- Coverage of Catholicism is disproportionately low, given the U.S. population
- Coverage of Islam is disproportionately high, given the U.S. population
- Coverage of both religious populations is disproportionately bad
- I read an interesting article in Thursday's NYT (which, unfortunately, is not to be found online) about BYU in New Orleans and critiqued it for its religion coverage
I agree with the fact that quality news articles take time. This is definitely something I learned being on the newspaper staff in high school as we would meet once a month right before putting the paper together, and needless to say, our procrastination shined through. However, I do wonder what makes us ashamed as people to profess our religous beliefs. All day long we will discuss the weather, politics, everyday events, or other people, but how often do we really discuss what really matters, as in the salvation of our souls?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting--and strange. I read old books and learn about Arabic culture, and it seems like some people do talk about religion in the same way we talk about the weather. Yet even among religious people, talking like that in America would likely lead to strange looks.
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