4. Why is it so controversial?
*“The substance of religion points to another
world beyond this one”
-This suggests that in our world some
accept faith and beliefs as fact while others
perceive the same beliefs as fiction.
*The people journalists are reporting on are
often inspired or affected by faith.
5. Why is it so controversial?
*A large portion of the audience journalists are
writing to are often affected in some way or
another by faith.
*The touchiest societal debates we engage in
often point us back to scripture.
*Religion is the most pervasive yet least
understood topic in global life.
*Religion is a very personal thing.
6. “ A reluctant story
“Religion is a hard-sell story to many news media.
Sometimes it is the journalists themselves reluctant to
cover stories involving faith and churches; sometimes, it
is the media organizations for which they work.”
As a BYU graduate would you be cautious to take on a hard
hitting story covering a religion or religious topic?
What skills does it take?
7. Importance
“Religion is the most important topic out there. It matters
to nearly everyone even to atheists and agnostics. It
affects nearly everything- from how we raise and educate
kids, to how we make and spend our money, to how we
run corporations, communities, and even countries.” p.
87
With the constant attempt to separate church and state how
do we deal with that as journalists when what were
reporting on is both indirectly and direct affected by
religion, people who have religious beliefs?
8. The book's recommendations:
1. Remember the context is the key to the
complete reporting of a story.
2. Distinguish between the group and the
action
3. Consider a religion section.
4. Accentuate religion close to home
9. Shedding Light
“How can people engage in a conversation
about faith and its implications in a way that
sheds light rather than generates heat?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=nkUC5CIi9Ew
10. Common theme in this class: we always have
bias going into an event but we need to strive
to be objective. “It’s false that a reporter can
unplug his ideology and somehow become
neutral” p.85
How do you deal with being objective but still
being a light to the world?
11. Resources for Religion
Writers
• Religion News-writers Association (RNA)
o non-profit; encourage excellence in religion
writing;interactive forum for writers
• Poynter Institute
o "All news is religious news. That's not a statement of
faith or an assertion about the importance of religion
to society. Rather, it's a lot like saying all news is
political news because there's nothing that's not
touched by some politician's interests...Religion is
the same way, with tendrils of connection to
everything. Sept. 11 has made that more obvious
than ever in modern history."
12. Religion in a Post 9/11
World
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/
2011/09/15/ctw-anderson-911-religion-
debate.cnn#/video/world/2011/09/15/ctw-
anderson-911-religion-debate.cnn
13. Department of Religion and
Classics
• University of Rochester study--->>assessed
how American newspapers reported on
religion:
o religion is mentioned far more than it is the subject
of the story
o religion is widely used as criterion for identity
14. A Journalist's Own Religion
• What role, if any, should a journalist's own
religious beliefs play in deciding which
stories to cover, and in the way the story is
covered/portrayed?
15. "Journalism and religion is a tough mix.
Religion depends on faith, and journalism
demands proof." - Jim Robertson, editor of
Columbia Daily Tribune
16. Mike Huckabee vs. Jim
Robertson
Huckabee: "considers it an extraordinarily
shallow faith that does not really impact the
way we think about other human beings and
the way we respond."
Robertson: "I have to believe it's possible to
practice journalism at the highest standards
of balance and fairness and still retain a
religious faith."
17. Fair and Balanced Reporting
• should a journalist be expected to report on a
story that they deem unarguably unethical,
according to their own faith?
• or, report on a story they believe in but that
the majority of others don't?
18. Faith-Based Journalistic
Organizations
• Christian-based World Journalism Institute
• Washington Journalism Center
19. Faith-Based Media
Broadcast
• These organizations want to present the
news in accordance with their faith, beliefs,
and values.
• Christian Broadcast Network has several
different programs that share religion--
related stories, and reporting with faith-
based commentary.
• The 700 Club
20. Faith-Based Media
Print
• Several magazines focus on news and opinions with
different religious perspectives.
• On the website of Commentary, a magazine of the
Jewish faith, it says:
o “Since its inception in 1945, and increasingly after it emerged as the
flagship of neoconservatism in the 1970s, the magazine has been
consistently engaged with several large, interrelated questions: the fate
of democracy and of democratic ideas in a world threatened by
totalitarian ideologies; the state of American and Western security; the
future of the Jews, Judaism, and Jewish culture in Israel, the United
States, and around the world; and the preservation of high culture in
an age of political correctness and the collapse of critical
standards” (Willis, 100).
22. Stepping Into Another's
Faith
• As a journalist and a reporter, we will be required to
step into the experiences of other people. We may or
may not relate to them, but it will be necessary to take
their backstories into account.
• “A reporter should try to let the adherents of a faith
define their belief system rather than filtering that
system through the reporter’s own beliefs” (Willis, 101).
23. Barry Bearak
He wrote a story about a group of Catholics in
Texas, and it won him a national writing
award. He is Jewish.
24. “I don’t know that journalists are tone deaf to religion, but
they certainly have trouble playing the tune in
newspapers. Daily newspapers aren’t so good at the
day-to-day things that pack most of the meaning into life.
That would include religion, but it also includes love and
family and friendship. I’ve always thought newspapers
ought to do more with the crossroads events in everyday
lives: the day we had to put Mom in a nursing home, the
day Joe quit the factory and opened a bait and tackle
shop, the day jack and Jill dropped their kid off at
college, the day Bill decided to become a priest, and the
day Bill yielded to his doubts and dropped out of
seminary. The joys and pains of everyday life” (Willis,
102).
25. This can relate to religion and to life in general.
As journalists, it’s important that we not
ignore these stories. They’re hard to write,
but talented journalists can do it.
· Religion is such a huge part of some
people’s lives, that it’s important to
understand how to address it. It will require
stepping into the shoes of others and truly
trying to relate.
26. An Ongoing Tension
• “Advocating any particular faith or belief system in
their news and feature stories runs counter to most
journalistic orientations and to the nature of daily
journalism itself” (Willis, 103).
• There is a tension between journalism and religion.
Journalism is about what is happening now, and
religion often centers on another realm and what
happened before and after this life. Because of this,
journalists find it hard to cover religion, and religious
people sometimes cannot accept journalism.
27. As a journalist, how would you present the
news in a way that gets religious people to
accept it as a valid source on the sect you are
reporting on?
28. A Final Thought
• Willis says that he didn’t know if there would
be enough material on faith and religion in
relation to journalism to write an entire
chapter on. He “discovered that journalists
pay as much or more attention to issues of
religion and faith as to any other.” As a
result, this chapter is the longest in the book.
• It is important.
