Media and Religion by Daniel A. Stout

Author:Daniel A. Stout
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Religion in the News

The question of whether news media depict religion accurately and fairly is a controversial one that has not been adequately resolved. Some religious leaders frequently bemoan media bias and inaccuracies. According to Olasky (1988), secular journalists are unnecessarily critical of religion and don't cover it thoroughly. Moses (2005) describes a common perception among religious groups:

Journalists assigned to the religion beat find out very quickly that many of the people they cover suspect the news media are biased against them. Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Jews, and Muslims all complain that they are victims of unfair coverage. Christian broadcasters and such groups as the Anti-Defamation League, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, and the Council on American-Islamic relations assail alleged media abuses, sometimes calling for followers to boycott advertisers or cancel subscriptions. News organizations, striving to increase ratings or gain circulation, take such threats seriously. (p. 67)

Journalists and editors, however, defend present practices; they argue that religion must be reported objectively, even if the coverage is critical from time to time.6 People have a right to know about the misuse of church finances, for example, or improper conduct by clergy. The fact of the matter is that neither the claim of media bias nor the assumption of objective, balanced coverage has been sufficiently validated by research.

While a relatively small number of studies have been conducted, the findings are limited in scope, disparate, and vary in their findings. Data indicate that 0.8% of all news is devoted to religion, about the same coverage given to education and immigration issues. Vultee, Craft, and Velker (2010) found religion coverage in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and Houston Chronicle to be mixed. The Atlanta paper had more religious coverage in 2000 than in 1992, but the opposite trend occurred in Houston. Vultee et al. report that in regard to whether depictions were negative: “Our findings say ‘no’” (p. 159). In a content analysis of network television news, Kerr (2003) found that Fundamentalist Christians were portrayed in a “mildly negative manner,” and the “main focus of newscasts involving Fundamentalists is politics,” with the most prevalent news value being “conflict” (Kerr, 2003, p. 203). In Greece, it was noted that newspapers were “predominantly negative” in tone when depicting Protestants (Bantimaroudis, 2007, p. 234).

In a study of newspaper and magazine articles, Chen (2003) found journalists’ descriptions of Mormons during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to contain “stereotypical images” (p. 29). Baker and Campbell (2010) offer a five-factor model for better understanding “media representation of Mormon identity,” which includes the nature of media outlets, how Mormons influence media content, influences of other religions, secular voices, and the relationship between Mormonism and government (pp. 110–114). The model is a means of placing news coverage of Mormonism, such as that of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in a larger cultural and historical context.

Gormly's (2004) study of how the Christian TV news program 700 Club portrayed Islam after the September 11 attacks, reveals an unsympathetic portrayal of Muslims, framing the denomination as a threat to Christianity.

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