Abstract
Journalism and religion aren’t that different if you think about it for a moment.
Many individuals turn to religion as a means to try and make sense of an increasingly complicated and complex world. Journalists often fill a similar need, acting as a guiding light and helping these same individuals make informed decisions. Yet, despite their similarities, the relationship between religion and journalism is anything but simple.
A recent study from the Faith & Media Initiative provided some eye-opening insights when it came to the media’s interaction (or lack of) with religion. Namely:
There is a growing gap between the coverage of religion and the needs of the faithful.
There is a global desire for better coverage, understanding, and representation of faith in media.
Fifty-three percent of respondents say the media actively ignores religion as an aspect of society and culture.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents believe it’s important that the news media cover a diverse set of faith and religious perspectives.
Sixty-three percent of people globally say that high-quality content on faith and religion is needed in their respective countries.
Journalists surveyed in this study offered a variety of explanations for why there has been a lack of solid religion-based content in the media. This includes everything from media economics (lack of specialized reporters due to budget reductions), fear of getting it wrong, diversity issues in newsrooms, a view that religion content doesn’t drive reader engagement like other topics, and the risk of perpetuating damaging stereotypes through religion coverage (Faith & Media Initiative, 2022).
Regardless of the reason, more and more voices are calling on journalism to renew its efforts to improve its reporting of religious issues. For instance, in discussing the U.S. media’s coverage of the antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, Deborah Caldwell suggested that this provided evidence that local media needed to “reclaim the religion beat.”
Local media’s core responsibility is to help readers understand the forces shaping their communities. Sometimes that involves understanding what motivates people’s religious views and the role they play in daily life. Local reporters, with their nuanced understanding of communities, are better able to find those stories, if given the opportunity. Providing those resources for substantive local religion coverage has never felt more necessary—and urgent. (Caldwell, 2023)
So how we do this and where do we begin? Here are a few suggestions offered by some of our fellow journalists. First, it’s important to do your research. This could include turning to social media by joining faith-based groups online, subscribing to faith-based podcasts, and turning to religious YouTube channels to better understand the issues that are important in religious communities. In addition, interviewing religious leaders and seeking input from religious friends and associates are also effective ways to learn more about important religious topics (Meibauer, 2023).
In addition, it’s important that journalists do some self-reflection and identify any prior assumptions and biases they may hold (Meibauer, 2023). Ensure that those views will not get in the way of being able to provide unbiased, accurate reporting. Journalists should also be aware of the harmful stereotypes that exist and seek feedback from sources on how to avoid those in the reporting. When covering religious conflict, it is important that journalists make sure they are providing appropriate context and historical background, while also seeking out multiple, different perspectives (Meibauer, 2023).
Because religion is such an inseparable part of everyday life, journalism needs to be committed to improving its efforts in the way it covers religion and religion-based issues. As scholars, we can play an important role in these efforts by continuing to study journalism’s global relationship with religion and publishing research that provides valuable insights and recommendations.
In This Issue
We have some excellent research in this issue to share with you.
Ahmed Shatil Alam and Wahida Alam explore the changes in gatekeeping roles of social media editors in Bangladesh. Through an interview with 17 editors, they found that the editors believed they enjoyed less autonomy when it came to comment moderation, considered their jobs to be “marketing” of news, and felt pressured by their bosses, advertisers, and their audiences. “The majority of those interviewed stated that their colleagues ‘neglected’ them because they thought these social media editors were involved in less important jobs and had relatively comfortable responsibilities in the newsrooms,” they concluded.
Beibit Togtarbay et al. investigate the role of citizen journalists in Kazakhstan. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, they found that the development of citizen journalism within the country is influenced by several factors. These include its ability to provide alternative views on topical issues, its involvement of citizens in discussions without fear of public censure or government persecution, its contributions to internet information resources, and providing citizens an opportunity to participate in public life. “The possibility of citizens expressing their opinions openly on almost all issues of the life of modern society is the main factor that distinguishes citizen journalism against the background of traditional media,” they suggest.
Peter Booth, Mona Solvoll, and Arne Krumsvick survey Norwegian newspaper executives on their positions related to social media. Through a principal components analysis and clustering methods, they identified four main leadership types: reluctant leaders, expectant leaders, overloaded leaders, and disappointed leaders. They also found that most of the leaders had positive perceptions of the strategic priority of social media but were struggling with how to make social media work for them. “We find wide variation in the attitude toward and usage of social media that is generally reflective of the news organization’s strategic needs and capabilities, social media-related frustrations, its culture, as well as the competencies and tradition of the newspaper executive,” they conclude.
Kingsley Cyril Mintah examine distinct linguistic features of state and private newspapers in Ghana, aiming to provide “yardsticks” that can serve as classification tools for these and similar newspapers. Mintah examined collected data using a functional grammar analysis meant to identify clauses in the text. After identifying the differences in the texts, Mintah concludes that “the overwhelming instances of differences in the patterning of the intensive and circumstantial characterizations highlight the idea that the linguistic patterns observed in newspapers are tenable to distinguish between newspapers. Thus, newspapers can be classified by examining the systematic choice of descriptions and characterizations they engage in their texts.”
Presly ‘Ruke Obukoadata, Patrick Ene Okon, and Linus Obogo study the usage, frequency, and prominence of propaganda by two political parties (All Progressives Congress and People’s Democratic Party) in select Nigerian newspapers during the 2019 election. Through a content analysis, they found that propaganda devices were used by both parties to the extent that it met their needs. “Although previous studies of the Nigerian political communication space indicate a fair use of these devices, this study shows dominant deployment of these devices, and would be within normalization principles to state that the oncoming electioneering activities will witness heightened deployment of these devices to not just sway opinion but confuse the electorate,” they concluded.
Finally, Ricardo Leiva and Alejandra Riveros investigate the link between gender discrimination and work satisfaction of Chilean female journalists. Specifically, they conducted two surveys—one in 2016 and one in 2022—comparing the results. They found that work satisfaction decreased significantly between 2016 and 2022, compared to male journalists. They also found that factors like perceived autonomy, gender equality, and the number of female supervisors in the newsrooms each had a significant effect on the female journalists’ work satisfaction. “Women are more satisfied when they work in an equal workplace, with a lower perception of gender discrimination and enough female editors or supervisors in their newsrooms. They also feel more satisfied when they perceive themselves as more independent and autonomous,” they suggest.