Religion and Journalism

Religion and Journalism often seem mutually exclusive because journalists are trained to find the truth and repot it, but religious truth differs depending on the subject of the story. Regardless of the differences, many consider the religion beat to be of upmost importance to the newspaper industry. An article Catherine Rolfsen she tells about a lecture given by Columbia professor Ari Goldman where he claimed that religion was the most important beat in the newspaper. “I think the best beat in journalism is religion,” Goldman said. Writing about religion allows reporters to delve in into the minds of their subjects and get past the news stories and understand the motivations of the sources.

Although journalists seek for objectivity, the view of Muslims in America is mostly negative due to poor press coverage of the Muslim faith. The media often reports only the extremes rather than the middle stance meaning that Americans hear about the radical Muslims, giving many people a negative view of Muslims. A handbook called Reporting on Religion: A Primer on Journalisms Best Beat, gives history of the religions and advice of how to cover them. It explains that America was founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs and Islam has now joined the pack as one of the more frequent religions in America.

Goldman explains that religion can compromise neutrality because religion is an important identity marker for individuals. An ethical dilemma religion reporters face is whether to disclose their own religion to their sources. Some do, but many decline by saying that although they won’t disclose their religion, they are sensitive to other religions. The Reporting on Religion handbook gives several options including being upfront, using general terms, using humor to avoid answering, or refuse to answer.

An Article by Christian Century says that religion reporting is declining amidst the economic troubles of newspapers. Although religion is very prominent in the world, there is little news about it. Often religion news is negative towards religions because they’re reporting a story in which a religion organization did something against societal norms. Gustav Niebuhr an associate professor at Syracuse University teaching both religion and journalism told journalists that covering religion was extremely important. “I cannot think of a time when your work is more important … You are going to challenge the dark times,” said Niebuhr.