2003.05.12
Crosswalk:
Newspapers Fall Short on Religious
Accuracy and Context, Study Alleges
Steve
Brown
Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) - Daily newspapers
have
"significant gaps in providing
readers with an understanding of
religious beliefs and practices," a
University of Rochester
(N.Y.)
study reveals.
"On the one hand, religion pervades America's
newspapers," Curt Smith,
former presidential speechwriter and
senior
lecturer of English at the
University of Rochester said in a
release.
"On the other, stories about
religion rarely discuss its beliefs,
values and practices."
The study, which was conducted by
faculty
members and students in the
university's department of classics,
examined 12 daily newspapers between
Feb. 3 and March
2.
"Since September 11, America's stakes in understanding the
visions and
hopes of the world's religions are higher now than
ever,"
William Scott
Green, professor of religion, and Phillip
Bernstein,
University of
Rochester dean, said in a release. "For most
Americans,
the press is a
primary source of information about other people's
religions.
"Knowing what Americans see every day helps
explain how
and what we learn
about one another," Green and Bernstein
stated.
Reacting to the study, political commentator and
writer
Michael Barone
said: "The amount of church news seemed to be
proportionate to the
church-going habits of the elites in a
particular
metropolitan area.
"In Dallas and Atlanta, where a lot of
elite
people go to church, they
printed a lot more church news than in
New
York or Washington, where most
of the elite don't go to church,"
Barone
said.
Barone, a senior writer for U.S. News World
Report
magazine and co-author
of The Almanac of American Politics, took
part
in a roundtable discussion
of the study with other prominent
journalists at the university this past week.
According to
the
press release, students "read every story in every section
of 12
newspapers from around the country to quantify and analyze
the
content
and context of articles referencing religion."
Key findings
of the
study included:
-- Religion stories most often described
religion
in political and legal
terms, using religious terms without a
frame of
reference.
A Feb. 8 Los Angeles Times story dealt with an
orthodox
Jewish group's
request to erect a religious enclosure around part
of a
neighborhood to
perform daily activities such as pushing a
stroller.
"There was, however, no further detail about the
nature
of orthodox Jewish
beliefs that would explain these practices to
the
reader," the Rochester
study stated.
-- Coverage of
Islam
is primarily associated with criminal activity and
other bad
deeds but
minimizes Islam's larger teachings and practices,
particularly in
America.
As evidence, the study cited another Feb. 8 story,
this
time on the front
page of the Los Angeles Times, with the
headline,
"Terror Threat Level Is
Raised to 'High Risk,'" with the
subtitle,
"Intelligence shows an increased
chance of an al Qaeda attack
keyed to
the annual Muslim pilgrimage to
Mecca, known as
Hajj."
Appearing adjacent to the story was a photo of two
Middle
Eastern men next
to a missile.
"We observed the
trend of
connecting Islamic practices with terrorism in
each study paper,"
the
University of Rochester researchers stated. "Many
stories offered
credible evidence for such linkage. They did not,
however,
elaborate on
the beliefs and practices associated with the Hajj.
"This
omission
may reinforce the perception that Islam promotes terrorism,"
the
study
pointed out.
-- Roman Catholicism was more often linked with
criminal or bad behavior >
than with Catholic beliefs and
values.
"In several newspapers, we found stories of the
sexual
abuse scandal that
repeated information already reported on in a
prior
story," the study stated.
It detailed a Feb. 14 Boston Globe
item,
which "contained an obituary of a
priest that included in-depth
coverage about the sex-abuse scandal of which
he was not a
part."
-- Coverage of the war with Iraq presented religious,
anti-war views more
prominently than pro-war views, often citing
politics, safety and public
opinion in support of that
position.
The University of Rochester report noted that
anti-war
spokespeople "often
included the National Council of Churches and
Pope
John Paul II" to support
their point of view.
"The March 2
Seattle Post Intelligencer said that many Catholics would
like
the pope
to visit America, talk to President Bush and 'avert
this
slaughter,'"
the study said. "The same day, the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
quoted
seven people who opposed the war, including
Quaker leaders,
Presbyterian and Baptist ministers, and the Southern
Christian
Leadership Conference."
The Rochester study issued
recommendations
for how daily newspapers could
improve their religious coverage.
"Remember that context is the key to the
complete reporting of a
story;
distinguish between the group and the
action; and consider a
religion
section," the report urged, noting,
however, that both the Dallas
Morning News and the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution already have
such
sections.
It also recommended that daily papers accentuate
religion
"close to home,"
be balanced in terms of coverage, reflect both
the
newspaper's region and
country; and develop a means of obtaining
advice
and expertise about religion.
A similar 1997 study undertaken
by
the Media Research Center examined
religion in entertainment
television. It found that for every positive
depiction of the
devout
laity, there were 10 negative ones.
"While positive
portrayals of
the clergy (barely) outnumbered negative
ones, entertainment
television
continues to slam the devout laity for their
beliefs," the 1997
report
said.
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© Copyright 2002,
Crosswalk.com. All rights reserved.
Study finds coverage
of
religion in newspapers grows but is
less
accurate
(ENS) A study at the University of
Rochester, released April 30,
finds that coverage of religion in
newspapers may have broadened
but the accuracy of that coverage
and the
context often remain
incomplete.
Faculty and
students in
the department of religion analyzed 12
daily newspapers, in what
they
claim is the most exhaustive
review of religion in the media in
the
wake of the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks. "Since
September 11,
America's stakes
in understand the visions and hopes of the
world's
religions are
higher now than ever," said Prof. William Scott
Green,
dean of
the college and professor of Judaic studies. "For most
Americans
the press is a primary source of information about
other
peoples' religions. Knowing what Americans see every day
helps
explain how--and what--we learn about one
another."
"When it comes to religion, the press seems at odds
with
itself," the introduction to the study said. "On one
hand,
religion pervades America's newspapers as part of the
background
on topics from politics and economics to sports and
the
arts. On
the other hand, stories about religion itself
infrequently
address religion's beliefs and
values."
The
study, "Religion in American Newspapers: A Critique
and
Challenge,"
found that much of the coverage of the Roman
Catholics is
associated
with the church's sex-abuse scandals,
and coverage of Islam is
"more
than ever identified with >
terrorism." The study asks whether
"religion is a topic that is
too difficult to treat in daily
newspapers? Does it pose
challenges to reporting that other
subjects do
not? Should the
press be obligated to cover religion fully?" The
answers to
those questions "raise important issues for the
conduct
and
character of American life."
Among the
recommendations
emerging from the study are:
1. Remember that the context is
the
key to the complete
reporting of a story.
2. Make a
clear
distinction between religion and criminal
activity associated
with that
religion, clarifying the context
whenever
possible.
3.
Consider a religion section as one way of providing
fair,
comprehensive
and interesting coverage.
4. Accentuate religion close to
home by
using more feature
stories about local religious groups and
individuals.
5. Be balanced in coverage to help readers
recognize
an
"accurate perspective on their communities."
6.
Reflect
both the newspaper's region and country, especially
in terms of
race,
gender and religion, to provide balance.
7. Use advisory
groups to
identify issues that are
newsworthy--and how the paper is
covering
current stories.
(The study is available on the
web
<http://mail.rochester.edu/~jr012i/paper/contents>..)
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