Saturday, December 13, 1997

Religion coverage getting more attention from the secular media

By Jim Jones / Knight-Ridder Newspapers

The "God beat" is no longer regarded as it was portrayed on the old "Lou Grant" TV series about a Los Angeles newspaper.

In one episode, City Editor Grant wanted to get rid of an inept reporter, so he assigned him to cover the religion beat. The reporter resigned.

But that negative, stereotypical view has faded in recent years, according to speakers at a recent "Religion and Journalism" seminar at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The school's journalism department and the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center of Vanderbilt University sponsored the seminar.

A surge of interest in religion reporting in the secular press has been fueled by many factors, including heightened attention to spirituality, ties between politics and religion, and volatile social issues such as abortion and euthanasia, several speakers said.

Events such as the Jim and Tammy Bakker scandals, the fall of evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, and news of Catholic priests involved in sexual misconduct have also propelled religion news into the forefront, said seminar speaker Pamela Schaefer. She is editor and reporter for the National Catholic Reporter and a former religion writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch."

Interest has heightened in the Religion Newswriters Association, which has conferences and journalism contests to improve the quality of religion writing, said Cecile Holmes, the group's president.

The organization has 200 active members -- those who report on religion full or part time -- and 100 associate members, which includes those formerly on the beat.

"We had 80 new members join in 1996 and 1997," said Holmes, religion editor of the Houston Chronicle.

Still, surveys indicate that many of the nation's 1,500 daily newspapers do not have religion reporters, a fact deplored by Baylor University President Robert Sloan.

"Why is it we have so few religion writers, given the fact we know religion is a subject that is so pervasive in our lives?" Sloan asked. "We have far more sports writers."

Many newsroom editors are skeptical and uncomfortable dealing with religion news, said John Dart, co-author with the Rev. Jimmy Allen of a major study, "Bridging the Gap: Religion and the News Media."

Some fear dealing with such a controversial subject. Others are caught in traditional news concepts that relegate religion to the "church page," he said.

But religion news is getting a higher profile. Newsweek, Time and U.S. News and World Report say their cover stories on religious topics account for some of their fastest-selling issues. Bookstores stock more and more titles relating to religion and spirituality.

TV coverage of religion is still limited. But Peter Jennings of ABC News hired Peggy Wehmeyer as a religion reporter. Public television recently began a weekly "Religion and Ethics" news program.

Also, the Tampa Tribune's religion writer, Michelle Bearden, has a weekly television program of religion news, and Newsweek religion editor Richard Ostling regularly appears on the Jim Lehrer NewsHour on public television.

Dart's and Allen's 1993 study, sponsored by the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, polled nearly 1,000 religious leaders and 1,000 editors and reporters. It concluded that a "vast chasm" exists between the news media and the religious community.

"We knew there had been unspoken tensions between the religious community and the news media," Dart said. "It was not uncommon for Christian clergy to think they were mistreated by the news media."

Many clergy members believe that news coverage of religion is biased, unfairly negative and too sensational, Dart said.

What surprised many is that the study found that editors are more friendly to religion than many expected. The number of editors who say religion is important to their lives was about the same as the number of people in the general community who said the same. The "gap" between the news media and religion, the report said, is not caused by hostility toward religion, but by editors' discomfort with the complex nature of religion coverage, their failure to recognize religious elements in breaking news, and poor communication between journalists and religious communities.

Misunderstanding between journalists and religionists is often caused by the contrast between faith and fact, Dart said.

"Many journalists will look at people of faith and say, ÔWhere's the proof?' " Dart said. "And people of faith will say, ÔYou just don't get it.' "

Not recognizing religious elements in news coverage is a central problem for newspapers, Allen told the Society of Professional Journalists' Quill magazine.

Dan Lattimore, chairman of the University of Memphis journalism department who participated in the Waco conference, said a better way to describe the religion beat is "the God beat."

"Reporters need to tell how God is working in people's lives," he said.

The content of religion coverage is changing, said Roy Larson, director of the Center for Religion and the News Media in Evanston, Ill.

"There's no doubt newspapers are devoting increased space to religion," Larson said. "But it's not the old type of institutional coverage. You don't cover religion like you do City Hall. It's not covering buildings."

What is emphasized, Larson said, are the connections between religion and daily life.

"It's covering religion and the workplace, religion and school life, religion and weight loss, religion and health," he said.

Larson said many newspaper editors are hesitant to launch a serious religion beat because they have no reporters with an appropriate background.

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Many assigned to the beat learn the intricacies of the job as they go along, said Larson, a former United Methodist minister who reported on religion for the "Chicago Sun-Times" for 16 years.

Now Larson helps supervise one of the few academic programs set up to train religion writers.

"We have a three-year program in which students emerge with a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism of Northwestern University and a master's degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary," Larson said.

The center also has training programs for journalists covering religion.

"We have 30 religion writers from across the nation who are coming here for a conference this month," Larson said. "All of them have less than five years' time on the religion beat."

Columbia University and Union Seminary in New York City also offer coordinated programs for those planning to pursue religion writing, Larson said.

A "God and the Newsroom" edition of the Nieman Reports is the most popular edition of that quarterly journal about societal issues, published by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University.

The report features views on religion news by journalists and educators.

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Fred Barnes, a television journalist, former White House correspondent for The New Republic and now editor of The Standard weekly public opinion magazine, has a more negative opinion about newspaper attitudes toward religion.

Barnes, who is a frequent panelist on the "McLaughlin Group" show on public television, was a journalist for 10 years before becoming a born-again Christian.

He says many editors and reporters are biased against religion, especially conservative religion.

"What is dying slowly is the media's thinking that religion always has to be private," Barnes said. "The privacy idea is why many think religion was not newsworthy."

Debates over prayer in school, abortion, and separation of church and state show clearly that religion is not merely a private matter, he said.

There are also practical reasons for newspapers to give more attention to religion news.

"We want to sell newspapers," said Rich Oppel, editor of the Austin American-Statesman. "Faith and religion are a very important part of our readers' lives."

Religion sections that have been developed by some major newspapers are commendable, Oppel said, but he personally prefers incorporating religion news with the rest of the newspaper.

"I believe religion and faith should be a front-page story," he said.

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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