"The Complexity of Religion Can be Daunting"

Northeastern University’s journalism department held a forum Wednesday at 11:45 to discuss the topic of how religion in the media is changing.

The three speakers included Benjamin Hubbard, professor of comparative religion at California State University, Debra Mason, executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association and director of the Center for Religion, the Professions and the Public at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and Munir Shaikh, executive director of the California-based Institute on Religion and Civic Values.

Northeastern’s professor Stephen Burgard moderated the discussion that was held in the Curry Student center Ballroom. Around 100 students, faculty, and staff attended the hour and 45 minute discussion.

Hubbard, the first speaker opened with some stats about media bias in correlation to religion. According to recent studies, there’s been a problem with the siding with traditional, conservative religions in stories heavy in conflict.

“The media loves stories about religion if they have conflict,” Hubbard said. “This makes it look like a constant struggle between us and them.”

The media has to be constantly worried about how they’re portraying religions today, he stressed. It’s important to cover both sides, and all stories, including those without conflict.
Hubbard thinks that religion is becoming more and more present and the media needs to start focusing more on religion stories, and in making them accurate.

“Religion…is present so often that the need for reporters to be religion literate is becoming more and more important,” Hubbard said.

He went on to mention some important internet sites, including religioustolerance.com, that have been doing an exceptional job either covering religion stories or providing journalists with important religious information.

The recent story of Barack Obama’s former reverend showed both responsible and irresponsible religious coverage by the media, Hubbard explained. The politically right leaning media fell short in telling the whole story, while the left went behind and double checked information and told the whole story.

Mason spoke next, opening with the obvious recent changes in the media in general. Community building, conversational writing, and guerilla marketing have become essential in today’s world of journalism, Mason began with.

“The core of how we define news…is changing,” Mason said. “For religion news, I think that’s a good thing.”

She introduced those in attendance to the site beliefnet.com and complimented the site on its ability to include information from a wide range of religions and topics. She also showed the site the directs: religionwriters.org.

The first step in good religion writing is knowing yourself and your own values, Mason instructed. You have to know what you believe in, because you will be asked that question, and you have to know your biases so you can be careful of that in your writing.

She then advised journalists to do your research before going to an interview. You need to know certain aspects of their religious beliefs so you can show them that you respect them. Have tough skin when approaching an article as well, she said.

“No other topic gets criticized or critiqued as much as religion,” said said. But don’t scare that into approaching the topic with fervor.

Like in many other beats, religion is being cut from papers around the country, so if a journalist wants to write about religion for the rest of their lives they ought to have a back-up plan, or be open to thinking outside of traditional media.

Rocco Palmo, a young man in his 20’s from Philadelphia, started his own blog called Whispers in the Loggia, a blog about the Vatican. He has been able to cover stories on Catholicism that no one has traditionally been able to get access to, Mason explained. Those are the kinds of directions up and coming religion journalists should be looking towards.

The last speaker spoke more directly about the religion of Islam. He explained that in today’s society it is extremely important to be respectful of religions we may not know a whole lot about.
The media has previously made mistakes in wording and phrases that can be easily avoided by learning more about the religion and the modern way of addressing things versus the more archaic way.

He then showed both articles that showed obvious biases towards Muslims, and those who approached the topic respectfully and with grace.

“The professional side,” Shaikh said, “I think, is showing tremendous maturity.”