Religious Literacy in News

Abstract

This article seeks to bring analysis and insight into the conundrum of covering religion and spirituality for mass audiences in ways that enlighten and help build bridges among people. The article brings clarity to how we define religious literacy for professional journalists, in order to allow for the creation of measurable standards and impacts. A historical review of religious literacy and news—including the origins of distrust between people of faith and secularist news companies—gives important context to problems today. The article explains why religious literacy is important for the news media and more broadly, democracy, by relying on the professional journalistic values such as accuracy, truth-telling, and diversity. Also included is a review of religious literacy from within journalism education standards and examples of several successful religious literacy initiatives.

Keywords:

• religious literacy
• news
• journalism

Notes

1 W. Lippman, Liberty and the News (London: Forgotten Books, 2017). https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/books/LibertyandtheNews_10137265 (Originally published in 1920).

2 Pew Research Center (2019). “What Americans Know About Religion.” July 23, 2019. https://www.pewforum.org/2019/07/23/what-americans-know-about-religion/

3 J. Littau, “Time to ‘Get’ Religion: An Analysis of Religious Literacy among Journalism Students,” Journal of Media and Religion 14, no. 3 (2015)

4 W. Y. A. Chan, H. Mistry, A. Zaver, E. Reid, and S. Jafralie, “Recognition of Context and Experience: A Civic-Based Canadian Conception of Religious Literacy,” Journal of Beliefs and Values 41, no. 3 (2020): 255–271.

5 D. Moore, “Diminishing Religious Literacy: Methodological Assumptions and Analytical Frameworks for Promoting the Public Understanding of Religion,” in Religious literacy in policy and practice (Bristol, U.K.: Policy Press, 2016).

6 D. Nord, Faith in Reading: Religious Publishing and the Birth of Mass Media in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

7 J. P. Ferré, “Protestant Press Relations in the U.S., 1900–1930,” Church History 62, no. 4 (1993): 514–27.

8 Ibid.

9 D. L. Mason, “Religion News Coverage between 1930 and 1960,” in The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media, edited by D. Winston (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

10 Ibid.

11 L. Willnat, D. Weaver, and C. Wilhoit, The American Journalist in the Digital Age (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2014).

12 M. Worthen, In The Atlantic (May 2017).

13 D. Masci, M. Besheer, and G. A. Smith, “Black American are More Likely than Overall Public to be Christian, Protestant,” on Pewresearch.com. https://pewrsr.ch/31YI7HL (April 23, 2018).

14 S. Rodriguez, “The Latino Transformation of American Evangelicalism,” in Reflections. Fall issue. https://reflections.yale.edu/article/who-my-neighbor-facing-immigration/latino-transformation-american-evangelicalism (2008).

15 R. Rimel, “Notes from the President” in Trust, Winter. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/25259603/pew-trust-vol71-insi-the-pew-charitable-trusts (2004).

16 Pew Research Center (2017). “Americans Express Increasingly Warm Feelings Toward Religious Groups”. https://www.pewforum.org/2017/02/15/americans-express-increasingly-warm-feelings-toward-religious-groups/

17 E. Poole, “How is Islam Represented on the BBC” in Open Democracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ourbeeb/how-is-islam-represented-on-bbc/ (2016).

18 S. Buttry, “Accuracy” Build Your Own Ethics Code Project.” Online News Association. https://ethics.journalists.org/topics/accuracy/

19 ASNE Census, “How Diverse are U.S. Newsrooms?” Infographic. https://googletrends.github.io/asne/?view=2&filter=race (2018).

20 G. P. Perreault, “Teaching Religion and Media: Syllabi and Pedagogy,” Journal of Media and Religion 14, no. 3 (2015): 128–44.

21 Courses taught at the Northwestern University, University of Missouri-Columbia and University of South Carolina all ceased within the last two years.

22 AAR Religious Literacy Guidelines: What U.S. College Graduates Need to Understand about Religion,” Atlanta, Georgia: American Academy of Religion, 2019. Accessed March 30, 2021 at https://www.aarweb.org/AARMBR/Publications-and-News-/Guides-and-Best-Practices-/Teaching-and-Learning-/AAR-Religious-Literacy-Guidelines.aspx

23 Accreditation by the Accrediting Council of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is a voluntary process. The vast majority of journalism programs in the United States are unaccredited, often because they either find the standards too restrictive or are too small to meet core standards. Diversity is included in three of the nine core professional values and competencies. The standards indicate that students graduating from accredited programs should be able to “demonstrate an understanding of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and, as appropriate, other forms of diversity in domestic society in relation to mass communications,” and that students should “demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of peoples and cultures and of the significance and impact of mass communications in a global society,” and “demonstrate an understanding of professional ethical principles and work ethically in pursuit of truth, accuracy, fairness and diversity.”

24 The East-West Center hosts a variety of immersive experiential programs. One religion-centric program is held no more than once a year and journalists are expected to work for large and elite outlets.

25 This article’s author was the creator and administrator of the scholarships program throughout its existence.

26 Religion News Foundation. “Lilly Endowment Inc. Lilly Scholarships Grant Report 2012” (Westerville, Ohio: RNF, 2012). From the RNF Archives.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Debra L. Mason

Professor EmeritaDebra L. Mason is at University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, USA. [email protected]