Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Can Christianity find a place in Hollywood? Christians in the movie business face a high level of pressure to hide their faith, despite the recent resurgence of Hollywood interest in spirituality. Sarah Price Brown of Religion News Service found an inside-Hollywood story that reminded me of some of the work going on in journalism.
Too much religion reporting? How is that possible, one might ask? A couple of National Public Radio listeners feel that way, along with its ombudsman, Jeffrey A. Dvorkin. Since I rarely listen to NPR — I bike to work — it would be difficult for me judge whether NPR covers too much news of a religious nature. I can say that I think Dvorkin fails to give credible statistics regarding the radio network’s coverage and generalizes on the subject.
Looks like I wasnââ¬â¢t the only one who protested the level of news-play Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson received for his noisy memorial service last weekend. MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman objected as well:
An August 13 Reuters article on the Houston Chronicle‘s website attempts to be incendiary. I can’t decide whether this is major news that should have received more attention (it did not) or a minor footnote. I’ll let you people decide for me.
The biggest news out of World Youth Day’s grand finale was the Pope’s announcement that Sydney will be the next World Youth Day host.
The Los Angeles Times dropped a splurge of religious stories yesterday. The articles are not directly connected to one another, but all have ties to one another. Itââ¬â¢s one of those things that the editor probably didn’t realize until looking over the paper the next day.
I’m from the great Hoosier state and I can’t say I was too proud to see earlier this year that a county judge from our largest city — Indianapolis — barred a couple of parents from exposing their children to “non-mainstream religion beliefs and rituals,ââ¬Â particularly Wicca.
Headlines can be tricky things. In perusing the stories on the upcoming World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, I came across three distinct types. The most basic news story simply contained edicts declaring the beginning of World Youth Day, often with a large number attached:
Daily news coverage of religious controversies lends to a familiar formula. One side is pitted against another. Quippy quotes from both sides are dropped into the article for spice and the reporter is left satisfied that a standard of objectivity was met and the reader will be left informed.
