Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
One of the greatest challenges that journalists face, in my humble opinion, is knowing how to handle a strong, newsworthy statement of fact by a person of authority that simply cannot be verified as accurate.
From time to time, we receive emails from people concerned about a lack of mainstream media coverage of the persecution of the ancient churches inside Iraq, an already tragic situation that is getting worse as Iraq begins to fly apart into competing Islamic states, or tribes, or whatever. This is, of course, part of a wider story in the region — as I learned during my recent visit to Istanbul.
An Associated Press story on Muslims worldwide rejecting violence against civilians provides a great lead-in to the latest Newsweek cover story on Islam in America. Based on a survey by the Pew Research Center, the AP article tells us that Muslims are “increasingly” rejecting suicide bombings, and support for Osama bin Laden is collapsing.
Reporters have not surprisingly played up the religious aspect of Turkey’s elections this past weekend. While religion has no doubt played a significant part in bringing the country to early elections and will be a big factor in voters’ decision-making, there are other aspects of the story that reporters risk missing if religion is all they focus on.
Jolly good (and other silly things that Americans think we are supposed to say to sound a wee bit British). Texans would say, “Thanks a bunch.”
China is giving Christian missionaries the boot in advance of the 2008 Olympic Games, according to an Associated Press article by Alexa Olesen. It’s a pretty straightforward story about more government oppression of religion in the world’s most populous nation.
I asked on Monday if it makes sense for journalists to use the word “Islamic” as an adjective to describe nouns such as “militants” or “terrorists.”
I was flipping through my copy of Newsweek the other day and came across a headline that almost made me swoon. To make matters more interesting for people who care about religion news, this little article was part of the magazine’s giant “What You Need To Know Now” spread.
Sometimes I wonder if you could interpret everything that goes on of significance in Iraq through the lens of religion. In a solid news story Thursday, The Christian Science Monitor gives us the details on what Iraqi politicians are doing these days to appeal to their constituents:
