Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Several readers have written in to let us know about a new feature over at Poynter.org entitled “New Frames Needed for Religion Reporting,” written by Bill Kirtz of Northeastern University. This is a short summary of a recent forum on the subject at Northeastern and it offers some timely advice from veterans on the beat and some very good links to information.
On my way to opening night at the new Nationals ball park last night, a man who was walking to a late Mass at a local church told me that he was upset by the report that Muslims had overtaken Roman Catholics as the largest single denomination. The story he read came from Reuters reporter Silvia Aloisi and here’s how it begins:
In recent weeks, I’ve tried to point out some of the better and worse coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit to the United States.
Newsweek ran the oddest article by Christopher Dickey yesterday. It reads like an opinion piece, in that way that so much of what’s in the news magazines do, but it’s not marked as an opinion piece.
Feature news stories on social trends and movements should avoid the temptation to start the article with an extreme. In what seems to be a continuation of the newest beat at The New York Times — home schooling — the story starts out with an interesting anecdote about American Muslims homeschoolers with what likely will become an unfortunate stereotype if it is not already:
Let me ask, once again, a question that I keep asking at this here weblog: When did it become liberal for liberals to attack conservatives for defending the rights of liberals?
I’ve been admiring how much work Gary Stern, the Journal News religion reporter, has put into preparing for the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI. He put up an interactive Web site and publishes regular updates on his religion blog.
I hope readers who celebrated Easter yesterday had a beautiful day. I was most intrigued by coverage of the baptism of Magdi Allam, a prominent critic of radical Islam. Here’s how Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press began her story:
Once again, the local Indianapolis media are ignoring the religious issue involved in the second Muslim being elected to Congress. A week ago relatively high voter turnout for a special congressional election propelled local city council member Andre Carson into Congress. He is facing a stiff Democratic primary battle in less than 8 weeks, and if he wins will run against the Republican nominee in the general election in November.
