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 big questions that specialty-beat reporters always have to ask themselves is this: “How much background information can I assume that my readers know about the subject of this complex story?”
Readers here at GetReligion aren’t surprised to hear about the troubles that some religious groups have when attempting to build new or expanded worship sites. In recent years, we’ve seen stories about attempts to thwart construction or religious practice for Hindus, Orthodox Jews, Pagans, Mormons, Muslims and even charismatic Anglicans.
The Taliban this weekend provided a tragic reminder of why short-term mission trips don’t pick Afghanistan as a destination. Ten murdered. But why?
When news of Christopher Hitchens’ esophageal cancer first hit the news, blogs, Twitter, Facebook news feeds, there was a lot of cause for concern and several requests for prayer. Then a few people paused and said, “Wait, does Christopher Hitchens even want anyone to pray for him?”
We could probably spend weeks looking at the media coverage of the mosque proposed to be built near Ground Zero. One of the things I find so interesting about this story is how so much of the reporting on the mosque and its backers is being done by non-traditional media. And many of the mainstream reports seem less interested in that aspect of the story than looking at the opposition to the mosque. It creates a weird media climate where the best news and analysis comes from blogs and pundits and, well, the worst treatment and analysis comes from blogs and pundits.
While I was on vacation, the mainstream press experienced another mini-storm of coverage linked to an old simmering story. I refer to the release, by the Italian weekly magazine Panorama, of a cover story — backed with covert videos — about the private affairs of gay Catholic priests in Rome.
We spend a lot of time reading stories that miss an obvious religion angle or ones that don’t give enough space to explain some fundamentals. Our eyes widen at stories that do a nice job of explaining complex issues in under 1,000 words.
One of the things that annoys me about reporting is how we spend so much time looking for and writing about dramatic news hooks that we miss the day-to-day drama of real life. I almost never see my religious life reflected in a given news story. My congregation is not driven by trends. We worship in largely the same way Lutherans have always worshiped. This does not make for exciting news coverage, as you might imagine.
