Religion
Related: About this forumSchooling Journalists In Religion
http://blog.acton.org/archives/69551-schooling-journalists-religion.htmlELISE HILTON on MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014
Do you know the name of the author and publisher of the Book of Ephesians? Do all Mormons practice polygamy? What about the two major branches of Islam?
Apparently, many journalists dont know the answers to these questions either. (That first one was a real question asked by a journalist to Michael Cromartie, of the D.C.-based Ethics and Public Policy Center.) Given how much religion informs the lives of most people on the planet, and our news, it is a bit astounding to realize that most journalists are only vaguely familiar with religions and religious topics, unless that is their beat. The Philanthropy Roundtable is trying to help close the gap in knowledge for reporters by hosting a series of conferences (entitled the Faith Angle Forum) on faith and media.
Largely the brain-child of Cromartie, the conferences aim to bring together journalists and religious experts, creating what he calls robust dialogue.
Theological concepts like sin and repentance, as it turns out, have a very practical application in the news business. Atlantic political reporter Molly Ball asks a pointed question: How do we afford these people their human capacity for absolution, while also not letting them off the hook? Jones describes what real atonement looks like, citing Watergate-conspirator-turned-prison-evangelist Chuck Colson as an example.
The Forum tries to stay as current as possible. For instance, understanding the Mormon faith took center-stage in the news business with Mitt Romneys 2012 Presidential bid.
more at link
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)Specialist journalists have gone the way of the dodo. The big publications have a difficult time justifying paying specialists for sections or columns that simply are not widely read. Whether it is religion or science, niche topics have become the purview of generalized journalists who have no specialization in the topics to which they've been assigned.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)What stories she is sent on seems random and covering a wide range of expertise.
Is it partly a reflection of the public's wish to just get something easy to read and not to technical?
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)First, there's the Cognitive Miser Theory. Mental processing can be tasking; we want to get to the point quickly and efficiently. Pages and pages of copy are antithetical to this arguably-innate desire.
Related to that is the issue of relevance. People don't always see how seemingly tedious information relates to their lives. Discovering the Higgs Boson or explaining in painful detail the assorted revelations to Joseph Smith aren't going to lower the rent, put gas in the car, or keep the plant from closing. Explaining these things is a pointless endeavor if you first have to explain why they should even care about them in the first place.
So, by my approximation, roughly half the readership is too lazy to trudge through a detailed article, while the other half couldn't be bothered with these sections to begin with. Why pay good money on a highly-educated science journalist when you buy up a bunch of TMZ-quality celebrity gossips for a bigger return?
pinto
(106,886 posts)Most of what I know I've found on my own through internet searches. At one point I left a desktop link to a Shia/Sunni map of the Mid East on my computer to reference when the MSM was covering events in the region. There was never much background or larger context to the coverage.
And little coverage of the Muslim populations in the US.