"There is a growing gap between the coverage of religion and the needs of the faithful–global desire for better coverage, understanding and representation of faith in media. 53% of respondents [of the online survey among 9,489 adults in 18 countries across six continents] say the media actively ig
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nores religion as an aspect of society and culture today. 59% of respondents believe it’s important that the news media covers a diverse set of faith and religious perspectives or content. 63% of people globally said that high quality content on faith and religion is needed in their respective countries. People want faith and religious stereotypes to be addressed: 61% say media perpetuates these stereotypes rather than protects against them. 78% believe such stereotypes should get the same or more attention as race and gender stereotypes. 8 in 10 believe faith and religious groups must provide more relevant spokespeople. Over 85% want more diversity and lived experiences from these representatives (among those who feel faith and media groups must do more). Journalists feel that coverage of faith & religion is poor, inconsistent, and becoming more marginalized. They express fear around ’getting right’ religious coverage, particularly in largely secular newsrooms. Religious stories are not seen as a good fit for ‘hard’ news, easier to do ‘soft’ coverage and focus ‘hard’ news on times of controversy or scandal." (Findings at-a-glance, page 5)
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"Religion has ‘returned’ to news discourses, since 9/11, with a focus on Muslims and Islam and more recently on Catholicism (in the wake of paedophile priest scandals) and anti-Semitism (with the rise of the far-right movements). These news discourses, however, tend to adopt limited perspectives
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, and do not reflect the diversity of practices and viewpoints within these religious traditions. As Australia becomes increasingly ‘superdiverse’, there is a greater need for the inclusivity of cultural perspectives of these religions. Current research findings show that religious literacy among media practitioners in Australia is not only limited to specific notions about a small number of religions, it is exacerbated by an Anglo-Celtic dominance in the media workforce. This article suggests that for news media to provide a more culturally and religiously inclusive public service to promote societal understanding, current and emerging journalists require a more reflexive understanding of religions, through journalism studies and humanities more broadly, and how they have historically shaped the world, and continue to do so." (Abstract)
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"[...] Faith communities in Malaysia seem to constantly find ways to reach out to each other and to Malaysians who may not necessarily share their backgrounds. This already contradicts the assumption that local religions are often intolerant towards each other. Rather, what is required is a platform
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for dialogue, representation, and to use a term that a ‘Diverse Voices’ panellist used, mediation. On the other hand, media practitioners and journalists have helped the fieldwork reflect on the material and political conditions in which local stories about religion are shaped. More importantly, going beyond the ‘helicopter view’, the project gradually learned what is actually going on from the ground. In fact, one of the journalists has described this constant anxiety over potential punishment, public backlash, and being dismissed as an “unspoken structure.” The lesson is, journalists themselves called for empowering, training, and organising. Most journalists mentioned the lack of sustainable resources. While there are existing journalist groups and unions, including the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Institute of Journalists (IOJ) in Malaysia, these are not focused on supporting the religious reporting process. Rather, they provide more general support for journalists." (Page 23)
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"The handbook is divided into five parts, each taking global developments in the field into account: Theoretical Reflections, Power and Authority Conflict, Radicalization and Populism, Dialogue and Peacebuilding, Trends. Within these sections, central issues, debates and developments are examined, i
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ncluding: religious and secular press; ethics; globalization; gender; datafication; differentiation; journalistic religious literacy; race, and religious extremism." (Publisher description)
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"A central theme running through this report is the basic and fundamental conviction that journalists and programme-makers should aim to explore the “lived experience” of religion as well as its doctrinal, ritual and ceremonial elements. This view was supported across the full body of our submis
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sions and by panellists from a variety of different faiths. Too often, religion and belief are reduced to a series of rules to be learnt and practices understood; it was instructive that the majority of responses from media organisations understood religious literacy only as a matter of acquiring knowledge. For the vast majority of people of faith, this is only one part of their religious lives. Focusing on practices and rituals fundamentally misses the lived experience of faith as something which informs every part of public and private life and acts as a source of motivation, strength and guidance to the majority of the world’s inhabitants. Until this simple truth is understood, the media will continue to misrepresent and misunderstand religion." (Executive summary)
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"In the constant deluge of media coverage on Islam, Muslims are often portrayed as terrorists, refugees, radicals, or victims, depictions that erode human responses of concern, connection, or even a willingness to learn about Muslims. On Islam helps break this cycle with information and strategies t
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o understand and report the modern Muslim experience. Journalists, activists, bloggers, and scholars offer insights into how Muslims are represented in the media today and offer tips for those covering Islam in the future. Interviews provide personal and often moving firsthand accounts of people confronting the challenges of modern life while maintaining their Muslim faith, and brief overviews provide a crash course on Muslim beliefs and practices." (Publisher description)
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"¿Quiénes nos representan en los medios? ¿Cómo lo hacen? ¿Qué efectos pueden producir esas representaciones? Estas y otras preguntas se responden a través de esta brillante invetigación, focalizada particularmente en la representación de "lo cholo" y "lo mestizo", en la cobertura de la fies
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ta popular del "Gran Poder", en la prensa escrita boliviana a lo largo de casi 100 años." (Cubierta del libro)
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"The media's coverage of religion is an important question, given the central role which news media play in ensuring that people are up-to-date with religion news developments. The book examines it in different countries. After an introductory section looking at trends in religion news in print, on-
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line journalism, and as a subject of foreign news, the book surveys religion reporting in five key countries: USA, Russia, India, China, & Nigeria. The book then looks at media events through the cases of the election of Pope Francis, and the death of rabbis. The book addresses the question of the influence of religion reporting in politics; the impact of religion reporting upon religious identity; and the role of social media - through looking at case studies in France, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Israel." (Publisher description)
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"Reporting Islam argues for innovative approaches to media coverage of Muslims and their faith. The book examines the ethical dilemmas faced by Western journalists when reporting on this topic and offers a range of alternative journalistic techniques that will help news media practitioners move away
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from dominant news values and conventions when reporting on Islam. The book is based on an extensive review of international literature and interviews with news media editors, copy-editors, senior reporters, social media editors, in-house journalism trainers and journalism educators, conducted for the Reporting Islam Project. In addition, the use of an original model – the Transformative Journalism Model – provides further insight into the nature of news reports about Muslims and Islam. The findings collated here help to identify the best and worst reporting practices adopted by different news outlets, as well as the factors which have influenced them. Building on this, the authors outline a new strategy for more accurate, fair and informed reporting of stories relating to Muslims and Islam. By combining an overview of different journalistic approaches, with realworld accounts from professionals and advice on best practice, journalists, journalism educators and students will find this book a useful guide to contemporary news coverage of Islam." (Publisher description)
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"This article reports a meta-analysis of 345 published studies to examine the media’s role in construction of a Muslim and Islamic identity. A quantitative analysis highlights the geographical focus, methods, theories, authorship, media types, and time frames of published studies. A qualitative an
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alysis investigated the most prominent researched themes. Our findings suggest that a large majority of studies covered Western countries, while Muslim countries and Muslim media have been neglected. We also identified an evident lack of comparative research, a neglect of visuals, and a dearth of research on online media. We found that most studies investigated the themes of ‘migration’, ‘terrorism’, and ‘war’. Moreover, our meta-study shows that Muslims tend to be negatively framed, while Islam is dominantly portrayed as a violent religion. Implications of these findings are discussed." (Abstract)
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"Religion is interesting and important, but media organizations should also cover religion because it’s a good business move. We now have better data than ever regarding what audiences want and need, but listener/ reader/viewer surveys on religion coverage are relatively scarce. There is a persuas
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ive case to be made that a disconnect exists between what audiences think and what journalists say about religion news quality." (Page 6)
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"Au second chapitre, nous avons vu que, dans l’ensemble, cette mission du journaliste se heurte à pas mal de défis dont l’identité, la qualité de l’audience, le contenu, ainsi la formation de ses agents. Le journaliste catholique travaille dans une entreprise qui, naturellement répond aux
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lois structurelles, économiques, managériales et productives précises. L’information, pour être pondue, passe par des canaux classiques qui s’imposent au journaliste catholique. Tout de même, dans le monde obnubilé par l’argent et le prestige, les journalistes sont tentés de donner la parole aux leaders plus qu’au plus petits, aux peuples puissants plus qu’aux peuples "moins avancés [...] Au troisième et au quatrième chapitre, nous avons analysé six périodiques hebdomadaires sur une période de 5 mois, pour voir combien ils parlent de l’homme des périphéries. Notre analyse du contenu révèle que le journaliste catholique va dans les périphéries mais qu’il peut encore aller plus loin. Il y a des situations encore ignorées, des laissés-pour-compte. Il ressort de cette recherche que la communication pastorale de l’Église peut encore viser plus haut, ou mieux, plus profond, vers les plus oubliés. La news value de proximité est bel et bien un critère journalistique qui gagne les lettres de noblesse car elle permet d’actualiser l’invitation du Saint-Père d’aller vers les périphéries, d’actualiser la loi d’amour, d’imiter le Bon Samaritain et de laisser les quatre-vingt-dix-neuf brebis bien portante pour aller chercher celle qui s’est égarée.285 Le critère de proximité devient le principe d’action pour la fraternité humaine et la solidarité universelle aux dépens des contraintes économiques, politiques et socioculturelles qui régissent le monde des médias." (Conclusion générale, page 145-146)
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"The quantitative content analysis identified the amount and the patterns of media reporting on delicate interethnic and interfaith issues, focusing on respect of different aspects of professional and ethical standards. The method of Critical Discourse Analysis is applied for the qualitative analysi
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s of the media coverage of three events that shacked the fragile interethnic relations in the first half of 2012: the European Championship in handball in 2012, the Carnival of Vevchani, and the Smilkovsko Lake Murders. The synthesized findings clearly “detect” the extent to which basic standards of impartial, accurate and balanced reporting are being observed and the practice of using violent and emotional language through the prism of 'one’s own' ethnic group." (http://mediaobservatory.net)
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"This study brings journalists back to the centre of inquiry about the media’s role in covering ethnicity and religion. It asks: What professional norms guide editors and journalists when reporting on ethnicity and religion? What news gathering tools are most commonly used? What are the institutio
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nal constraints in producing reports? What could have been done better? What makes excellent coverage? What type of journalistic work fuels intolerance instead of providing information that supports intercultural understanding? Based on extensive interviews with 117 journalists and editors in nine EU countries and analysis of 299 news stories, it offers a review of reporting practices as related to the coverage of ethnic and religious issues. The study finds that the main obstacles to good reporting are the poor financial state of the media, overloading of reporters, lack of time, lack of knowledge, and lack of in-house training." (Executive summary, page 2)
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"The Religion Stylebook is an easy-to-use, authoritative guide created for journalists who report on religion in the mainstream media. This is a service of Religion Newswriters Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Religion Newswriters Association. RNA is the only global association for professional jour
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nalists writing about religion with accuracy, balance and insight. The Stylebook includes entries on: The major religions, denominations and religious organizations journalists often encounter; Preferred spellings, capitalizations, some definitions and usage guidelines for religious terms; Accurate titles for religious leaders in different traditions; Selected pronunciation guides; Entries on terms used in stories on current topics in the news, such as abortion and homosexuality; Entries on religion terms that are not included in The Associated Press Stylebook. What it is not: This stylebook is written for journalists. As such, it is not a dictionary or encyclopedia of religion. Many religious terms are not included; This guide addresses the most common style-related concerns in today’s newsrooms. Some definitions and explanations are included to help journalists with the proper use of terms; Religion is not an exact science. Many religious terms are hotly debated. Translations into English of Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali and other languages create many alternative spellings, even within a tradition; After extensive consultation and research, we’ve selected the style guidelines that are recommended by other authorities or that make the most sense as we seek to encourage accuracy and credibility in the journalism profession." (About the stylebook, 2012/03/16)
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"This book analyzes media coverage of major news stories in which religion is a major component and recounts how journalist often miss, or misunderstand, these stories because they do not take religion seriously, or misunderstand religion when they do take it seriously. Since religion is a major and
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growing factor in human affairs throughout the world and, hence in major news stories, including those stories often mislabeled “secular,” if reporters do not take it seriously or understand it, then they will be poorer reporters. To the extent that journalists do not grasp events’ religious dimensions, both global and local, they are hindered from, and sometimes incapable of, describing what is happening in the world around us. The book contains six case studies that each describe an important event, issue, trend, problem, or situation, seek to show the centrality of religion to the story, then outline how journalists actually covered it, and how they often got it wrong. The two concluding chapters focus on ways, both conceptual and practical, of improving coverage." (Publisher description)
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