Religion. Read all about it.

We talked in class (forever ago) about the importance of religion in journalism on two fronts. The first would be covering religion and the need for more newspapers to do so. Furthermore when reporters do cover religion, they should make sure that they are doing it well and are immersing themselves in the story the same way they would if they were covering anything else. In a blog post by an atheist named Austin Cline, he spoke about how badly religion is covered today by most newspapers (http://atheism.about.com/b/2006/06/29/poor-state-of-journalism-about-religion.htm). He says, "Similiar ignorance would not be tolerated on the business or science pages, so why does it occur with religion?" This is a very valid point that I had never given much thought, but newspapers make sure that the correspondents that cover politics or education know exactly what they are talking about, but seem not to give the same amount of effort to the religion sections.

The other important aspect of religion in journalism is the religion of the journalist themselves. This obviously does not go away or change often, but it may be the driving force behind some of the decision that journalists make. It shouldn't get into the way of their work, but it is what makes a journalist (or anyone else for that matter) who they are. These considerations should be taken into account by editors, but it should not be used as a handicap by any means. We all know what industry we are getting into and we can handle the world around us. And even check our religious views at the door if necessary.