About: Covering Religion and Faith
Religion's Place in Public Life
Mark Silk
Founding Director, Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in the Public Life
In the mid-1990s, the newspaper industry got religion. Papers that had never had a full-time religion reporter acquired one; others that had never had more than one or two added several more. Overall, the Religion Newswriters Association gained scores of new members-including some of the brightest and most energetic reporters around.
Meanwhile, what was once called the Church Page was transformed in many places into an entire section, often called Faith and Values. And there was more religion in the rest of the paper, too.
The model for all this activity was the Dallas Morning News, which inaugurated its Faith and Values section in 1995. But why did so many other papers follow suit?
Essay Continued
Inside @Journalism.org
> The Toolbox:
Covering Religion on Any Beat, David Crumm, Detroit Free Press
Religionwriters.com- ReligionLink
Religion Source.com- The Journalist's Shortcut to 5,000 Scholars
See all the Tools that we have to offer.
> Road Trip/News From The Traveling Curriculum:
This month we're offering you the chance to try your hand at an exercise modeled on our Traveling Curriculum Program. You write for a small metropolitan newspaper. Many of your colleagues have recently been inundated with letters and e-mails from angry readers. Your state Board of Education has been considering the passage of a new statewide science curriculum that will require the teaching of evolution in all public high schools. Go to the Full Exercise
Find out more about the Traveling Curriculum
> Speaking Of: Words to Watch
Yonat Shimron, Religion Reporter
Raleigh News & Observer, Raleigh, NC
Reporters may be tempted to use words such as "fundamentalist" to describe people or groups whose theological approach seems narrow, rigid or reactionary. They should think twice about this word and others, including "evangelical." Click here to read the entire piece
> Did You See?
"JFK and Journalism's First Lesson"
Howard I. Finberg, Poynter Online, November 21, 2003
"Papers wrap news in free, bite-sized nuggets"
Peter Johnson, USA Today, November 17, 2003
"President reads 9 newspapers daily. President Eisenhower, that is"
Carl Sullivan, Editor and Publisher, November 17, 2003
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