On Edge: Coverage of Religion by  Canadian Television News

On edge

TV "a wasteland as far as religion specialists go" A 1995 study by Dennis Gruending In an October 1994 column, Michael Valpy of The Globe and Mail wrote about the social security review being undertaken by Lloyd Axworthy, the minister of human resources. "Who in this debate," Valpy wrote, "will be the influential voices?" He answered his own question, saying that there remained no effective populist voices to speak for the poor. Another of his conclusions was that: "The churches are yesterday's critics. The powerful Social Gospel movement that shaped social policy from the 1890s to the 1930s has no contemporary resonance." Valpy's opinion about the relevance of churches appears to be shared generally by Canadian reporters and editors. Churches lack "contemporary resonance," and are most often relegated to the margin of public life and debate.

Christopher Waddell, CBC TV's bureau chief in Ottawa, says: "There isn't much coverage of religion. We cover big events, events, like the pope's visit to Canada or annual conferences or conventions. But on a daily on-going basis, there is very little coverage, virtually none. For whatever reason, in the priorities of what there is to cover, religion doesn't rank as high as some others."

Waddell says this situation is unlikely to change anytime soon. "At CBC the pressure is on us not to have more reporters but to have fewer. If we were to have more people then that's an area that presumably is up there with a whole bunch of others worth looking at."

For five years, I was the English-sector director of information for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. I encountered no reporter or editor in Canadian English network television news for whom the coverage of religious issues, organizations and events was a beat, or even an area of specialization. There is only one national program that has religion as a main theme. CBC TV's Meeting Place broadcasts a weekly Sunday worship service, and includes a brief summary of religious news read to camera without any accompanying video material. That program's host was the only electronic journalist to call me on a regular basis.

CBC TV also broadcasts Man Alive, a current affairs program which occasionally provides coverage of religiously-based stories, but which is increasingly given to covering material dealing with "values," rather than specifically religious themes. There are, of course, programs, such as 100 Huntley Street, and various evangelists purchase time to broadcast their programs on private Canadian networks and stations, but these are most certainly not news programs.

It's worth mentioning that several Canadian newspapers, notably the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, and Vancouver Sun, have specialists assigned to covering religion and ethics, although their stories are usually carried in a ghettoized section of the paper. But The Globe and Mail reassigned its religion reporter and has not replaced him. The religion specialist at the Montreal Gazette has been given additional, unrelated assignments and is able to spend only part of the time on religious themes.

The dearth of religion coverage, particularly on television, is apparent to Doug Tindal of Toronto, chair of InterChurch Communication, an ecumenical group representing Canada's Catholic and mainline Protestant churches. "I don't want to say that we're ignored by the media. We're just not operating in a public sphere. They're not coming to us to look for answers and we're not going to them to say we have answers. Nothing's changed much in the seven years that I've been involved at the national level."

Tindal admits that to a considerable extent churches have themselves to blame for their lack of profile in the news. "Far too often what we get out of the churches are platitudes. Public policy debates are far too complex, and the pressures far too intense, for anybody to waste time listening to platitudes. The churches, if they want to have influence, have to become finely focused, very solid in their presentations, and practical in the kinds of actions they're asking for."

This self-criticism echoes an observation made in 1947 by Harold Innis, the eminent economic historian. "If the church cannot return to an interest in ideas and must therefore express itself exclusively in social action," Innis wrote, "we ought to insist upon a higher quality of discipline."

Tindal acknowledges that many stories about religion are complex and subtle, and often not given to the kind of visuals that attract television reporters. "But the constitution and the Quebec referendum are not visual stories either, yet reporters have found ways to cover them."

Peter Steinfels is the senior religion correspondent for the New York Times. At a "Religion and the Media" forum held in Chicago in June 1994, he described American television as "a wasteland as far as religion specialists go." This description surely applies in English Canada as well. Steinfels quotes an American study done by the Media Research Centre which, he says, "lends credence" to charges that religion is "invisible" in the news: of 18,000 story segments surveyed on the major American networks during a period in 1993, only 212 dealt with religion, and one- quarter of those stories appeared during Pope John Paul II's visit to the U.S.

The lack of informed religious coverage on television news raises several questions: Why is this so? Does it matter? Is the situation likely to change in any way?

Canadian Social Trends
Religious belief and religious institutions were once ubiquitous in Canada. The College des Jesuites was founded in Quebec City in 1625, and began a tradition in which churches were deeply involved in schools, hospitals and missionary activity in addition to worship services. Although they remained prominent forces in society for more than 300 years, the churches' influence has waned for a variety of reasons. There is now a widespread belief that Canada is a secular society, where religious values and institutions hold little sway with people.

The reality, however, is much more complex. The 1991 federal census indicates that 87 per cent of Canadians claim adherence to a religion. Forty-six per cent of all Canadians said they were Catholics, 36 per cent were Protestants, six per cent belonged to other religions, and 12 per cent said that they had no religious affiliation. Religious adherence, however, is not always accompanied by organized religious activity. Another Statistics Canada survey published in 1990 reported that only 24 per cent of adult Canadians affiliated with a religion actually attend church services regularly, and those numbers have been dropping for years.

The apparent contradiction between adherence and the lack of attendance is best explained by a third survey, this one conducted by the Angus Reid Group early in 1992. This research led to a Maclean's magazine cover story titled: "God is Alive: Canada is a Nation of Believers." The Reid survey found that eight of 10 Canadians believe in God, two-thirds believe that Christ died and was resurrected, and one-third of the adult population prays daily.

Reid, among others, found the results surprising. "One might have assumed that a lot of Canadians are either atheists or agnostics on the basis of reading the secular press," he told the evangelical publication Faith Today. "In fact, we find the incidence of that quite low and that a lot of Canadians believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ; they have what I describe as a quiet faith . . . . I think the so-called elite have a lower incidence of religious belief perhaps than people of an everyday working level."

Reid's findings about the high incidence of personal spirituality do not offer much solace to church leaders. Reid's numbers supported the earlier Statistics Canada research, indicating that only about one-quarter of adults attend church services weekly. Reid also discovered that many members of the United Church believe it is too liberal, while a high percentage of Catholics do not agree with the church's teaching on birth control, pre-marital sex and abortion.

The numbers, and Reid's musings about his own survey, lead one to question whether, in attitudes toward religion there is yet another divide between the population at large and elites, with journalists reflecting elite opinion.

"Stories about Canadians believing in God make the cover of Maclean's magazine," says the ICC's Doug Tindal, "but I don't think it's big news. The media assumed it was news because they had interpreted the decline of the churches as a sign that Canadians simply were not interested in religion, but that's never been true. Most journalists just have not been interested and have not wanted to work hard enough to pursue these stories."

Writing in the American context, lawyer Stephen L. Carter, in his book, The Culture of Disbelief, says: "In contemporary American culture, the religions are more and more treated as just passing beliefs, almost as fads, older stuffier, less liberal versions of the so-called New Age, rather than as the fundaments on which the devout build their lives."

Carter argues that churches have a right and an obligation to participate in the "public square." He supports the separation of of church and state, but argues that "autonomous religions play a vital role as fierce critics of the institutions of secular society."

Church and media
The man for whom Angus Reid completed his survey on religion is blunt in his observations about the media. George Rawlyk teaches the history of religion at Queen's University in Kingston. "Journalists are secular and anti-religious," he told Chris Cobb of Southam News, "so they don't understand the realm of religion, its effects on ordinary people and the social forces it unleashes. Family values and the Christian right have fundamentally changed what's going on in the United States and, perhaps, even the same is going on in Canada."

Brian Stiller, director of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, says: "There is a cultural reality in which the governing bodies and the media elite have suggested faith doesn't really matter. If the media isn't reflecting on the nature of religion in Canada, then people will assume it doesn't matter."

Rawlyk adds that journalists have become far too negative, about all institutions, including religious ones. "Journalists are a cynical lot who have lost faith in the world and who view the public in a very cynical manner. All this cynicism has permeated society and caused people to lose faith in institutions. It has also put people off journalists -- people don't care what journalists have to say any more."

Journalists have frequently been accused of being anti-religious, and in church circles anecdotes about the media are rife. I have several of my own. On one occasion I arranged an interview between a veteran print reporter and an elderly bishop. As they sat down, the reporter stated to the bishop that he had been raised in a church setting but that he was now lapsed and no longer believed. Then he began the interview. In another case a radio reporter, just beginning her research for an item on priestly celibacy, told me in our first conversation that she had already concluded that celibacy was irrelevant in contemporary society. In a third case a television researcher called and asked to have someone participate on an open-line program regarding the Cairo conference on population and development. I suggested a Catholic journalist well-briefed on the issues. When I called later to check whether the researcher had been successful, she told me that the journalist wouldn't do because she wasn't a "conservative."

Journalists may well, on their side of the ledger, believe that many church officials are anti-media.

Unfortunately, there is no Canadian research available regarding the respective attitudes of journalists, clergy and church members. There have been numerous surveys conducted in the United States. The Lichter-Rothman study published in 1980 sampled 240 journalists at major national news outlets in Washington and New York. Eighty-six per cent of the respondents said they seldom or never attended religious services, and when asked about their religious preference half said "none."

For more than a decade these numbers have been used by various church representatives to accuse journalists of being hostile to religion and biblically illiterate. The fact that a journalist does not attend religious services or belong to any organized religion, of course, does not necessarily mean that the reporter is hostile, or even lacking in knowledge. The results do, however, indicate, a significant gap in the attitudes of journalists and the populace. Various surveys indicate that approximately 90 per cent of Americans claim a religious affiliation, but as Lichter-Rothman point out, only 50 per cent of the journalists surveyed indicated any "religious preference." About 40 percent of Americans regularly attend worship services.

Back in Canada, Global TV's Robert Fisher, a member of the United Church, says: "I've been a fairly regular attender but it certainly wouldn't be something you'd ever raise. I think I'd probably be laughed out of the newsroom if people found out I'd actually been going to church. It's something you just never talk about here."

In 1993, John Dart, a religion writer for the Los Angeles Times and Rev. Jimmy Allen, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, published the results of another survey on the attitudes that American journalists hold toward religion. Dart says that the earlier Lichter-Rothman study of network journalists in New York and Washington "was true as far as it went," but that it is often misused to make generalizations about the attitudes of journalists nationwide. Dart and Allen found, in taking a wider national sample, that reporters and editors attached only slightly less importance to religion than Americans at large. In fact, reporters who specialized in the coverage of religion (these are almost exclusively print reporters) attached somewhat more importance to religion than did Americans generally.

Dart and Allen also polled clergy on their opinions about the coverage of religious news, and found that a high percentage believed "that religion news is biased and unfairly negative." Dart and Allen agreed that "religion news suffers from too many mistakes and mischaracterizations," and that religion is often "a weak spot in the overall news package presented to most viewers and readers." They conclude, however, that "the weaknesses stem not from overt bias, but primarily from a lack of knowledge of the subject, a deficiency that handicaps most news people from doing a full professional job."

There is also a widespread belief, at least among church leaders, that the media has a liberal bias, particularly in matters relating to sexuality. Peter Steinfels admits that there is a "para-ideology" at work in newsrooms, not a liberal one necessarily, but "a debunking attitude to all authority and ideals." He says, as well, that newsrooms are "caught up in contemporary culture wars" being waged in society.

"American society, is torn between two broad perspectives," Steinfels says. "One sees traditional morality as enshrining a legacy of wisdom of how we should live together and therefore [sees] challengers to that legacy as deserving of a sceptical or jaundiced examination. Another view looks on traditional morality as enshrining a host of prejudices from which we need to be liberated..."

Quoting from the Jesuit priest, Fr. Avery Dulles, Steinfels describes the contrasting world views that exist in churches and in the media:

"Religion centers on a mystery to be approached in a posture of reverence. The press is investigative, iconoclastic and primed to expose pretensions, falsehoods, and hypocrisies ... religion shuns innovation and seeks commitment to truth. The press lives off novelty and `itching ears'; it stays neutral. Religion seeks to reconcile, or at least to suppress discord. The media stresses conflict. Religion deals with interior matters. The press looks to the tangible. Religious bodies are frequently hierarchical and authoritative. The press is democratic and questioning. Religious teaching is often complex and subtle. The media want things short and simple."

The cultural dualism between church and media has created a deep distrust and ambivalence. Writing in the Conrad Grebel Review, Stewart Hoover, a professor of journalism at the University of Colorado, recalls the late British philosopher Malcolm Muggeridge's conclusion that "the media are so antithetical to the Christian purpose and the Christian world view that no accommodation is possible." But Hoover says those who would shun the media fail to understand that it has become increasingly prominent as the place where people receive most of their insight, influence and meaning. Churches cannot survive without the media, Hoover adds, because it is in the media where people, including those in churches, live most of their lives.

Counter Trends?
In 1994, ABC became the first American television network to appoint a fulltime religion reporter. Peggy Wehmeyer previously had covered religion for 13 years at an ABC affiliate in Dallas, Texas. She now reports on "American Agenda," part of the network's World News Tonight, providing an average of one in-depth story a month. Peter Jennings, who hired Wehmeyer, says he was able to do so only after three years of debate in the network's hierarchy. Jennings is quoted as saying that "too many journalists doubt that faith really matters, yet it's impossible for millions of people in America and around the world to describe their deepest convictions about life, death, family, education, work, politics and morality without talking about religion."

Wehmeyer says that religion can be a tough subject to bring to television news. "I see myself straddling this huge, monolithic media on one side and the religion world on the other. I'm just trying to create some understanding between the two. By showing what religious people believe and why they do what they do, we don't reduce everybody to dangerous stereotypes, who become the enemy."

ABC's announcement was greeted with a flurry of news stories, but there is disagreement about whether Wehmeyer's hiring is an isolated event or the beginning of a trend. American presidents appear to be ever more open (some would say hypocritically so) about their religious views and values; the Christian right has made inroads, particularly into Republican politics; in the "culture wars" between conservatives and liberals many of the issues, including abortion, euthanasia, and schools, have deep religious undertones. One analysis is that ABC is providing belated recognition to the importance of religion, and that other networks will follow.

Others disagree. Steven Winzenburg, professor of communication at Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, says he suspects ABC of "tokenism" in hiring a religion reporter. "ABC is trying to show they're interested in religion topics, but they haven't done much with her yet."

"Peggy Wehmeyer is a positive step. But how many stories has she done so far?" asks Tim Graham, associate editor of the publication Media Watch. "You could argue that Wehmeyer's stories are better stories, but the number of stories are not going to increase greatly in 1994 vs. 1993," he says.

Ari Goldman, a professor at Columbia University's journalism school, agrees that Wehmeyer's hiring is likely an isolated incident. "Peter Jennings has an interest in religion and it was his doing. I don't think it represents any big trend."

Goldman, who was a religion writer for the New York Times, now teaches at the Columbia Journalism School, and one of the courses he offers is in religion reporting. "I tell my students this is a great specialty to have but it's not a career, and they shouldn't define themselves that narrowly."

Goldman says that officials at Columbia were sceptical three years ago when he proposed his course. "There's a cynicism about religion in the newsroom and there's cynicism about it in journalism schools. People don't see it as an essential beat. It's seen as soft news and something people don't have to know about." Goldman's seminar has a limit of 16, and he says that now he's had to begin turning students away.

Goldman says he knows of only four American universities where courses are taught on religion reporting, and two of those are Catholic schools. "If journalism is to change," he says it has to come in journalism schools."

A quick telephone survey of Canada's six university-based journalism programs indicates that none teaches classes in reporting religion, and no one can recall such a course ever being taught. Peter Desbarats, dean of journalism at the University of Western Ontario, says: "It's a good idea in principle but there's no demand. I've been here since 1981 and no one has ever even suggested such a course." Some of the schools do offer courses in speciality reporting where a student could choose to focus on religion. On the other hand, few, theological schools or seminaries provide courses on mass communications.

The Future
It is unlikely that the hiring of one religion reporter in U.S. network television will have much effect on an historical church-media dynamic fraught with tension and mistrust. It is even less likely that Canadian network news will discover a new interest in religious events and issues.

Doug Tindal of InterChurch Communication says that his organization "will undertake some exploration with Canadian networks" as a result of the ABC move. But Global TV's Robert Fisher says that while the ABC's hiring Wehmeyer "is a worthwhile undertaking, but I think it's probably light years away in Canadian journalism as far as television goes."

As networks suffer increasing financial erosion and audience fragmentation they may, if anything, pay less attention to religious issues. Churches may discover that there are more fruitful outlets for their endeavours than lobbying harried and unsympathetic network executives. A more likely scenario is that churches will increasingly become broadcasters themselves. In fact, it is already happening.

Vision TV, an inter-faith religious service, has had a licence since 1987 and is doing well. The United Church has been a major backer, although Vision is now paying its own way. Vision has the unique advantage among religious broadcasters of being part of the basic package received by cable subscribers. Vision's own productions generally to have a liberal bent, but much of its remaining airtime is purchased by evangelist preachers, most often Americans. It's a way to pay the bills, and at the same time to meet CRTC requirements regarding balanced and inclusive religious programming.

Some of the evangelical organizations appearing on Vision TV, however, have expressed unhappiness with an arrangement where they have to share a network, not only with other Christian churches, but with Hindus and Muslims as well. It was pressure from the evangelicals, who challenged the CRTC's moral right to regulate balance and Canadian content, which led to the Commission's loosening of religious broadcasting regulations in 1993. There are now at least two applications pending for religious broadcasting services.

Catholics, while they are easily the largest Canadian church, have lagged in becoming successfully engaged in broadcasting. They have now begun to place some programming on Vision TV, but others in the church hope to see the licensing in Canada of an offshoot of the Alabama-based Eternal Word Television Network.

The future may well see a proliferation of broadcast services competing for the attention of those viewers interested in religious events and issues. Unfortunately, when it comes to news on these services, viewers are not likely to receive objectively brokered information. One does not have to be a cynic to predict that churches or religious groups who control their own broadcast services will have great difficulty producing news that is objective about their own shortcomings and foibles.

The lack of television news coverage regarding churches on mainstream networks is unfortunate for everyone -- the churches, their members, viewers in general, and one might even say for the networks themselves, who are missing important trends, events and stories.

Sources
1. The Globe and Mail, Oct. 5, 1994, p.2.

2. Interview with Robert Fisher, Global TV.

3. Interview with Christopher Waddell, CBC TV.

4. Interview with Doug Tindal, InterChurch Communication.

5. Harold Innis, "The Church in Canada," in Essays in Canadian Economic History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1956), p. 393.

6. "Religion and the Media," in Commonweal, February 24, 1995, p. 17.

7. Ibid., p. 14.

8. Statistics Canada, The Daily (1991 Census of Canada), June 1, 1993.

9. Statistics Canada, "Leaving the Fold: Declining Church Attendance," in Canadian Social Trends, Autumn 1991, pp: 21-25.

10. "God is Alive: Canada is a Nation of Believers, in Maclean's, April 12, 1993, pp: 32-50.

11. "A Surprising Degree of Belief," in Faith Today, July-August 1993, p. 26.

12. Stephen L. Carter. The Culture of Disbelief (New York: HarperCollins, 1993, p. 15.

13. Ibid., p. 9.

14. Calgary Herald, Feb. 26, 1995, p. A9.

15. Canadian Press, "Religion Notes," June 30, 1993.

16. Rawlyk, Calgary Herald.

17. Lichter-Rothman study cited in "Religion and the Media," p. 14.

18. The Dallas Morning News, June 12, 1994.

19. Dart-Allen study cited in "Religion and the Media," p. 31.

20. Steinfels in "Religion and the Media," p.16-18.

21. Stewart M. Hoover, "What do We About the Media?", in The Conrad Grebel Review, p. 89, Volume 11, Number 2, Spring 1989, p. 98-101.

22. Jennings and Wehmeyer in The Houston Chronicle, August 6, 1994, p.3.

23. Winzenburg and Graham in Chicago Tribune, September 30, 1994.

24. Interview with Ari Goldman.

25. Interview with Peter Desbarats.

Dennis Gruending wrote this article in 1995. Gruending has worked as a reporter for three Canadian newspapers, CBC radio, CBC TV and also served for four years as director of information for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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