The Future of Religious Reporting

The future of religious reporting

Newsrooms and journalism schools cynical about religion reporting By Dennis Gruending ABC is the first major North American television network to appoint a full-time religion reporter. Peggy Wehmeyer was hired in 1994 and contributes to the network's World News Tonight. 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." ABC's announcement was greeted with a flurry of news stories, and has provoked at least some interest in Canada. Doug Tindal is chair of InterChurch Communication, an ecumenical group that includes the Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian and United churches. He says his group "may undertake some exploration with Canadian networks," as a result ABC's hiring a religious reporter.

But Prof. Ari Goldman says that Wehmeyer's hiring is likely a once-only event. He is a former religion writer for the New York Times who now teaches at the Columbia Journalism School.

In Toronto, Robert Fisher, an anchor for Global TV, says that in Canada the hiring of specialist reporters for religion "is probably light years away as far as television goes." Fisher attends at a United Church in Toronto.

Professor Goldman says the problem is that there are few television reporters or editors with a knowledge or an interest in religious issues. "If journalism is to change," he says, "it has to come in journalism schools."

Officials at Columbia, he says, were skeptical four years ago when he proposed his course in religious reporting. "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 says he knows of only four American universities where courses are taught on religion reporting, and two of those are Catholic schools.

A telephone survey of Canada's six university-based journalism programs indicates that none teaches classes in religious reporting, and no one can recall such a course ever being taught.

Some of the journalism schools do offer courses in specialty reporting where a student presumably could choose to focus on religion, but given the secular atmosphere in journalism schools few students are likely to do so.

Peter Desbarats, dean of journalism at the University of Western Ontario, says courses in reporting on religion are "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."

Perhaps such courses could be suggested, at least at those universities which contain both journalism schools and either theological schools or Catholic colleges. For their part, the theological schools and colleges might be encouraged to provide more courses which deal with the modern mass media.

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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