Report: Media Skewing Religion with Dominant Conservative Voices
Evangelical and other faith leaders are increasingly expressing concern over the frequent media coverage that the religious right gets while the more progressive voices are "left behind."
A new research report titled "Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in the Major News Media" found that conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed in news stories 2.8 times as often as were progressive religious leaders.
"Progressive voices are at a distinct disadvantage when compared to conservative access to print and TV representation," according to the Rev. Dr. Jim Forbes, senior pastor of The Riverside Church in New York City
The new report, released by Media Matters for America – a progressive media watchdog – found 3.3 appearances by conservative religious leaders for every one appearance by a progressive when being quoted or interviewed in major news print and TV media.
Read the whole article at Christian Post.
posted by Christian at
2:34 PM
4 Comments:
Topical Follow-Up:
A new study by Media Matters for America shows that when the topic is religion, the media looks disproportionately to hard-line right-wingers for comment.
Read the whole article at AlterNet.
By
Christian, at 2:42 PM
Right-wing believers are more outspoken and go more against the grain of popular thinking, making for more fireworks and better ratings.
Honestly, it's more interesting to hear what James Dobson has to say about abortion and the "war on terror" than the president of the United Church of Christ.
By
Adam Gonnerman, at 9:20 AM
Hah! That's so true. I'm even more interested in reading the nuts than the minister's I might be inspired by. But that's a flash in the pan, so to speak. The voices I go back to are always the ones who speak a more profound truth.
Perhaps this is a consequence of news being a business - out to make money in the short run, always cultivating a crisis mentality and quickly moving on to new "crises." It is almost as if attention-deficit-disorder is cultivated for/by a consumer world.
It this is (at all) true, no wonder Xity is having a tough time lately - a worldview that requires a longer view, patience, discernment, complexity, and long-suffering.
Just a thought.
By
Christian, at 9:18 AM
The drama on CNN is almost ridiculous. How they can have a program called "The Situation Room" and then, on slow news days, report on armed robberies here or there or traffic backups is beyond me.
"CNN, the number one source for AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"
By
Adam Gonnerman, at 7:31 AM
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