Evangelicals kept out of newsrooms
Terry Mattingly, Director of the Washington Journalism Center for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and a religion columnist for Scripps Howard News Service (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The Associated Press reports a story describing a possible trend in newsrooms to avoid cultural diversity by excluding evangelicals. If a journalism student is an evangelical, and is politically moderate-to-conservative, she should expect to have a tough time obtaining and keeping a job in mainstream, non-religious journalism.
“Journalism has become more of a white-collar field that draws from elite colleges,” said Terry Mattingly, director of the Washington Journalism Center for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and a religion columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. “While there’s been heavy gender and racial diversity … there’s a lack of cultural diversity in journalism,” including religion.
It’s unclear exactly how many evangelicals work in newsrooms, and federal laws against religious discrimination prevent news managers from asking about a job candidate’s beliefs. But the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported in 2007 that 8 percent of journalists surveyed at national media outlets said they attended church or synagogue weekly. The survey also found 29 percent never attend such services, with 39 percent reporting they go a few times a year.
According the story, Bob Case, director of the World Journalism Institute, which offers seminars for young evangelicals seeking work in mainstream media outlets, is primarily concerned that evangelicals are frequently portrayed in the media as a monolithic bloc, when in fact they are diverse politically, intellectually and theologically.
As a result, many evangelical high school students are sometimes discouraged from professions like journalism because they are told that non-religious media outlets will not hire them if it is discovered that they are evangelical.
Journalism professionals and academicians need to engage a larger conversation about what “diversity” really means. Is ideological diversity just as important and racial and gender diversity in a newsroom? Does the appearance of diversity cosmetically represent true diversity? If a newsroom is racially diverse but ideologically monolithic is that true diversity? Aren’t there more axises of diversity than race and gender that would enrich a newsroom? Why isn’t ideological diversity a goal of newsrooms in the first place?
Anthony Bradley, 36, is assistant professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Covenant Theological Seminary (Creve Coeur) and Research Fellow at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. He holds a PhD in Historical and Theological Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary and is frequently called upon by members of the broadcast media for comment on current issues and has appeared on NPR, CNN/Headline News, and Fox News, among others. 
I wonder how those church-going numbers compare to the rest of America? I bet they actually aren’t that different…
It’s also a shame when anyone discourages a kid from a profession because of their beliefs or feelings. If a kid has a knack for journalism, then that is what they should pursue. Maybe it will be harder to succeed because of their beliefs, but not everything worth achieving is easy.
You bring up a good point about diversity Anthony. The best soups are the ones with the most flavors, and the best flavors come from a variety of families and groups.
I think that it is extremely sad the example too many Evangelicals are displaying as examples of Christianity to the non-Christians and non-believers in our world and the United States.
They are not attracting people to them by their behavior that can be seen by all but are running people far away from them.
Given the great number of media outlets, we already have newsroom diversity. Why is ideological diversity in any one newsroom necessary? Some may read a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch television because of ideological diversity but I bet most do not. I wonder who scans the internet for ideological diversity?
Tim, GREAT question! According to the story, Pew polling of the general public found 39 percent of Americans say they attend religious services weekly. Journalist report 8% weekly. I’m not exactly sure why the numbers are so low among journalists as compared to the rest of the general population.
D. Walker, you raise an excellent point. Most of the uneasiness many feel toward evangelicals is because their sometimes wacky behavior in the public square.
I love when stories like this appear, as if there’s some kind of hiring filter that ensures no evangelicals are hired in newsrooms because they’re dangerous or something.
There are plenty of evangelicals - and Mormons and Muslims and mainline Protestants and Jews and Catholics and (you get the picture) in every newsroom in America.
I know several evangelicals working as journalists and at other jobs within the Post-Dispatch newsroom, including in some very influential positions. And because they are - as Mattingly stresses - journalists who happen to be evangelicals, they don’t allow their religious beliefs affect their jobs. I also know evangelicals in other newsrooms across the country.
They’re all professionals, just like evangelicals in other professions, who don’t let their beliefs taint the way they gather and disseminate the news.
Davel, GREAT question!! Ideology influences how stories are reported. This is so well know that Pew Charitable Trust conducted a study on it called “State of the Media” report from Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism: http://www.stateofthemedia.com
The findings are reported by the Media Research Center (which has an ideology against “liberals”):
“Only six percent said they considered themselves conservatives and only two percent said they were very conservative. This compares with 36 percent of the overall population that describes itself as conservative. Most journalists, 53 percent, said they’re moderate. 24 percent said they were liberal and eight percent very liberal.”
Only 19 percent of the public consider themselves liberal. And it’s not much of a leap to presume many of the 53 percent who describe themselves as “moderate” are really quite liberal.”
Ideology is so important that some people vow to watch FOX News instead of CNN and vice-versa. Or some people read Reason Magazine for political stories because they believe in “free minds and free markets.” We read with ideology and stories are reported with ideology.
Ideological diversity can serve as a quality control measure to encourage the most accurate reporting and interpreting of stories some might argue. Ideology influences what type of information a journalist inserts in a story, what information to leave out, if the information is crafted in a negative way, etc.
If it was exposed that your favorite news source only hired libertarians to report stories with libertarian values in mind, wouldn’t you question the objectivity and credibility of the reporting? Would you trust that you were getting both sides or multiple sides of the story?
This may be why all the major religions have their own news sources as well as many racial minorites. The St. Louis American says that it’s “a niche publication, The St. Louis American provides our readers with information that is important and relevant to them…information from an African-American perspective.” Or the stuff over at Asian Week.
Because people generally trust the objectivity of their favorite news sources, unless they are otherwise specified, it seems that, given the fact of bias in human reporting of stories, one would want a newsroom to have the highest quality of objectivity in reporting–that’s comes with greater diversity, not less. This, in part, explains why there was such a push for racial and gender diversity. Diversity in a newsroom has real consequences regarding how stories are reported.
This continues to be an on-going conversation in journalism regarding the ethics of reporting and I imagine will continue–i.e., not editorializing stories with one’s ideology. My guess is, this is true of any public communication craft.
Tim Townsend said, “And because they are - as Mattingly stresses - journalists who happen to be evangelicals, they don’t allow their religious beliefs affect their jobs.”
Great point! And I imagine that’s exactly where the tension is with all this talk about “media bias.”
Perhaps it would be better to talk about good journalism vs. bad journalism.
I always hate the phrase “I’m an A who happens to be a B” when B is a reference to one’s faith. it puts it secondary when one’s faith by its very definition (as a particular outlook on the transcendent) should be in the primary position.
The point was made, but I agree that a job like a reporter (not unlike most jobs in America for that matter) should be done consistently without regard to other things inyour life. Now, I say that with the knowledge that, according to Pyschology, you can never seperate your moral code and who you are from your work. You are always “all present” no matter what you are doing, even if you don’t realize it. So yes, we are influenced by our moral code and everything else when we work, but most people I think do a good job of minimizing that while at work.
Good find on the stat Anthony. I can’t think of any reason for the difference in weekly service attendance between the two groups. I would not have predicted such a large variance there. Interesting…