5 religion-reporting snags in Africa

[This is an edited excerpt of Aramide Oikelome's presentation to a Media Project seminar in Accra, Ghana.]

BOOKS ON JOURNALISM are replete with definitions of "news". 

News is "anything you can find out today that you didn’t know before," according to The New York Times.

Joseph Pulitzer, the 19th-century publisher of St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World, instructed his editors and reporters to look out for stories that were original, distinctive, romantic, thrilling, unique, curious, quaint, humorous, old and apt-to-be-talked-about.

A former editor of New York Sun, Charles Darva, focused on readers in his definition and said, "News is anything that will make people talk."

Editors also speak about "hard news" and "soft news". Hard news is more serious, such as elections, deaths, natural disasters, accidents, and wars. Soft news is less serious or focuses on the lighter features like entertainment, tourism and leisure activities.

News Value in Religion

Religion news, however, belongs to both hard and soft news genres. Perhaps we should say that religious news belongs to general interest news because such news has the potential to satisfy a broad range of readers with varied interests.

No society lacks religion, even officially "atheist" societies.  Everywhere we look, we can find religion: systems of beliefs to which social groups are committed and which cultivate a connection to a supernatural object of awe, worship and service.  These provide a stable context within which individuals can freely relate to others and to the world. 

Religion is "news" any day because it is the greatest of all forces, and is considered to be so sensitive. Religion facilitates hatred and love, yet it is also a potential force of fusion and unity. The nature of religion produces knotty issues, which many editors develop and cultivate to become interesting news. Religion has always gotten tangled up with the politics and economy of many nations, resulting in war, intolerance, crisis, fanaticism, etc.

Religion reporting, therefore, is the art, the skill, the manner of gathering information about people’s belief, worship of and service to a supernatural object.

The critical stakeholder in this developing area of journalism is, of course, the reporter. It is the religion journalist's task to report and interpret news on religion, which he has watched, observed, investigated, verified and analyzed.

This fascinating task of the religion reporter may become onerous if he lacks the skills for reporting and the strength to cover the broad and sensitive area of beliefs, doctrines and practices of a given religion.

Challenges in Religion Reporting

No Clear Identity

Media organisations assign reporters to areas to which they are responsible. These are called beats. Education, Judiciary, Business, Politics, Health, Sports and Foreign Affairs are some of the visible beats in journalism.