Television news editors cover religious holidays and other local faith-related events but half of them do not believe business news, a new survey shows.
The survey, released May 20 by the Interreligious Information Center, found that all 41 news editors who responded said their stations cover religious holidays and local events of the various faith groups in their community.
A total of 100 questionnaires were e-mailed to TV news editors by students from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the funder of the survey.
Forty-nine percent of the news editors said religion is not as important as health, science or business news. About one-third said it was as important as those other news topics.
Almost nine out of 10 news editors said they used clergy and other religious leaders on news broadcasts, interview programs and discussion forums to cover national and international stories such a pedophilia, the pope, President Bush and the war in Iraq.
Ninety percent of those surveyed said they believed religion is an important part of the lives of people living in their area.
Ten percent of editors said that they have a full- or part-time religion reporter, 7 percent said that they have considered hiring such a person and 78 percent said they have not considered hiring someone to cover the religion news.
The Interreligious Information Center, an organization based in Port Washington, N.Y., has sponsored consultations on religion and media across the globe.
(RNS)
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