The Media Get Religion   

News organizations are devoting increased attention and resources tocoverage of spiritual and ethical concerns.

M ICHELLE BEARDEN THOUGHT that at 39 she was too old for television. Shewore the wrong clothes; there wasn't a dress-for-success suit in hercloset. And there was the hair problem. Much too wild for TV.

But none of this fazed Dan Bradley, news director of WFLA-TV, the NBCaffiliate in Tampa-St. Petersburg. He pursued her relentlessly, offeringher a weekly spot reporting on religion--without making her take a screentest. She finally succumbed.

Bearden had an invaluable quality in Bradley's eyes. She had been coveringreligion for eight years as a print reporter, the last two as a religionwriter for the Tampa Tribune. Bradley figured it would be a lot easier toteach Bearden TV than train an in-house reporter who didn't know a bishopfrom a Buddhist.

Best of all, Bearden didn't have to give up her day job covering religionand spirituality for the Tribune. All Bradley wanted was one religionpackage every week. She's been wearing two hats since September 1994.

"I didn't want to do it," says Bearden, now 41. "I looked at Dan like hewas crazy. I've always done print, even made fun of TV.... But I was mostimpressed that the news director hired a religion reporter with experiencerather than a TV person hired to learn religion. That spoke volumes tome."

For his part, Bradley felt he could no longer ignore what was going on allover his community. He'd drive by churches on Wednesday nights and seefull parking lots.

"You see more people participating in [midweek] services, Bible studies orwhatever than you'll find voting in a municipal election," says Bradley."But we cover elections like the second coming. We should make an effortto address an area that--through their actions--viewers are telling us isimportant to them."

Bradley is not alone. News organizations across the country are payingmuch more attention to the spiritual activities of their readers, viewersand listeners. Religion reporting is hot, and for a good reason: More andmore people are searching for a spiritual element in their lives, whetherit's inside a Muslim mosque, Catholic cathedral or through a New Ageshaman leading a wilderness vision quest.

T HE NUMBER OF RELIGION reporters -- particularly in television, which haslargely ignored the topic -- is growing as it's become clearly understoodthat religion and spirituality are subjects that permeate daily life. Nineout of 10 people say they believe in God or a higher power. More peopleattend some form of worship on weekends than sporting events, say religionexperts.

"For us to not adequately cover religion is tantamount to not covering theCowboys in the Dallas market," says Ralph Langer, senior vice presidentand executive editor of the Dallas Morning News.

Once largely relegated to second-string reporters writing church news,religion is now covered by a growing number of sophisticated,well-informed journalists who actually apply for the beat.

The Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) has 265 members. Fifteen yearsago, its membership was half that. The group recently hired its firstexecutive director, Debra Mason, a journalism professor at OtterbeinCollege in Ohio.

RNA president Richard Dujardin of the Providence Journal-Bulletinestimates that about 400 people are assigned to cover religion at secularnewspapers and magazines.

Ten years ago, older ordained clergy--some of them very good, somesuspect--ruled the field. Today reporters in their twenties, such asNicole Piscopo, are distinguishing themselves. Piscopo, who recentlyjoined the St. Petersburg Times, won an RNA writing award while coveringthe beat for the Stuart News in Florida.

But the critical change is in the way the field is covered and how muchspace and airtime are allotted to it.

PERHAPS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT evidence of religion coverage's higherprofile comes from ABC, the nation's top network news operation. Two yearsago, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings insisted the network hire a reporterto specialize in religion coverage. He lured Peggy Wehmeyer away from theDallas ABC affiliate, WFAA, making her the only full time network religioncorrespondent.

Next month, the San Antonio Express-News plans to launch a six-to-eightpage stand-alone weekly religion section. The Arizona Republic is alsoexploring the possibility of starting such a section. And this month theDallas Morning News celebrates the first birthday of its six-page weeklysection, which has been highly praised by religion writers and readersalike. Langer says no section launched by the paper in his 14 years therehas been so well-received in the community.

And it's clear journalists want to read more about how to better cover thesubject. When Nieman Reports focused on "God in the Newsroom" in itssummer 1993 issue, it became the most popular issue in the journal's49-year history. The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center initiallypublished 5,000 copies of its 1993 report Bridging the Gap: Religion andthe News Media. It has printed 15,000 more since.

The beat is no longer limited to who is up and who is down in theMethodist Church. In fact, that kind of institutional reporting isdiscouraged.

Rather it's seen as a beat that not only encompasses organized religionbut also branches out into ethics, morality and spirituality. The newDallas section is called "Religion," but it mentions spirituality andvalues in smaller type above the section name. The San Jose Mercury News'pioneering section, started in 1986, is called "Religion & Ethics."

Northwestern University's journalism department has teamed up with nearbyGarrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary to offer the first dual master'sprogram in journalism and religion.

While coverage has expanded, the question remains whether it is goodenough. Many say religion writers are getting better at explaining thecomplexities of faith and exploring spiritual areas once dismissed aswacky. But the same can't always be said of their newsroom colleagues.

Religion intersects nearly every subject a newspaper or television stationcovers, from politics to education to sports to legal affairs. But whenjournalists who cover these subjects encounter a religion angle, they andtheir editors are prone to run away from it, write around it or cover itas they would any scandal or political story.