Religion in the News: 2009

The Project for Excellence in Journalism just completed a study of US news coverage of religion. This study is done in conjunction with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Pope Benedict XVI and the Obama administration generated the most religion-related coverage in the U.S. press in 2009.

The pope, though he made no visits to the United States last year, was the subject of two of the top 10 religion stories, while the Obama administration accounted for three of the top 10 religion-focused storylines during the year.

No single event dominated religion news coverage in 2009 the way the pope’s visit to the U.S. did in 2008. Instead, when religion made the news, it was often just one element of a larger story, such as the debate over abortion funding and health care reform, the impact of the recession on religious institutions, or the actions of President Barack Obama’s administration, including its continuation of the “faith-based initiative.”

These are some of the findings of a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that examined news stories from January through December 2009.

Among other key findings:

• The overall amount of religion coverage remained fairly steady, at 0.8% (compared with 1% in 2008) of the newshole – the total space or time available for news content in newspapers, on television and in other media.
• About two-thirds of religion coverage in 2009 focused on stories that took place in the United States. About a third of the content focused on stories outside the U.S., down from 42.3% in 2008.
• Religion-related issues drew more attention in new media than in traditional press outlets. In a separate analysis of blogs throughout 2009, religion-related news made a list of top stories in 11 out of the 45 weeks studied. The topics that showed up in new media ranged from a Swiss ban on construction of minarets to a French trial of a group of Scientologists to the debate about same-sex marriage.
• The importance of new media platforms as a place for news and discussion about religion may grow as the number of religion writers in traditional news outlets decreases. According to the Religion Newswriters Association, at least 16 major print news outlets have reduced or abandoned their religion beats since 2007.

The study of traditional news sources analyzed more than 68,700 stories from newspapers, the internet, network and cable television, and the radio (for details, see the full methodology). The new media content was analyzed separately by aggregating and coding a sample of blogs, tweets and other sources monitored by Technorati and Icerocket, which track millions of blogs and social media entries (for details, see the full New Media Index methodology).

Religion Coverage Overall in 2009

Religion accounted for 0.8% of the mainstream media’s newshole in 2009.¹ This level of attention was on par with press attention to several other specialty areas, such as education and immigration. While some news topics received much more attention in 2009 than they had a year earlier, religion coverage remained fairly steady. Health news coverage, for example, nearly quadrupled to 11% of the overall newshole, an indication of media interest in the debate about health care reform. Religion coverage saw a slight dip, dropping from 1.0% of overall news coverage in 2008 to 0.8% in 2009.

The bulk of the religion coverage in American media outlets in 2009 (67.0%) focused on stories that took place in the United States. About a third of the content (32.8%) focused on stories outside the U.S., primarily on coverage of Benedict’s travels and activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Attention to events on foreign soil was down from 2008, when 42.3% of religion-related coverage dealt with events abroad.

Top Stories of the Year

The pope’s visit to the Middle East from May 8-15 accounted for 4.5% of all religion news last year, making it the No. 2 religion news story of 2009. The only storyline to receive more attention was the role of religion in the Obama administration, but this narrative ebbed and flowed for several months, following a number of different actions taken by the new administration. Obama and Benedict also dominated many of the other top religion stories of 2009, such as the president’s speech to the Turkish parliament in April and the papal pardon of a controversial bishop.

Taken together, the various actions of the pope accounted for 7.3% of religion coverage for the year. Religion storylines related to the Obama administration made up 9.6% of all religion-related news.