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Religion as Part of the Problem
2009-04-09

TV Coverage of Religions and Religious Issues, January to March 2009

Zurich: Conflicts and scandals dominate the world-wide TV coverage of religions at the beginning of 2009, as it has done in previous years. International TV news concentrated reporting on the war in Gaza in the first days of January before opening fire on the Catholic Church towards the end of the month. “Outrage about the revocation of the excommunication of the Holocaust denier Williamson entailed the highest volume of coverage for the Catholic Church since the Pope´s visit to the United States in April 2008”, explains Dr. Christian Kolmer, project manager with Media Tenor International in Zurich.

The “Clash of Civilizations” is a reality for television. Reports from Gaza in which Hamas is always framed in the context of the conflict between the Western World and Islam exemplify this as do the constant references to Hamas´s “radical-Islamic” orientation. Bad news from Iraq and Afghanistan play no small part in perpetuating of an image of Islam shaped by terrorism and war.

“With such a media coverage it is no surprise, that large chunks of the population in the West but as well in the Muslim World hold a very unfavourable view of ‘the other´”, Roland Schatz, President and Founder of Media Tenor International, points out. “Only when everyday religious life, caritas of believers of all sets of faiths, and the contribution of religion to a peaceful coexistence of humankind finds its way into the news, then people will be encouraged to engage in a real dialogue with the members of other beliefs.”

Even religions that are not involved in the great divide between the West and Islam did not manage to make it into the news with positive messages. The one exception was the Russian-Orthodox Church. The new Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill I, was met with a benign reception by the media.

Media Tenor International analysed the coverage of religions and values world-wide in the main evening TV news. In 16 programs from seven Western countries and three Arab TV news shows from January to March 2009 a total of 25,949 statements about religions, values and other protagonists in religious contexts has been scanned by Media Tenor´s analysts.

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