Parliamentary group calls for greater religious literacy in the media

Apr 19, 2021 by Jill

from Christian Today:

Religion should be part of the required training for journalists to improve their religious literacy and avoid stereotyping, a major new report from parliamentarians has said.

‘Learning to Listen’, by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Religion in Media, says journalists would benefit from using the many resources offered by religious institutions to solve the “pervasive” and “well-founded” perception among faith groups of religious illiteracy in the media.

The report says that religion is “misrepresented” in a “wide variety of ways”, including “a reduction of religion to its visual, liturgical and doctrinal facets”, “sensationalising religion, the “reinforcement of problematic stereotypes”, “basic mistakes and imprecise language”, “ignoring diversity within faith groups”, and “misleading use of representatives”.

It calls for accurate representations of religion and faith communities, and for the required hours of religious programming at the BBC to be “protected” in future reviews. Another recommendation says that religious literacy should be covered in courses for professional media qualifications and industry training.

In their foreward to the report, Yasmin Qureshi MP and Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss write that a religiously literate media has an important role to play in creating a “rounded, informed public understanding of religion”, and a public debate around religion that is “more informed and empathetic, rigorous and respectful”.

Read here

See report here

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