First Post (finally)

Ok to kick-start this blog I wanted to commence my personal reflections upon the way that mainstream media sources report religious issues. It is safe to say that a (significant) degree of reporting bias can be seen when reviewing most religiously-affiliated media reports. This is evident to a greater extent when world religious issues in particular, often relating to Muslim violence, are reported upon. It may be considered a bold statement profess such an opinion but it one simply views the nightly news, 9 times of out 10 any newsworthy religious issues will be a) conflict related and b) almost exclusively relating to Islamic issues. Another thing I have noticed in my (albeit biased) media exposure, is that issues surrounding the dominant or “self” religion, i.e. in western societies almost exclusively Christianity, become suppressed in the native country. There are of course arguments validating this perspective in that western media agencies are run as businesses, and that nothing grasps the focus of the target audience than a religiously foreign issue (Shafaat, 1986). This is of course not limited to western media agencies, where biased reports surrounding Christian-affiliated issues are portrayed throughout Islamic media channels such as Al-Jazeera. To contrast this perspective it was interesting to see that, for example, in religiously dominant countries, a degree of media bias against the home religion can exist. I found a news article showing such an occurrence, where in this instance certain levels of reporting within the BBC deliberately promoted anti-Christian sentiments, later outwardly confessing the blatant religious bias – for ratings sake (WND, 2006). It is easy to understand how the lines of business can become tangled within such reports, however in doing so it becomes difficult for the viewer to perceive religiously-worthy news issues from those which are news “fluffers”.

References:

Shafaat, A, (1986) Western Media’s Bias: We are Not Helping Against It, Islamic Perspectives, Website Report, viewed 9 March 2012
http://www.islamicperspectives.com/MediaBias.htm

WND (2006) BBC Confesses Bias on Religion, Politics, WND, News Article, viewed 9 March 2012

http://www.wnd.com/2006/10/38506/