Give religion a special desk in media houses

By Rev.Fr Fred Jenga, CSC

This year’s media coverage of the Namugongo Martyrs’ celebrations was massive; literally every major media house in Uganda had reporters on site. More than three national television stations offered live broadcast of the event and this was exceptional.

There is, however, one important appeal to media houses that was made by Archbishop Paul Bakyenga of Mbarara but went unamplified. The Archbishop asked media houses to designate one or more journalists to solely concentrate on the religion beat. I am surprised that most media houses did not pick this up and rather preferred other angles to their stories. I reframe the Archbishop’s appeal.

Major global media houses and news agencies such as BBC, CNN, Associated Press and Reuters have religious affairs desks with specialist correspondents and editors. Of course establishing such a desk in a local media house as the Archbishop rightly pointed out, would require committing additional financial resources. But faith has become such an important influence in the lives of many Ugandans that the investment would be worth it.

Years ago, religion was usually relegated to the ‘church page’ – but these days, news about religions leads televised and radio broadcasts, inspires thousands of websites, and tops front pages of news papers around the world.  It is surprising that this trend is failing to catch on in Uganda with several newspapers and broadcast houses reducing the number of pages and time allocated to religion.

I guess media outlets are under the mistaken notion that faith news will not help attract audiences. Nothing can be further from the truth. Faith is not only important and interesting, but covering faith is also a smart business move.

Faith issues increase circulation and enlarge audiences, more so in country like Uganda where a lot of people still identify with some kind of faith; or consider it an important influence in their lives. Many people connect with faith stories, and connection with audiences is the universal goal of media houses.  

Several journalists testify that their religion stories register a lot of online hits than many other stories they file.

The relationship between media and faith groups in the past was of fear and suspicion, but that is gradually changing.  I confess that most clergy have little or no training in dealing with media and that has been a big problem in the past.  Now days a lot of clergy are being trained in handling media in a professional manner without one intimidating the other.  The Mass Communication Department at Makerere University- a friend tells me- is designing a short course specifically targeted at faith ministers. Seminaries, Bible Colleges, Theological Colleges and dioceses have advantage of inviting the Makerere team to run the course as part of professional formation.

Journalists on the other hand, also need some kind of training in reporting religion, just as it is with other fields like business, science or human rights. Religion has been at the centre of events and movements for several years, but no other topic is emotive, intricate or nuanced as religion. As a result, news media struggle to report on the topic in ways that are respectful, sensitive and help the public’s understanding. Most journalists know very little beyond their own faith, which compounds problems.

Journalists need to increase their literacy of religions by learning about different faith groups; taking particular interest in their history, core beliefs and practices, their vocabulary, and administrative flow-charts.

Archbishop Bakyenga’s appeal for special religion correspondents comes at the right time when Uganda’s media has grown tremendously. There are good stories waiting to be told by religion reporters as breaking news, investigative stories, features, crime, and entertainment.
 
Rev.Fr Fred Jenga, is the Director
Holy Cross Family Ministries
East Africa