Pope's Visit Tops 2008 Religious News

The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States last April was the biggest story covered by journalists in 2008, according to the Pew Forum.

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - An analysis of the news for 2008 by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism indicated that the Papal visit in April of last year was, by far, the biggest religion story for the year.

The study also showed that, apart from the Pope's trip to America and the faith-related controversies of the presidential election, religious news was negligible during the year.

The Pew Forum survey showed that politics constituted 29 percent of the news during the year with the economy taking 13 percent. Of the remainder, religious news only accounted for 1 percent of the "newshole," which is the time or space available for content in a news outlet.

In the area of religious news, 21 percent of the coverage related to faith issues of the presidential election, which was a distant second to the visit by Pope Benedict XVI at 37 percent.

Two other stories gained some attention last year and both were related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints (Mormons). The police raid and subsequent events at the Texas Compound of fundamentalist leader Warren Jeffs accounted for 2 percent. At 1 percent, the death of Mormon leader Gordon Hinkley in January was also of interest to the media.

In addressing any trends that were seen in religious coverage for the year, the Pew Forum stated:

"Throughout much of 2008, the media generally seemed to follow two patterns in its coverage of religion. First, religion reporting was often episodic, clustering intensely around big events such as the pope's visit and religion stories related to the 2008 holiday season. Religion stories also faded quickly from the headlines.

"Second, the angle of religion coverage frequently gravitated toward controversies, such as Barack Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright and stories about the clergy sex-abuse scandal that surfaced during the pope's visit. This was particularly problematic for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, who were inundated with questions concerning their faith."

----
Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. he covered the historic visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States for Catholic Online in Washington, DC and New York City.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'