Study Finds That Swiss Journalists Know Little About Religion

Swiss Journalists know little about religion and are hardly interested in religious questions.

Zürich(kath.net/KNA) Swiss Journalists know nothing about religion and are hardly interested in religious questions. They cover religion as a fringe topic, occupied like a media scientific study. Journalists are comparable with the general population, generally less religious and the share of the non-confessional are even higher in the professional group.

The study group of Professor Vinzenz Wyss (Winterthur) and Urs Dahinden (Chur), who are concerned with the relationship between religion and journalist, have the balance sheet: primarily, journalists refused coverage of stories they were assigned whose explosive nature was known, and thence, "kept their fingers off them". Only very few specialized media personalities in Switzerland have the necessary knowledge to report competently on religious subjects, said Dahinden on Monday in Zürich.

The lack of knowledge of many journalists was revealed in that they don't ask the right questions. If a business journalist said, he had gotten no budget from the managers and said "I'll just ask simple questions", the readers who were involved would find it unacceptable, says Dahinden. Such answers as "but we have our testimonies about religion," are unacceptable

Many religious communities don't have any professional publicity service, offered the researchers. The authors of the study recommend that religious communities participate in the education of journalists, to disseminate basic information and contacts. Through Co-Financing of journalistic education, one can contribute to the improvement of the knowledge in the theme of religion.

The study was conducted and financed in connection with the Swiss Federal Government approved National Science Program "Religious Communities, State, Society."

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