Religion and the Media

This section offers links and suggestions about resources, information and ideas that deal with the way religious beliefs and different faith communities are portrayed in the media.

A general discussion of religion and the media in Britain is provided by Ailsa Hollinshead in her article Religion in fictional broadcasting, posted on the MediaEd site.

In 2004 the Interfaith Network, the Media Trust and Respect ran a joint conference on The Media and a Multi-Faith Society. The conclusions are available in PDF form or as an HTML document

In 2005 the BBC Governors initiated a review of religious coverage entitled Taking Belief Seriously. The conclusions were that the BBC needed to do a great deal more to ensure that religious topics and faith communities were covered in a fair and knowledgeable way.

Islam

Some of the common perceptions and misconceptions of how the media see Islam are dealt with a useful two page summary Breaking Boundaries by Channel 4's Sharia TV website, It also has a useful illustrated presentation of the different forms of women's dress in Islamic cultures.

British Muslims and the Media This article by Channel 4 news editor,Charlie Beckett, for the Guardian blog – Comment is Free in December 2006 is a good insight into the way a journalist thinks about the issue of what is fairnews coverage of a faith community.

In order to help journalists understand these issues better the British Council produced British Muslims: Media Guide (2006) by Ehsan Masood The book describes Britain's Muslim communities, their history, present and future. Intended as a reference source and training tool for journalists. there is an online version.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission has produced a report, The British Media and Muslim Representation: The Ideology of Demonisation (2007) The report claims that British Muslims see the media as exclusionary and discriminatory. It maintains that Muslims are generally categorized negatively and calls for media that include marginal and minority voices. Its analysis covers TV, film and literature.

Hinduism

The report and survey Connecting British Hindus (published by the Department of Communities and Local Government in 2006) has a three page summary of Hindus and the media which reveals widespread disatisfaction with how the media cover Huindus and Hinduism.