Journalism in Good Faith: Issues and Practices in Religion Reporting

How will journalists ethically cover issues of faith and things unseen when they are generally trained to report facts and opinions that are verifiable, events that are seen and issues substantiated by evidence? What are the constraints and opportunities for developing best practices in religion reporting in the commercial media? How can journalists help to bridge the divide between and within faith groups through the stories they tell? All these questions and more are addressed in this book that covers various aspects of religion reporting. Journalism in Good Faith provides journalists, faith-based organisations and students of journalism with a broad framework to help them explore how religion and faith issues can be better treated through fair and open-minded journalism. A chapter on online resources available for reference on the various religions and on religion reporting is also provided.

Dr Eric G. Loo is senior lecturer journalism at the School of Journalism & Creative Writing, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, Australia.
He migrated to Australia in 1986 to restart his career in journalism, after years of practising and teaching the craft in Malaysia. He currently writes a column What Now for Malaysiakini. Eric was a regular contributor to The Edge Weekly, a business publication in Malaysia; and InterPress Service in Bangkok; and had conducted numerous journalism training workshops in Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Laos. His research interests are in development journalism and best practices of journalism in developing countries. He is founding editor of the refereed journal Asia Pacific Media Educator, and has co-authored books in international journalism and cross-cultural communication. Dr Mustafa K. Anuar is Associate Professor at the School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. He has published widely about media in Malaysia in particular, and in Asia in academic journals, book chapters and also newspapers and magazines. Mustafa is also on the editorial board of a social reform magazine, Aliran Monthly (Malaysia) and academic journal, Asia Pacific Media Educator (Australia). He is a Joint Coordinator of Charter 2000-Aliran, a people's initiative to promote press freedom in Malaysia, and coordinator of a regional research project on Disseminating Peace in Southeast Asia: Peace Journalism and Other Creative and Popular Means , funded by the Ford Foundation.