Faith and the Media - a Review
The sometimes uneasy relationship between “Faith and the Media” was the focus of the East Suffolk Theology Forum held on February 11th 2009. A distinguished panel including Lis Henderson, News Editor of BBC Radio Suffolk, Dom Antony Sutch, a Benedictine monk, parish priest and broadcaster, and Melanie Wright from the Open University, responded to questions posed by the audience.
Topics discussed included the suggestions that the media are guilty of promoting a negative image of religious faith and portraying Christians in drama as figures of fun, and that extreme and bigoted forms of religion seem more likely to make the airwaves than thoughtful approaches. 
It was noted that the internet age has produced a new way in which people, especially the young, consume broadcasting: this has offered opportunities which the churches have largely failed to take up.
This in turn posed a further question: to what extent are viewers of programmes such as “Songs of Praise” and members of cyber-churches such as “St. Pixel’s” participating in a shared religious event?
Several of the speakers commented on the fact the broadcasting can never be entirely objective: programme-makers may deliberately provoke debate in order to gain an audience, celebrity presenters may be invited to offer their own perspectives on religion, and news editors have to decide which stories will be of interest to the public. Journalists working to a deadline may also find it difficult to access the most reliable sources of information. The danger is that many viewers and listeners may not be able to distinguish between fact and opinion nor assess the facts that are presented to them. 
A final coda to this fascinating evening was the suggestion that there are more similarities between religion and the media than might at first be imagined. Both are involved in constructing versions of reality which, ultimately, will need to overlap. Like it or not, the media age is here to stay.
Andrew Kleissner
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