Our very own Ann Neumann, editor at The Revealer, was interviewed by Stephanie Whiteside for her piece, “Struggle for Acceptance: Media Visibility and Minority Religion.” The post was featured just days ago over at Current TV‘s News and Politics blog. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Religion reporting has declined in the U.S. in recent years. A 2011 Pew Study found that news stories about religion accounted for 0.7 percent of mainstream media coverage in 2011, down from 2 percent in 2010. Islam was the primary focus, and the majority of news stories about religion were tied to specific events, including the so-called radical Islam hearings in Congress and stories about anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S.

The general theme of beliefs and practices received a nearly equal amount of coverage, as religious extremism.

Ann Neumann, editor of The Revealer, a publication of the Center for Religion and Media at New York University, doesn’t believe the focus on extreme voices is a new trend.

“We see a lot of focus because of these extremes,” she said. “It catches attention, it gets ratings and eyeballs.”

Neumann also notes that a level of subtlety is required when reporting on faith, drawing a distinction between the positions of institutional bodies and the actual beliefs and practices of individuals of faith.

“Doctrine and theology can be, and often is, very far from lived religion,” she said.

To view the full article, click here.