Stenger, Katherine / 1
Voices in the Wilderness?:
Religious Groups as Sources in Mediated Policy Debates
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Katherine Stenger
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University of Washington
ABSTRACT
What factors influence the ability of religious interest groups to gain access to the media?
Using data collected from newspaper coverage of five issue deliberations and interest group data
collected from a variety of sources, this paper examines the factors that influence group access to
mediated deliberations. I hypothesize that the way an issue is framed in the media will impact the
degree to which religious groups have a voice in those mediated policy debates. I find that, rather than
religious or ideological bias, group resources, or accessibility to the media, the way an issue is framed
in the media as a morality policy is the strongest explanation for religious group access to mediated
deliberations.
INTRODUCTION
The cries of some religious activists create the impression that religious voices are
marginalized in the public square. Pat Robertson created his own journalism school at Regent
University to counter, what he perceived to be, and anti-religious bias in the media (Fisher, 1998). An
article in the January 1, 2003 edition of the Clarion Herald, the Catholic newspaper of the
Archdiocese of New Orleans concludes, “don’t look for any change in media reporting or in anti-
Christian / Catholic bias anytime soon.” Editorialists, leaders of religious groups and even a recent
book on the media (Goldberg, 2003)
claim that religious voices are systematically excluded or
portrayed in a negative light by journalists. Studies such as those by S. Robert Lichter, president of
the Center for Media and Public Affairs which found evidence of bias against Catholics in major
media outlets and a more recent study by the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center which
concluded that the media and religion were “two alien cultures” that misunderstood each other,
support the claims of those who claim that the media is biased against religion.
On the other hand, the norms of fairness and objectivity that guide most journalists should
theoretically facilitate the inclusion of religious voices in news stories. Furthermore, we may expect a
growing voice from religious groups as these groups have grown increasingly sophisticated in their
inside and outside lobbying strategies. Mark Silk, editor of Religion in the News has noted a decline in
the number of claims of anti-religious bias in part, he claims, because of the greater inclusion of
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Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 2 - September
5, 2004. Copyright by the American Political Science Association
. The title of this paper comes from a reference in the
Old Testament prophesizing a spiritual leader who would speak out against the sinful culture on behalf of, and in
preparation for, the awaited Messiah.
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