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Between Professional and Religious Worlds: Catholics and Evangelicals in American Journalism
Abstract
What is the place of personal religious identity in the profession of American journalism? In a professional culture which
prizes the qualities of objectivity and detachment, what place if any remains for the public display of religious and moral
convictions on the part of the reporter? This article uses in-depth interviews with twenty Catholic and evangelical journalists
(employed at major news organizations such as Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, and ABC News) to explore how religious people
in American journalism manage the tension between objectivity and religious commitment. It identifies three types of strategies
Catholics and evangelicals have used to negotiate the boundary between professional and religious worlds: 1) privatization
and selective compart-mentalization; 2) multivocal bridging languages; and 3) the rhetoric of objectivity. While some Catholic
and evangelical respondents attempted to confine their religious beliefs to the private sphere, the vast majority were able
to translate their religious and normative convictions into the language of professional journalism. At the same time, most
qualified the use of religious or normative language with countervailing appeals to the rhetoric of objectivity, restoring
the boundary between professional and religious worlds after it had become blurred.
... As they are carriers of secularism and rationalisation (Berger, 1979), separating private and public spheres and religion and profession has become culturally normalised. Thus, the presentation of private values or religious commitments in a public setting is something that is viewed as unprofessional (Schmalzbauer, 1999). However, along with the increasing evidence of religion's resilient and persistent power in the modern and postmodern eras (Warner, 1996;Wuthnow, 1988), recent scholars have offered more complex and nuanced views of how it survives in the workplace Steffy, 2013;Tracey, 2012). ...
... A second pathway is to selectively segregate and differentiate religious values so that professionals can compartmentalise religious and secular worlds in different social circumstances (Kreiner et al., 2006;Schmalzbauer, 1999). American journalists segregate religious faith from talking about journalistic work. ...
... American journalists segregate religious faith from talking about journalistic work. This exclusion of religious perspectives from their work is related to the view that religious concerns are parochial and partisan (Schmalzbauer, 1999). Several cultural schemata are employed to separate religious and professional worlds, setting the boundaries between the two worlds (Kreiner et al., 2006). ...
Prior studies on work–faith integration have only explained professionals’ negotiation of religious and professional identities within one occupational setting, overlooking how the negotiation diverges in the soaring force of neoliberal regime that intersects with gendered workplace culture. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Korean evangelical women professionals, the article demonstrates how women, proportionately more religious than men, arrive in the alignment of two identities at the workplace. The research finds two patterns of alignments: (1) individual moralising, which is achieved through displaying the narratives of calling and participating in expressive activities, and (2) selective compartmentalising, which is obtained through the practices of setting flexible boundaries and turning evangelical language off. Bringing a neoliberal and gendered perspective to the categorisation of workplaces, this study argues that women are likely to display higher degrees of faith and more evangelical language within less neoliberal-oriented, feminised workplaces than in neoliberal-oriented, masculine ones.
... Qualitative scholars address critiques of relying too heavily on religion as an "all-or-nothing category" or a "totalitizing identity" (Ammerman 2014a) by examining how lived religion manifests in people's everyday lives across a variety of situations (Ammerman 2007(Ammerman , 2014a(Ammerman , 2014bBender 2003Bender , 2010Cadge 2012;Ecklund 2010;Schmalzbauer 2003;Williams 2010). This body of research identifies how people bring religion and spirituality into their everyday lives in their homes, and their secular workplaces in science, journalism, the arts, business, and healthcare. ...
... This is particularly true for people working in business or in menial labor jobs, as well as in other secular professional fields where religion is stigmatized and marginalized (Ammerman 2014b;Smith 2003). Yet, other scholarship brings attention to how the religious and spiritual can carry their sacred practices, beliefs, and experiences into the workplace in nuanced, and sometimes covert, ways (Ecklund 2010;Kucinskas 2014;Schmalzbauer 1999). We build upon existing knowledge of work and spirituality by examining sacred awareness 4 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION "in the moment" while working, as well as the relationship between working long hours and sacred experience. ...
... However, as noted previously, because many people in secular spaces, such as certain business professions or academic disciplines, feel that discussing the sacred is stigmatized (Ammerman 2014b;Reuben 1996;Schmalzbauer 2003;Smith 2003), we additionally expect: ...
We explore how people experience the sacred in their everyday lives using a recently developed research technique—smartphone-based experience sampling method (S-ESM). The primary goal of our experience-driven approach is to explore the contours and variations of spiritual awareness within people’s day-to-day lives. We
seek to better understand when and where spiritual awareness is likely to arise, and the contexts in which it is rare. Our smartphone-based data allow us to track the many contexts in which an awareness of the sacred occurs, as reported in real time during people’s normal daily activities. We parse out how immediate contextual factors and how people’s more habitual behaviors are related to their spiritual
experiences. This illuminates a wide range of factors that influence spiritual experiences that have not received much scholarly attention, and enables us to connect cutting-edge quantitative methods with qualitative scholarship on spirituality. We hope this will open the
door to the development of new theories of situated spiritual experience.
... And while the site claims to represent a range of Christian opinion, it is worth noting that 2 The Problem of Audience Orientation they simultaneously provide 11 points of belief aimed at distinguishing what reflects being Christian. It would seem then that the goals of the site are placed at an interesting juncture: their normative claims about objectivity and fairness, and their audience-oriented claims (reflected in their perspective on traditional news as sensationalist and polarizing-a standard claim in many evangelical circles; see Schmalzbauer, 1999). When it came time to conduct reporting on the Syrian refugee crisis, this juncture reflected its fault lines: Christian Today conducted no original reporting-leaning for some information from Reuters and fringe, far-right sources such as wnd.com. ...
Digital Journalism and the Facilitation of Hate explores the process by which digital journalists manage the coverage of hate speech and "hate groups," and considers how digital journalists can best avoid having their work used to lend legitimacy to hate.
Leaning on more than 200 interviews with digital journalists over the past three years, this book first lays the foundation by discussing the essential values held by digital journalists, including how they define journalism; what values they consider essential to the field; and how they practice their trade. Perreault considers the problem of defining "hate" and "hate groups" by the media, acknowledging journalism’s role in perpetuating hate through its continued ideological coverage of marginalized groups. Case studies, including the January 6 U.S. Capitol siege, the GamerGate controversy, and the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, help to elaborate on this problem and illustrate potential solutions. Digital Journalism and the Facilitation of Hate draws attention to the tactics of white nationalists in leveraging digital journalism and suggests ways in which digital journalists can more effectively manage their reporting on hate.
Offering a valuable, empirical insight into the relationship between digital journalism and hate, this book will be of interest to students, scholars, and professionals of social and digital media, sociology, and journalism.
... they simultaneously provide 11 points of belief aimed at d istinguishing what reflects being Christian. It would seem then that the goals of the site are placed at an interesting juncture: their normative claims about objectivity and fairness, and their audience-oriented claims (reflected in their perspective on traditional news as sensationalist and polarizing-a standard claim in many evangelical circles; see Schmalzbauer, 1999). ...
This chapter interrogates the digital journalistic focus on audiences: metrics, comments and primarily the participatory emphasis of the field. While journalism has always been strongly tied to its audience, digital journalism amplifies this through its emphasis on micro-targeted audiences. But what happens when this audience ends up being, well, a terrible one? And what happens if the audience you have isn’t the audience you thought you had? This chapter examines audience orientation noting that the focus on giving the audience what it wanted in digital reporting in some cases facilitated the worst impulses of the audience. Furthermore, it reflects that journalists many times see their audience as defining issues of “hate” differently than they do.
The expansion of hostility against journalists and the mainstreaming of white nationalist ideologies globally necessitate a much-needed elaboration of the problem of hate. In particular, this chapter aims to expose a vulnerability in the production of digital journalism. Journalists are not just bystanders in the problem of hate, but in some ways are unintentionally culpable for the rising visibility of hate. This chapter overviews the text and additionally considers how journalists conceptualize the problem of hate.
Many religious advocacy organizations in the nation’s capital operate under the weight of a significant paradox: they maintain offices in Washington, DC, because they have concrete policy interests that they must defend throughout the routine legislative calendar, yet their authority and influence in that process depends largely on their being “above” politics. Religious organizations exude special status that derives from their representation of communities of believers. Their moral authority comes, in part, by speaking through and for those whose vocation is God’s work. Given the traditional rhetoric of separation of church and state in America, their mere involvement in an issue is a tacit assertion that their concerns are nonpolitical and nonpartisan. However, if they are seen as “just another interest group,” then they are likely to suffer diminished standing (Hofrenning 1995; Calfano, Oldmixon, and VonDoepp 2006; but see also Henriques and Lehren 2007). In light of this situation, how do religious advocacy organizations simultaneously advance their earthly policy interests and harness their heavenly authority to influence the policy process?
Islam is a religion, but it is also a philosophy. An analysis of surveys in the Arab world, Indonesia and Pakistan reveals that the mission and values of journalists in those Muslim-majority regions closely track Islamic obligations to tell the truth, seek justice and work toward the public interest. This article provides empirical data to bolster the argument that the values of Islam are the prism through which journalists in Muslim majority countries approach their profession. Those findings add to the body of research supporting the theory that journalistic norms are contextual, shaped by a hierarchy of influences that include global standards and local values such as culture, political climate and religion. But the findings also indicate that in regions where a professional journalistic culture is in the process of emerging, the influence of personal versus professional values is in reverse proportion to those found in more mature journalistic markets.
Although the debate about secularisation has moved on to consider post-secular society, many organisations (especially in Europe) remain largely secular in outlook and can pose difficulties for those among their members who profess a strong religious faith. In this article, we consider how a group of people—in this case students of nursing—for whom their religious beliefs are an important feature in their lives navigate and make sense of a predominantly secular organisation, the British National Health Service (NHS). Drawing on an empirical study and sociological theory, we will show how they have constructed identities that enable them to manage the impressions that they create, in order to reconcile their faith with the context in which they work.
The newspapermen studied believe they may mitigate such continual pressures as deadlines, possible libel suits, and anticipated reprimands of superiors by being able to claim that their work is "objective." This article examines three factors which help a newsman to define an "objective fact": form, content, and interorganizational relationships. It shows that in discussing content and interorganizational relationships, the newsman can only invoke his news judgment; however, he can claim objectivity by citing procedures he has followed which exemplify the formal attributes of a news history or a newspaper. For instance, the newsman can suggest that he quoted other people instead of offering his own opinions. The article suggests that "objectivity" may be seen as a strategic ritual protecting newspapermen from the risks of their trade. It asks whether other professions might not also use the term "objectivity" in the same way.
outline its [science's] distinctive social attributes, its research agenda—what sociologists of science study and why—and . . . indicate how work in the specialty ties in with sociological research more generally
problems in the social structure and culture of science
sociology of scientific knowledge (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
An examination of prize-winning journalistic exposés uncovers the narrative strategies by which the innocence of victims, and the blame for their plight, are established
One of the most sweeping works of social criticism to appear in years, this work offers a bold theory of modern classes and a comprehensive portrait of the modern professional. Drawing on one of the largest studies ever undertaken, including interviews with over 1,000 professionals, the authors show how experts, claiming a monopoly on many types of knowledge, are radically transforming the economic and social order. This book demonstrates how this has resulted in many citizens becoming deeply insecure about their competence to manage private and public affairs without professional guidance. The authors make a case for a society that radically democratizes knowledge while retaining many non-exclusive aspects of professionalism.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
The demarcation of science from other intellectual activities-long an analytic problem for philosophers and sociologists-is here examined as a practical problem for scientists. Construction of a boundary between science and varieties of non-science is useful for scientists' pursuit of professional goals: acquisition of intellectual authority and career opportunities; denial of these resources to "pseudoscientists"; and protection of the autonomy of scientific research from political interference. "Boundary-work" describes an ideological style found in scientists' attempts to create a public image for science by contrasting it favorably to non-scientific intellectual or technical activities. Alternative sets of characteristics available for ideological attribution to science reflect ambivalences or strains within the institution: science can be made to look empirical or theoretical, pure or applied. However, selection of one or another description depends on which characteristics best achieve the demarcation in a way that justifies scientists' claims to authority or resources. Thus, "science" is no single thing: its boundaries are drawn and redrawn inflexible, historically changing and sometimes ambiguous ways.
Recent literature in the social sciences documents the rise of a "New Class" of knowledge workers characterized by essentially left-liberal class interests and class ideology. Within the "Young Evangelicals," a faction of theologically conservative American Protestantism, a structural, political, and ideological parallel is explored. The evidence presented runs contrary to conventional wisdom in the social sciences, which more or less equates, as a matter of course, theological conservatism in American Protestantism with political conservatism. It is also suggested that the Young Evangelicals play a role in the religious legitimation of New Class interests and, ipso facto, in the growth of New Class power in America.
The Ideal of Objectivity The Revolution in American Journalism in the Age of Egalitarianism: The Penny Press Telling Stories: Journalism as a Vocation After 1880 Stories and Information: Two Journalisms in the 1890s Objectivity Becomes Ideology: Journalism After World War I Objectivity, News Management, and the Critical Culture
My opportunities for studying Catholicism in the United States were fragmentary, in the course of a year devoted to university teaching and travel. I had the good fortune to be teaching at what is generally taken to be the best of the Catholic universities, Notre Dame, Indiana; and it was in the main from this particular listening post that I picked up my information and my views. I did travel a good deal in the Middle West and the Far West and this gave me an opportunity to see in passing some aspects of Catholic life. As well, I went to non-Catholic universities and was able to see both the reactions of non-Catholic Americans to Catholicism and the work of Catholics in non-Catholic universities, particularly through the Newman centres. I was also a steady and, in some instances, horrified reader of the Catholic press.
What I want to do is to examine American Catholicism as a social and political phenomenon. I do not think that anything I have to say is directly relevant to the problems of Catholic higher education in this country, except in so far as comparisons are always likely to turn out to be instructive. American society and its problems are so remote in many if not all respects from the problems of any European society that it is hard to see at first that American Catholic higher education offers either models for us to imitate or examples of what we should avoid.
Perhaps I ought to make it plain at the start that I conceived an enormous affection and respect for the society of the United States. It is possible that it will in fifty or a hundred years produce one of the great civilizations of the world. My critical comments, and there will be many in the remarks that follow, are those of an admirer. Perhaps I might even, before I begin my analysis, try to explain what it was about American society that fascinated me and filled me with affection and, it is not too much to say, a certain intoxication.
"Renaissance Revivals" examines patterns in the London revivals of two English Renaissance theatre genres over the past four centuries. Griswold's focus on revenge tragedies and city comedies illuminates the ongoing interaction between society and its cultural products. No cultural object is ever created anew, she argues, but is instead constructed from existing cultural genres and conventions, the visions and professional needs of the artist, and the interests of an audience. Thus, every "new play" is in part a renaissance and every "revival" is in part an entirely new cultural object.
This study, an investigation of how human beings make cultural works meaningful, compares the different meanings that readers from the West Indies, Britain, and the United States constructed from a single source, the fiction of Barbadian novelist George Lamming. The socially shared presuppositions they brought to their reading caused West Indian reviewers to interpret Lamming's novels as involving questions of personal and national identity, British reviewers to concentrate on the novels' language and literary qualities, and American reviewers to emphasize race. Each of Lamming's novels exercises a different degree of "cultural power," and this capacity to engender multiple meanings while retaining coherence shows that cultural meanings emerge from the interaction between cultural works of varying power and human recipients of varying expectations and concerns. In turn, this interaction suggests a theory of metaphor that enables research in the sociology of culture to utilize both cultural and sociologica...
Expert systems require large amounts of domain knowledge for non-trivial problem solving. Experience in developing such systems has shown that the processes of acquiring domain knowledge (knowledge acquisition) and of determining whether the knowledge is consistent, complete, and correct (knowledge verification) are major problems. This paper discusses various tools developed to assist in these two processes. These tools bring additional knowl edge to bear, or provide better interfaces between a knowledge engineer and the expert system's knowledge. Key words: expert systems; knowledge-based systems; artificial in telligence ; knowledge acquisition; knowledge verification. (Med Decis Making 7:6-11,1987)
Following up on similar studies done in 1971 and 1982-83, a study surveyed American journalists in 1992 to develop a statistical profile of the "typical" journalist and to see how today's journalists compare with those of 10 or 20 years ago. Telephone interviews were conducted during the summer of 1992 with 1410 journalists. Subjects in the main probability sample of 1156 were chosen randomly from news organizations also selected randomly; response rate was 81%. Overall finding (using preliminary data) was that, although the past decade has seen great changes in journalism and the larger society, and although there has been some change and progress among American journalists, it has also been a period of little growth in overall numbers and limited change in the representation of women and minorities in journalism. The "typical" American journalist in 1992 is a white Protestant male with a bachelor's degree from a public college, is 36 years old and married, earns $31,000 a year, has 12 years experience, does not belong to a journalism association, and works for a medium-sized group-owned daily newspaper. Although there are substantial numbers of women, non-Whites, and non-Protestants working for a wide variety of small and large news media, stalled growth in media employment appears to have affected the representation of women. A bachelor's degree has become the minimum qualification necessary for practicing journalism, although only at daily newspapers is the journalism degree becoming the norm. (Contains 38 statistical graphs.) (NKA)
To be fully understood, literary production has to be approached in relational terms, by constructing the literary field, i.e. the space of literary prises de position that are possible in a given period in a given society. Prises de position arise from the encounter between particular agents' dispositions (their habitus, shaped by their social trajectory) and their position in a field of positions which is defined by the distribution of a specific form of capital. This specific literary (or artistic, or philosophical, etc.) capital functions within an ‘economy’ whose logic is an inversion of the logic of the larger economy of the society. The ‘interest in distinterestedness’ can be understood by examining the structural relations between the field of literary production and the field of class relations. A number of effects within the literary field arise from the homologies between positions within the two fields. This model is then used to analyze the particular case of the literary field in late 19th century France.