Fears for objectivity as a thousand citizen ‘journalists’ hit the religion beat

Faith-based charities are fighting back after decades of being ignored or misreported in the secular media – amid fears that the truth may suffer.

Believers of all stripes are jumping on the new media bandwagon to tell their stories their way – to mixed reviews.

One major Canadian media provider has recruited a thousand citizen journalists from across the world.  Their brief is to tell stories from the front line of social change where churches and missions have their impact.

And they’re providing eye-witness reports of breaking news.

Crossroads Christian Communications Inc, that broadcasts and sells content to Canada and the US, has teamed up with the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), a charity that claims to represent 600 million people in 28 nations, to find new recruits.

Applicants will be vetted and asked to provide pastoral and personal references. In return, Crossroads say they will give candidates ‘tools and tips’ on reporting, as well as a platform to communicate to international mainstream media.

Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director of the WEA, says: ‘All around the world, there are Christ followers doing great work and their stories need to be heard on the global stage – stories that encourage, motivate and inform.’

Chairman and CEO of Crossroads, Don Simmonds, adds: ‘The breadth of WEA's global reach enables us to more quickly connect with trustworthy Christians in situations around the world who need a media platform to be heard.’

But other Christians express concern about accuracy and bias. Gary Hoogvliet (CORRECT), International Director of Broadcasting for United Christian Broadcasting International, a global network that started in New Zealand thirty years ago, cautions against transmitting stories by unknown sources.

He says: ‘A good journalist is a trained one. As leads, they could be used. But those would need to be followed up and confirmed by people who know what type of questions to ask.’

Andrew Graystone, director of Church and Media Network, a UK body that brings together religion journalists and PRs, and who is himself a former BBC religion producer, is also ambivalent.

He says: ‘There's a role for both. But the role of mainstream journalists in reporting religion is vital. They bring to it an objectivity that we really need. Christians need to see how others see them. Just looking in the mirror is not enough.

‘There is a risk that mainstream journalists don't have sufficient experience or authority to understand what religion is about. So we, the church, have a responsibility to work with them.

‘There's also a risk that mainstream news agencies say "Christians have got their own media - so we don't need to cover them." That kind of segregation is very dangerous too.’

In his book Unreliable Sources: How the 20^th century was reported, BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson pays tribute to citizen journalists for having the courage to be first with breaking news, but stresses their reports need to measure up.

‘Without professionals, we’d be back in the fifteenth century, listening to rumours and claims, uncertain which has any authority,’ he says.

The rise and role of the citizen journalist is limitless. Blogs, social network sites, unofficial digital news feeds and community and special-interest sites have re-balanced the media scene.

Dame Catherine Wybourne, a cloistered Benedictine nun, describes how her small, aging community in rural Oxfordshire, England, has been sustaining a vibrant, interactive, often therapeutic, conversation with hundreds of participants in cyberspace as well as offering a virtual retreat.

However, Dame Wybourne, known as the ‘Digital Nun’, cautions against what she describes as a ‘growing polarisation of religious opinion on the internet’.

She says: ‘The internet has given everyone the access freely to express their opinion. But how do we assess the worth of these opinions? All of us, whatever our faith tradition, has a responsibility to do our own homework.  Otherwise, we cannot be sure if these opinions are honest, true and accurate.’

Cyber-media is also dangerous.  The attempted murder of MP Stephen Timms, Labour’s Vice Chairman for Faith Groups, fought off a knife-wielding 21-year-old trainee teacher at his surgery in East Ham, London.

Mr Timms said his attacker, Roshonara Choudhry, decided to ‘carry out her duty’ after watching more than a hundred hours of video sermons by the Islamic extremist cleric US-born Anwar al-Awlaki - on You Tube.