Exploring Spirituality and Culture in the U.S.
The religion beat is one that requires reporters to both understand and accurately portray a variety of complex belief systems and traditions — all while maintaining objectivity. Religion reporters need to know how to navigate sensitive issues and present different faith perspectives to audiences who may be either religious or secular.
This beat is unlike any other. It may challenge reporters to examine their own beliefs, assumptions and biases. This book will guide you through this specialized type of reporting.
Its foundation lies in religious literacy and cultural sensitivity. As a religion reporter, one needs to learn to find sources within faith communities, report on internal debates and distinguish between doctrine and practice.
Reporters should regularly read quality religion reporting from sources like the Religion News Service, Religion Unplugged and others to understand how others on the beat cover faith communities and religious issues.
As one practices religion reporting, they’ll become more comfortable handling complex theological concepts and learning both Associated Press Style and the Religion Stylebook for religious terms and titles. Reporters new to the beat will also develop skills and build confidence explaining beliefs, practices and traditions to diverse audiences without oversimplification or bias.
With guidance from this handbook, reporters will learn to avoid both sensationalism and reverence, instead focusing on clear and accurate reporting that helps a general audience understand multiple dimensions of religion in contemporary life.
The Religion Reporting handbook was funded by an affordable materials course grant in 2025 from the University of Georgia’s Provost office.
Authors & Further Information
The latter sections of the handbook draw on the Religion News Foundation resource, Reporting on Religion: A Primer on Journalism’s Best Beat. It was authored by Diane Connolly, edited by Debra L. Mason and made possible because of the expertise, ingenuity, camaraderie and commitment of dozens of religion journalists from the Religion News Association. Those journalists are also responsible for two predecessors to that guide: A Guide to Religion Reporting in the Secular Media: Frequently Asked Questions (2002) and Deities & Deadlines: A Primer on Religion News Coverage by John Dart (1995, 1998).
About the Primer author
Diane Connolly was the founding editor of ReligionLink, Religion Newswriters’ free Internet news service on religion, public policy and culture. Before that, she was religion editor at The Dallas Morning News. During her tenure, the staff won seven awards for producing the best newspaper religion section in the country. She has a master’s of theological studies degree from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
About the Primer editor
Dr. Debra L. Mason was executive director of Religion Newswriters Association and the founding executive director of the Religion Newswriters Foundation. Under her leadership, RNA became the world’s preeminent trainer for journalists writing about religion and no other Web site has more resources to help writers cover religion with balance, accuracy and insight. She is the author of numerous articles on religion reporting and co-edited the only collection of religion news reports: Reporting on Religion, with Judith Buddenbaum. She has a master’s of theological studies from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, a master’s in journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Ohio University.
About the Handbook authors
Lori Johnston is a senior lecturer with the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia and director of the Cox Institute Journalism Writing Lab. Johnston created a Religion Reporting course at UGA and teaches a variety of other journalism classes, including Reporting I: Critical Skills for Reporting and Storytelling, Reporting II: Research, Data, and Documents for Reporting, Media, News and Consumers, and Media Savvy: Becoming Digitally Literate as well as home and garden reporting, feature writing, critical writing and investigative reporting. Her work about religion has been published by The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Sports Spectrum magazine, Crosswalk.com and The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist with over 20 years of experience specializing in religion reporting and media entrepreneurship. She has worked as a multimedia journalist for news publications across the Southwest and Northeast regions of the U.S. She is the executive director and founder of FāVS.News (formerly SpokaneFAVS.com), an innovative digital startup covering religion news and commentary in the Spokane, Washington area. She also writes for national religion news publications and serves as a reporter and columnist for the Spokesman-Review. Her award-winning reporting highlights diverse religious experiences and spans topics from religious extremism to Christian-Muslim relations. Simmons has reported aboard cargo ships, on police chases, and in disaster zones worldwide. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, Religious Communicators Council, LION Publishers and other organizations. She is also a Scholarly Associate Professor of journalism at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, where she created a Religion Reporting Class.
Ken Chitwood is a professional religion nerd. Across his career as a researcher and journalist, he has sought to help audiences better appreciate religion’s diverse expressions and persistent ubiquity in culture, politics and society. He is a member of the University of Bayreuth’s (Germany) humanities faculty, in the Department for the Study of Religion and is Affiliate Researcher with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture. In addition to his scholarly work, he is editor of ReligionLink. His work has appeared or been featured in Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, BBC Radio 4, NPR, Religion News Service, The Times of India, USA Today, The Guardian, Sojourners, Christianity Today and numerous other publications. From 2023-2025, he was President of the Religion News Association. His work has been recognized by the Religion News Association, Associated Church Press, Evangelical Press Association, American Academy of Religion and the Goldziher Prize.
Special thanks are also due to past and present ReligionLink staff — Mary Gladstone, Kate Fox, David Gibson, Juli Cragg Hilliard, Marilyn C. Lewis, Marcia Z. Nelson, Leslie Scanlon, Janet Perez, Kimberly Winston and Beryl Benderly — as well as Jeffrey Weiss, Holly Lebowitz Rossi, Adelle Banks and Michael Kress.