Published: 12 October 2012
Country: US
According to a new survey by Pew Research Center, nearly 20% of Americans have no particular religious affiliation. That does not mean that the country is overrun by atheists, but that the US media have to find the better way how to cover these findings and how to report on people who are self-described atheists, agnostics, as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation.
“Part of the study, if you read into it, says it’s not just that people are dropping out of being Protestant” or abandoning religion altogether, said Jaweed Kaleem, who reports on religion for The Huffington Post. “It’s that people are changing the way they talk about religion.”
Kaleem said he’s noticed most news organizations have played up the study’s findings that Protestants are no longer the majority or the rise of what the study calls “nones” — unaffiliated people including atheists, agnostics, people who describe themselves as “spiritual” and those who said they are “looking for a religion”, reports Poynter.
But finding these people, says Kaleem, can be a challenge.
He found Sarah Garrison, the woman who leads his article about the Pew findings, through a Facebook group. He’d been planning a story about people who were spiritual but not religious; when the Pew study dropped he told her, “I’m writing up the study, and it sounds like they’re describing you,” reports Poynter.
Atheists and agnostics have organizations that religion reporters can use if they’re looking for quotes, but people who are spurning institutions are going to naturally be harder to find. Having Pew’s data, Kaleem said, makes it easier to make the case that they’re there, even if they’re not exactly advertising on buses.
