wfn.org | Debra Mason, of Religion News Writers Set for RCCongress 2010 Workshop

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> Debra L. Mason

Executive Director, Religion Newswriters and Professor, Missouri School of Journalism

> RCCongress 2010 Workshop:

Religion in the News Media: Going, going gone?

Debra L. Mason has spent 25 years studying, reporting, analyzing and encouraging religion in the news. As an award-winning reporter, she covered a U.S. visit of Pope John Paul II and walked down the Las Vegas strip with Southern Baptists, among hundreds of other stories. As a scholar, she?s studied the historical development of the religion beat and trends in religion news. As director of Religion Newswriters, she?s created the largest collection of sources, story ideas and other tools to help journalists cover religion with balance and accuracy. More recently, she?s launched several social networking sites and become a leading expert on religion and new media. She?s the author of Readings on Religion in the News, Executive Editor of ReligionLink, and book review editor for the Journal of Media and Religion.

How do communicators effectively reach religion reporters now that many U.S. daily newspapers have cut their religion sections and in some cases, their religion reporters ? while technology and economics transform the industry. Mason will discuss the status of religion in the news and why some beat journalists are upbeat about where the media are headed. See some of the new forms emerging that are replacing or supplementing legacy media.

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