Jennings to speak at
national
faith and media conference
ChristianWeek part of inter-faith initiative
By Art Babych
OTTAWA–Peter Jennings of ABC World News Tonight is to be the keynote speaker at the first-ever multi-faith national conference on faith and media, to be held in Ottawa in June.
The Canadian-born television news anchor heads a list of prominent speakers at the conference, which is sponsored by the Carleton University School of Journalism and supported by a variety of faith groups and religious and daily newspapers–including ChristianWeek.
"This is not a time when we come together to tell the media how horrible they are," says John Longhurst, spokesperson for the Winnipeg-based steering committee, whose members also include ChristianWeek founding editor Harold Jantz and current editor Doug Koop.
"It’s a time for dialogue and hopefully we’ll understand each other a little more," says Longhurst. While such conferences are common in the United States, he continues, "we are not aware that there’s ever been a national multi-faith conference of this nature in Canada."
Jennings, an Anglican, was chosen as keynote speaker because of his support for increased coverage of faith issues in the media. He was instrumental in the decision by ABC News to hire Peggy Wehmeyer as its first religion correspondent in 1995.
"I have only recently come to understand how complicated and inadequate, and occasionally horrifying, media coverage of religion has been," said Jennings in an address to the Harvard Divinity School last year. "As for insufficient resources, it is ludicrous that we are the only national television network to have a full-time religion reporter who is a specialist."
Other speakers at the conference include sociologist Reginald Bibby, who has closely examined religious life in Canada for the past two decades, and Andrew Grenville, vice president of the Angus Reid Group, which has conducted several recent surveys dealing with faith issues.
Peter Desbarats, a former dean of the School of Journalism at the University of Western Ontario, will also give an address and Hana Gartner, host of CBC TV’s The National Magazine, will moderate a panel discussion between senior management of selected media outlets and representatives from various faith groups.
Harold Redekop, vice president of CBC English radio, said the public broadcaster would be sending a number of participants to the conference.
Vision TV is expected to film some of the conference proceedings for later broadcast, and the steering committee said a conference website is to be set up, where some of the presentations will be published.
The organizers hope that as a result of the conference the media will have a better understanding of why they should pay more attention to faith issues. They also hope that various faith groups will have a better idea of how the media works.
