Coverage of Pope's passing highlights religion's relevance.Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II) born Karol Józef Wojtyła , the leader of the world's Roman Catholics, died on April 2 at the age of 84. His passing apparently shook the news media out of their usual religious apathy and set in motion a wave of articles, commentary, and live coverage. Reuters reported on April 11 that, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. media analysts, "U.S. media outlets have showered the late pontiff with mostly uncritical praise while downplaying the more controversial aspects of his legacy." At a time when the Ten Commandments have been thrown down from our courtroom walls and the supposed "wall of separation" between church and state has been hardened into an iron curtain, this is curious behavior indeed. "Religion returns to spotlight," proclaimed the San Bernardino County Sun on April 11. "Now, some experts say, media outlets are making up for the decades-old void of religious news by highlighting how religion influences American life, especially politics," noted the Sun. The article points to the findings of the Media Research Center: "The three major TV networks ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. , NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. and CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. have doubled coverage of religious issues since 1993, but it still only consists of about 1 percent of news segments." This small percent undoubtedly spiked upward during the recent non-stop coverage of the pope's passing. The media's tendency toward excess and sensationalism sensationalism, in philosophy, the theory that there are no innate ideas and that knowledge is derived solely from the sense data of experience. The idea was discussed by Greek philosophers and is shown variously in the works of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George makes this newfound recognition of religion's relevance something of a mixed blessing. But even on the opposite end of the spectrum, the fear of religion exhibited by Communist China's government-dominated media still highlights the significance of faith. An April 4 report from the French news agency AFP (1) (AppleTalk Filing Protocol) The file sharing protocol used in an AppleTalk network. In order for non-Apple networks to access data in an AppleShare server, their protocols must translate into the AFP language. See file sharing protocol. indicated that "China's web portals have blocked prayers, blessings and other comment on the death of Pope John Paul II from being posted on the Internet." AFP also stated on April 9 that "China's state-controlled media blacked out news of the Pope's funeral on Saturday, with no reports or pictures of the historic event seen on televised news broadcasts, in daily newspapers or on news websites. The sole report seen in state media in China concerned foreign ministry comments condemning Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's attendance at the funeral." |
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