{"id":574,"date":"2024-08-16T12:42:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T10:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/?p=574"},"modified":"2024-08-16T12:42:34","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T10:42:34","slug":"covid-19-religious-topics-receive-little-media-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/2024\/08\/16\/covid-19-religious-topics-receive-little-media-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: Religious topics receive little media coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[You can read the article in French below the English version or click here<\/a> to get to the original.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘During the three years I covered COVID, I didn’t think much about religion’, admitted Andr\u00e9 Picard of the Globe and Mail. It was with this remark that the journalist and columnist began his address to the international conference on Religions and the COVID-19 pandemic held at the Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al on Tuesday 13 August 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A volunteer ensures that worshippers disinfect their hands when entering the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupr\u00e9 on 24 October 2021. (Photo: Philippe Vaillancourt)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘There is already little written about religion in the secular media’, he then confirmed to the sixty or so participants at the meeting. Except, he was quick to correct, when religions, religious leaders or people of faith are at the heart of scandals or controversies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this one-day conference, the speakers looked at how church and religious leaders and their members have lived through the pandemic. The speakers also assessed the quality of the relations that religious groups had with the health and political authorities in four countries – Canada, Ireland, Germany and Poland – during the years of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andr\u00e9 Picard, a columnist who has been present at the conference from the outset, enjoyed listening to the other speakers discuss the links between conspiracy theories and spirituality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We even heard the term \u2018conspirituality\u2019\u2019, a catch-all term linking spirituality and conspiracism. \u2018I found it fascinating\u2019, admits this journalist who has been covering health issues for several years and who argues that, during the pandemic, health authorities and politicians were not always very good at popularising the information they were \u201cpreaching\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A daily Mass<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luce Julien, Director General of News at Radio-Canada, also acknowledges that religious subjects were rarely at the heart of the news or debate during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But that’s normal. We only had one main subject to follow, a single topic,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that subject was precisely COVID-19, which the media covered \u2018religiously\u2019, she asserts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With, she recalls, a \u2018daily mass\u2019 at 1 p.m. with Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault and, for a long time, the Director General of Public Health Horacio Arruda. \u2018Two or three million Quebecers\u2019 tuned in every day, \u201creligiously even\u201d, says Luce Julien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religious literacy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking the floor after these speeches, Pierre Murray, Secretary General of the Assembl\u00e9e des \u00e9v\u00eaques catholiques du Qu\u00e9bec, said that he had noticed that \u2018the journalistic treatment of religion varied considerably\u2019 during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning, when Quebec went on hiatus, the religious world did not have \u2018good press\u2019 and was unable to make itself heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the first wave of decontamination and a bitter observation. Places of worship \u2018found themselves in limbo\u2019 in the eyes of the government, he says. \u2018Remember, there were seven or eight stages of decontamination and we simply weren’t one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Legault and the health authorities did not mention places of worship at all among the institutions due to open their doors in the near future. Restaurants, convenience stores and cinemas were all on the list of institutions to be deconfined. But there was no mention of churches, synagogues or mosques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, some of the media sided with the religious leaders because ‘in their eyes, we were being treated a bit badly’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Bishop Murray believes that during the pandemic there was a \u2018back and forth\u2019 between sympathy and ignorance towards religions and churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But, in my opinion, the lack of religious literacy took over in the media coverage.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio-Canada’s news director admitted that there is \u2018not a great deal of religious literacy in the newsrooms\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Luce Julien adds that the health crisis, \u2018unprecedented in our daily lives as journalists\u2019, has forced the media to focus on immediacy and provide continuous information, \u2018hour by hour, almost minute by minute\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, through various initiatives, \u2018we also tried to give meaning, to understand this reality and to take a step back\u2019, but, she concedes, only after this \u2018total crisis\u2019 experienced by citizens and society during the first weeks of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But the spiritual aspect wasn’t very present, I admit,\u2019 says Luce Julien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Priority number 59<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came to religion during the pandemic, \u2018our coverage was fairly fair\u2019, says columnist Andr\u00e9 Picard. It wasn’t abundant, but it was fair. \u2018Yes, we talked about it. We talked about the rebels, those in Alberta for example, who defied the law and governments.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But at the height of the crisis, we didn’t pay too much attention to religion,\u2019 says the Globe and Mail journalist. \u2018Religion was number 59 on our list of priorities.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the pandemic, journalists from Pr\u00e9sence, an independent news agency that has been covering religion in Quebec and Canada since 2015, published more than 240 articles on relations between religious leaders and government and health authorities. Several Pr\u00e9sence articles were picked up by Canadian, American and European media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Fran\u00e7ois Gloutnay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

COVID-19: les sujets religieux peu couverts par les m\u00e9dias<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u00abDurant les trois ann\u00e9es o\u00f9 j\u2019ai couvert la COVID, je n\u2019ai pas beaucoup song\u00e9 \u00e0 la religion\u00bb, a reconnu d\u2019embl\u00e9e Andr\u00e9 Picard du\u00a0Globe and Mail<\/em>. C\u2019est par cette remarque que le journaliste et chroniqueur a d\u00e9but\u00e9 son allocution lors du colloque international Religions et pand\u00e9mie COVID-19 tenu \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al le mardi 13 ao\u00fbt 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abOn \u00e9crit d\u00e9j\u00e0 peu sur la religion dans les m\u00e9dias s\u00e9culiers\u00bb, a-t-il ensuite confirm\u00e9 \u00e0 la soixantaine de participants \u00e0 cette rencontre. Sauf, s\u2019est-il empress\u00e9 de corriger, lorsque des religions, des chefs religieux ou des personnes croyantes sont au c\u0153ur de scandales ou de controverses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lors de ce colloque d\u2019une journ\u00e9e, les intervenants ont \u00e9tudi\u00e9 comment les chefs des \u00c9glises et des religions ainsi que leurs membres ont v\u00e9cu la pand\u00e9mie. Les conf\u00e9renciers ont aussi mesur\u00e9 la qualit\u00e9 des relations qu\u2019ont entretenues les groupes religieux avec les autorit\u00e9s sanitaires et politiques de quatre pays, soit le Canada, l\u2019Irlande, l\u2019Allemagne et la Pologne, durant les ann\u00e9es de la COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr\u00e9sent depuis le d\u00e9but du colloque, le chroniqueur Andr\u00e9 Picard a bien appr\u00e9ci\u00e9 entendre les autres conf\u00e9renciers discuter des liens entre les th\u00e9ories conspirationnistes et la spiritualit\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abOn a m\u00eame entendu le terme \u2018\u2019conspiritualit\u00e9\u2019\u2019\u00bb, un mot-valise liant spiritualit\u00e9<\/em> et conspirationnisme<\/em>. \u00abJ\u2019ai trouv\u00e9 cela fascinant\u00bb, admet ce journaliste qui couvre les questions de sant\u00e9 depuis plusieurs ann\u00e9es et qui avance que, durant la pand\u00e9mie, les autorit\u00e9s sanitaires et les responsables politiques n\u2019\u00e9taient pas toujours tr\u00e8s habiles \u00e0 vulgariser les informations qu\u2019ils \u00abpr\u00eachaient\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Une messe quotidienne<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Luce Julien, directrice g\u00e9n\u00e9rale de l\u2019information de Radio-Canada, reconna\u00eet aussi que les sujets religieux ont rarement \u00e9t\u00e9 au c\u0153ur des nouvelles ou des d\u00e9bats durant la pand\u00e9mie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abMais c\u2019est normal. Nous n\u2019avions qu\u2019un sujet principal \u00e0 suivre, un mono-sujet\u00bb, dit-elle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Et ce sujet, c\u2019\u00e9tait pr\u00e9cis\u00e9ment la COVID-19 que les m\u00e9dias ont couvert \u00abreligieusement\u00bb, affirme-t-elle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avec, rappelle-t-elle, une \u00abmesse quotidienne\u00bb, \u00e0 13 h, avec le premier ministre Fran\u00e7ois Legault et longtemps le directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de la sant\u00e9 publique Horacio Arruda. \u00abDeux ou trois millions de Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois\u00bb \u00e9taient \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9coute chaque jour, \u00abreligieusement m\u00eame\u00bb, lance Luce Julien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Litt\u00e9ratie religieuse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Prenant la parole apr\u00e8s ces interventions, Pierre Murray, le secr\u00e9taire g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de l\u2019Assembl\u00e9e des \u00e9v\u00eaques catholiques du Qu\u00e9bec, dit avoir constat\u00e9 que \u00bble traitement journalistique du fait religieux a consid\u00e9rablement vari\u00e9\u00bb durant la pand\u00e9mie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Au d\u00e9but, quand le Qu\u00e9bec s\u2019est mis sur pause, le monde religieux n\u2019avait pas \u00abbonne presse\u00bb et ne r\u00e9ussissait pas \u00e0 se faire entendre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puis arrive une premi\u00e8re vague de d\u00e9confinement et un amer constat. Les lieux de culte \u00abse retrouvent dans les limbes\u00bb aux yeux du gouvernement, dit-il. \u00abRappelez-vous, il y avait sept ou huit \u00e9tapes de d\u00e9confinement et nous, on n\u2019en faisait tout simplement pas partie.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le premier ministre Legault et les autorit\u00e9s sanitaires ne mentionnent pas du tout les lieux de culte parmi les institutions appel\u00e9es \u00e0 ouvrir prochainement leurs portes. Les restaurants, les commerces de proximit\u00e9 et les cin\u00e9mas, tous faisaient partie de la liste des institutions \u00e0 d\u00e9confiner. Mais aucune mention pour les \u00e9glises, les synagogues et les mosqu\u00e9es.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c0 ce moment-l\u00e0, certains m\u00e9dias se sont rang\u00e9s du c\u00f4t\u00e9 des leaders religieux car \u00abon \u00e9tait \u00e0 leurs yeux un peu maltrait\u00e9s\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

En fait, Mgr Murray estime que durant la pand\u00e9mie, il y a eu un \u00abva-et-vient\u00bb entre sympathie et ignorance envers les religions et les \u00c9glises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abMais, \u00e0 mon avis, le manque de litt\u00e9ratie religieuse prenait le dessus dans la couverture m\u00e9diatique.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La directrice de l\u2019information de Radio-Canada a alors admis qu\u2019il n\u2019y a pas \u00abune grande litt\u00e9ratie religieuse dans les salles de r\u00e9daction\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mais Luce Julien ajoute que la crise sanitaire, \u00abdu jamais vu dans notre quotidien comme journalistes\u00bb, a oblig\u00e9 les m\u00e9dias \u00e0 se concentrer sur l\u2019imm\u00e9diatet\u00e9 et \u00e0 fournir de l\u2019information en continu, \u00abd\u2019heure en heure, presque de minute en minute\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toutefois, par diverses initiatives, \u00abon a aussi veill\u00e9 \u00e0 donner un sens, \u00e0 comprendre cette r\u00e9alit\u00e9 et \u00e0 se donner un peu de recul\u00bb, mais, conc\u00e8de-t-elle seulement apr\u00e8s cette \u00abcrise totale\u00bb v\u00e9cue par les citoyens et la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 durant les premi\u00e8res semaines de la pand\u00e9mie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abMais l\u2019aspect spirituel a \u00e9t\u00e9 peu pr\u00e9sent, je veux bien l\u2019admettre\u00bb, dit Luce Julien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Priorit\u00e9 num\u00e9ro 59<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Quand il a \u00e9t\u00e9 question du fait religieux durant la pand\u00e9mie, \u00abnotre couverture a \u00e9t\u00e9 assez juste\u00bb, pr\u00e9cise le chroniqueur Andr\u00e9 Picard. Elle n\u2019\u00e9tait pas abondante, mais juste. \u00abOui, nous en avons parl\u00e9. Nous avons parl\u00e9 des rebelles, ceux d\u2019Alberta par exemple, qui d\u00e9fiaient la loi et les gouvernements.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abMais au plus fort de la crise, nous n\u2019avons pas trop port\u00e9 attention \u00e0 la religion\u00bb, dit le journaliste du Globe and Mail<\/em>. \u00abLa religion, c\u2019\u00e9tait le num\u00e9ro 59 dans notre liste de priorit\u00e9s.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mentionnons que durant la pand\u00e9mie, les journalistes de Pr\u00e9sence<\/em>, une agence de presse ind\u00e9pendante qui couvre le fait religieux au Qu\u00e9bec et au Canada depuis 2015, ont publi\u00e9 plus de 240 articles sur les relations entre les leaders religieux et les autorit\u00e9s gouvernementales et sanitaires. Plusieurs articles de Pr\u00e9sence<\/em> ont \u00e9t\u00e9 repris par des m\u00e9dias canadiens, am\u00e9ricains et europ\u00e9ens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Auteur: Fran\u00e7ois Gloutnay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[You can read the article in French below the English version or click here to get to the original.] ‘During the three years I covered COVID, I didn’t think much about religion’, admitted Andr\u00e9 Picard of the Globe and Mail. It was with this remark that the journalist and columnist began his address to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/20220208_sadb_PV.jpg.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577,"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recov19.uni-bremen.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}