Cults and sects and doomsday groups, oh my: Media treatment of religion onthe eve of the millennium

Recognition that religion is now more "newsworthy" than at any time in post war American history has increased both the salience and amount of news cov erage devoted to it in major news organizations. However religious elites o n the one hand and religion journalists and secular scholars who have studi ed religion journalism on the other of,fer striking v different evaluations of the degree to which this coverage maintains a neutral and unbiased stan ce towards different religious groups. Does news coverage of religion or re ligious groups at the millennium meet this basic criterion of neutral and u nbiased description? This article reports empirical findings,from a content analysis of newspaper and wire service coverage of stories involving prepa rations for the approach of the millennium by religious groups. Our finding s show that more mainstream religious groups are typically described in neu tral or favorable terms. while new religious movements are consistently des cribed in pejorative language. This bias against new religious movements is troubling because the media can have a profoundly negative influence on th e perception of religious group members by outsiders, the self-image of the groups themselves, and the direction that events ultimately take.