Religious Dating: Path to Community Engagement

If you’re trying to engage communities, it might help to reach out to the people who are actually trying to get engaged!

You probably know couples who met in church, temple, etc. But these days, a surprising number of people of all faiths are eschewing singles bars and regular online dating sites (tawdry or otherwise) in favor of meeting a nice potential spouse with similar religious inclinations. Finding a companion or life partner is a core social need in any community, so religious dating sites, events, and services have sprung up to combine the volume of the former with the virtues of the latter.

Why should news orgs care about religious dating?...

Mosque Communicating: Connecting with Muslim Communities

Despite tireless efforts to break stereotypes about the religion of Islam and Muslim culture, misinformation and prejudice still abound in the US. Consequently (and understandably), some Muslims are wary of US mainstream media—and some news organizations may be similarly wary, too.

That’s why right now it’s especially important for news organizations to foster constructive relationships with local Muslim communities…

Bylines to Bollywood: Connecting with Hindu and Indian-American Communities

More than one billion people around the world come from India, and millions of Indians live abroad. Almost every US city and town includes Indian immigrants and their descendents. Many of these people practice Hinduism. According to the Hindu American Foundation, currently nearly 2 million Hindus live in the US (1.8 million Indian and 200,000 Indo-Caribbean). Additionally, there may be as many as 1 million practicing American Hindus not of Indian origin.

Despite this, Indian Americans are drastically underrepresented in US media, including news media. Also, most Americans know little or nothing about the Hindu faith that helps keep a large part of the diasporic Indian culture connected…

Connecting with Jewish Communities (Gefilte Fish not Required)

Learn how to engage community from the masters of this art.

Radio and Your Community Outreach Strategy

If your news organization wants to better engage particular communities, it helps to go where they are—rather than expect them to flock to you. If your news organization is trying especially to connect better with Hispanic and African-American communities, it might be a good idea to hit the radio waves…

People Count: Diversity Trumps Demographics in Election Coverage

Ultimately, elections are about numbers: Whoever gets the most votes (popular or Electoral College) wins. Therefore, it’s tempting for news organizations to view communities primarily as demographic blocks—essentially, as numbers.

The classic form for this type of election story is: “Here’s how Latinos are polling on issue X or candidate Y,” plus perhaps a few example anecdotes to make the story superficially appear to be more about people than numbers. This approach fits well with the too-easy horserace style of election coverage.

For instance, check out these recent stories…