Journactivism and the Threat to Religious Liberty

How Christians Can Disrupt the Bigoted Narrative

The rise of “journactivists” (journalists who actively engage in advocacy and activism), has become a controversial issue in the field of journalism. While some argue that this approach is necessary to advance social justice and hold those in power accountable, others believe that it undermines the principles of independent reporting and objectivity.

Journactivism is of particular concern to Christians. Many of the advocates of it are Marxist-Progressives who would love to dance on the grave of the Christian ethos. They often use anti-Christian bigotry to justify their hedonistic ideology.

The Christian worldview cannot become the victim of contemporary political or social views. Conservative politics and our Bible-based beliefs intersect sometimes, but that is no reason to think they are the same. That’s why, as a Bible-believing person, I am a political Centrist.

My precept: “The Bible must influence our political and social views. However, we must never allow political and social views to influence our understanding of biblical truth.”

We cannot allow others to say that our faith is just another bias and that we are forcing it on others. That is a humanistic lie; the Bible and its precepts are the foundational truth on which humanity is built, and those values stand above social trends and politics in any country or era.

Objective Reporting is Dying

Until our current point in modern history, the news business was divided into three areas.

News, which was a factual, objective reporting of events.
Opinion, which only appeared on the editorial page of newspapers or the commentary section of broadcasts.
Advertising, which supported the dissemination of news but did not influence either news or opinion.

One of the primary concerns about journactivism today is that it blurs the line between news and editorial opinion, between journalism and activism. The role of journalists is to report the facts (who, what, when, where, and why) and not analysis. Activists seek to promote a particular agenda or viewpoint.

When journalists engage in activism, it can create the impression that they are no longer impartial observers but are instead advocating for a particular cause. This can erode the public’s trust in journalism and make it harder for journalists to be taken seriously as objective reporters. Journactivists appear to have a strong bias against the Christian community, and this poses a threat to us.

Journactivist’s taint news with their personal or corporate political or social bias. That is true among both Liberals and Conservatives. As Christians, we want unadulterated facts and the freedom to decide for ourselves.

Journactivism often creates a hostile environment for independent reporters. When journalists are seen as part of a particular movement or cause, they may be less likely to be trusted by those on the other side of the issue, or those who are forming their opinions.

How to Disrupt the Bigoted Narrative

So what can be done about this issue? One possible solution is for news organizations to be more explicit about the distinction between reporting and advocacy.

Transparency in Reporting

Journalists must be required to report on issues in a fact-based and objective way, rather than advocating for a particular cause. Let them save their bias for the newspaper’s editorial page or the commentary section of their newscast. This can help to rebuild the public’s trust in journalism and make it clear that journalists are there to report the news, not to push an agenda.

Journalists must be more transparent about their biases and affiliations. When journalists are upfront about their political beliefs and associations, it can help to create a more honest and open dialogue with their readers or viewers. This can also help to mitigate some of the concerns about journactivism, as readers or viewers will be aware of the journalist’s agenda and not be swayed by masked propaganda.

It is severely misguided to suggest that journactivism promotes social justice in some way. It doesn’t; it only inflames divisiveness, and that undermines democracy.

People need to get the objective story and make up their minds without it being tainted by bias. We need to restore the principles of independent reporting and objectivity.

An Increased Role for Christians in Journalism

Is there hope for a free press in our era of journactivism and the “cancel culture,” which is a form of de facto censorship? Only if Christians hold places of power as media executives, producers, assignment editors, and reporters.

Fight Media Company Anti-Christian Job Discrimination

It has been nearly a decade since the respected Poynter Institute, an independent media research organization, reported on how many Christians were in newsrooms. Even then, they said the data was not good. The American Society of News Editors polls news outlets about gender and race, the Poynter Institute reported, but they ignore religious preferences.

The only credible figures Poynter could offer were from a 2007 Pew study. All those years ago, Pew said only “8 percent of journalists at national publications and 14 percent of those at local publications reported attending worship services weekly, compared with 39 percent of the general public who reported the same.”

There is no reason to believe Christian representation in newsrooms has improved in the years since the poll. With the current bias in news organizations, they are more likely to have Muslim or liberal Protestants if they have any religious staff members.

Christians must infiltrate media companies to become media executives, producers, assignment editors, and reporters. That is the only way we can add salt and light and eliminate the bias and bigotry of journactivism.

Andrew Beaujon, writing for Poynter, quoted Marvin Olasky, then the highly esteemed editor-in-chief of World Magazine. Olasky said that encountering a politically conservative and “theologically Christian” employee at a major newspaper is akin to “spotting a unicorn.”

Send Missionaries to All the Media Outlets

We must encourage Christian young people to become journalists—fair-minded journalists with values.

We must encourage the best and brightest of our Christian youth to pursue a career in journalism.

There are Christian schools that offer journalism degrees. However, having a degree from such schools will only trigger the entrenched bias of the news establishment. Christian young people must attend the best journalism schools like Northwestern University, the University of Missouri, Columbia, or the University of Southern California. They will stay true to Christ in these places if we have raised them right.

We need Christian journalists embedded in news organizations as salt and light (Matthew 5:13–16). In that way, we can serve both man and God.