The faith of journalists and religious practices in Brazil

Abstract

This article compares the available data on religions of Brazilian journalists with general characteristics of religiosity in the population, based on data presented in Brazilian journalist’s profile of 2012 and the Brazilian national census of 2010. The objective is to understand if particularities of the religious experience among journalists can have effects on the coverage of this subject. The issue is relevant because of the sociopolitical and economic consequences of recent changes in religiosity in the country. The data indicate three striking differences among journalists: a) more significant presence of non-practitioners and atheists; b) significantly less participation of Catholics and Evangelicals; and c) greater expressiveness of Spiritists and practitioners of religions of African origin. The text raises the hypothesis that these differences, along with other factors, can explain phenomena such as the relative inattention of journalistic coverage to the growth of the neo-Pentecostal population in the country and the generally positive approaches that spiritism received from the media.