Dew spoke to a BYU audience about the need to improve how religion is treated in the media.

By Hanna Seariac

American media needs to tell a better story about faith, Sheri Dew said at a Brigham Young University lecture Wednesday evening. “But (people of faith) also need to learn to talk about what really makes a difference in our lives and do it in a way that we can do it with anybody.”

BYU’s President C. Shane Reese introduced Dew, the executive vice president and chief content officer for Deseret Management Corporation, as a distinguished BYU alumnus with a storied communications career who is also a person of profound faith.

Dew began her remarks, titled “The Intersection of Faith, Media and Wellness” with a story about losing her mother in the midst of the pandemic. The family held a small memorial service in her hometown of Ulysses, Kansas — a four stoplight town, Dew quipped.

As the memorial procession drove to the cemetery a few miles down the road, escorted by a local officer, a woman stopped next to her pickup truck and bowed her head with “profound reverence and respect,” without even knowing who was in the hearse. “I’ll bet you there are way more of that woman in this country than we think,” Dew said. “I’m not sure we always see them represented and given their full due.”

She pointed to a global study of some 10,000 respondents conducted by the Faith & Media Initiative and Harris X showing that 63% of respondents believe that too much of faith content is rooted in controversy. The survey also found that 61% said the media perpetuates faith-based stereotypes. Some 43% said the media’s current approach to religion coverage creates unease and anxiety.

“Why then does a preponderance of today’s stories about faith in news media and entertainment lack accuracy, truth, profundity and why does it lack hope?” Dew asked, noting that 84% of people have some tie to religion, according to the Pew Research Center.

https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/04/03/sheri-dew-on-faith-and-media/