A Democratic Approach to Religion News: Christianity and Islam in the British and Turkish Press

This book introduces the first systematic and unified four-dimension democratic approach to newspaper religion reporting. It explores the coverage of faith, with a particular focus on Christianity and Islam, in the British and Turkish national press. The results of framing analysis, conducted through content analysis of 1,022 news articles, reveal that, in both countries, alongside the contrasting portrayals of the minority religions, even the dominant religions had a disproportioned employment of the four dimensions - spiritual, world life, political, and conflict. It contributes to scholarship not only empirically but also theoretically and methodologically, with its theoretical and methodological contribution surpassing its empirical findings. As such, it will transcend geographical and temporal boundaries, making it appealing and relevant to an international audience of academics, professionals, and students in the fields of journalism, religion, democracy, media, communication, society, and culture, as well as individuals from various backgrounds.

Dr Ahmed Topkev is a university teacher at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC). He obtained a PhD in Journalism Studies from JOMEC in 2021. His research interests revolve around journalism studies, comparative journalism studies, and the interplay between democracy, news media, society, and religion, with a specific emphasis on religion in the news. Topkev holds Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Additionally, he is a member of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), Religion News Association (RNA), and Sociology of Religion Study Group at the British Sociological Association (BSA SocRel).