Ross Todd, an RPP junior
fellow in journalism, has been honored for
excellence in religion reporting by the Missouri
Press Association and the Religion Newswriters
Association. RPP JOURNAL recently spoke with
Ross about his interests in journalism and
his experience as an RPP junior fellow.
Ross
Todd, in the studios of KBIA, Columbia's
National Public Radio affiliate
RPP JOURNAL:First, congratulations on your recent
awards. At the same time you were completing
your junior fellowship with RPP and writing
many of your award-winning stories, you
were taking a course on Religion
Reporting and Writing. How did you
become interested in religion reporting?RT: My
undergraduate degree was in religion and
English at Centre College. So, when I started
reporting religion was an area in which
I already had some background knowledge.
Plus, after September 11, I saw so much
bad religion reporting that I knew there
was work to be done in the field. It is
one of the most under-reported subjects
and a major factor ignored in a lot of coverage.
RPP:Uncovering
stories about religion often require creativity
and resourcefulness because those stories
involve people's everyday lives, rather
than particular events that have occurred.
How do you find these kinds of stories?RT: Religion
reporting is not completely devoid of events
coverage. One of the first things I covered
at the Columbia Missourian was the
United Methodist Church Annual Conference
in Missouri. Contacts I made there led to
other story ideas and sources I could go
back to on additional stories. Like in all
reporting, there's an element of keeping
your eyes open. When you see that a local
minor league baseball player lists in the
team's media guide the Bible as his favorite
book, you check it out. When local Hindus
list a festival in your paper's community
calendar, you follow up on it. Events aren't
usually the best stories, but they lead
to the contacts that make for good stories.
RPP:Have
you covered stories that made a lasting
impression on you? What made them memorable?RT: I found
a local trauma surgeon who has a public
shrine to his Swami in his basement. His
home is a place of worship for about 40
people in the community. Between surgeries,
working on his MBA and his Master's of Public
Health, and trips to India to visit his
Swami, the doctor opened his home and work
life to me. What I was impressed with was
not just the depth and sincerity of his
faith but his sense of humor and his hospitality.
RPP:Have
you found particular challenges inherent
in writing stories that involve religion?RT: Covering
the debate over the ordination of Episcopal
Bishop V. Gene Robinson was also a good
lesson in how the traditional conflict model
of news coverage fails many stories —
both on the religion beat and elsewhere.
In just reporting the extreme voices, journalists
can leave out a lot of people in the middle
of these debates. Also, journalists are
good at the material facts — the who,
what, when, where of things — but religion
deals more in the ethereal and the why.
The reporter's healthy skepticism sometimes
can get in the way of reporting on issues
of faith. RPP:Your
stories have been about people from diverse
religious communities in and around Columbia,
Missouri. Have people been open to discussing
personal beliefs and practices with a reporter?RT: Yes
and no. When you go in with a listening
ear and allow people to articulate their
beliefs and practices, people will take
the opportunity to dispel rumors and express
their faith. Still, there are those subjects
for whom religion is a private matter. In
my reporting, I ran into many more people
willing to talk than those who wanted to
remain private. RPP:During
the RPP fellowship and/or the religion reporting
course, did you gain skills or insights
that will make you a better reporter?RT: In
the faculty/fellows
seminar we talked about different ways
to define religion and spirituality. I think
my own understanding of indigenous faiths
was deepened in the discussions around the
seminar table. Likewise, just conversations
I had with the other professionals in the
seminar gave me a better understanding of
the challenges and opportunities facing
doctors, nurses, lawyers, counselors, social
workers and journalists. I have a better
working vocabulary when dealing with professionals.
RPP:You
still have another year before you complete
your graduate program in journalism. But
what's ahead for Ross Todd?RT: My
stock answer is writing for newspapers,
then writing for magazines, then writing
books. But I am experimenting with NPR-style
radio reporting and newspaper editing at
the moment.
A blog about faith, values and spirituality in the media, from CORP faculty, staff and friends.
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Missouri-Columbia.
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