Religious Literacy

There's a study in the latest Journal of Media and Religion (full disclosure, I'm on the editorial board) that compares the "religious literacy" of mass communication and non-mass communication students. More on that in a moment. First, what is religious literacy? The study defines it as "how much people know about the factual details of a faith." It was measured by a 16-question instrument designed by another scholar, Stephen, in his 2007 book entitled, aptly enough, Religious Literacy: What every American needs to know--and doesn't. It must be scholarly. It has a colon in the title. I haven't read the book, so I can't speak to its rigor, but it appears to be solid stuff.

OK, enough of the academic stuff. How did the students fare?

Mass comm majors outperformed non-mass comm majors. Within mass comm, PR and photojournalism majors outperformed magazine, broadcast, and "convergence" majors. Advertising and print journalism students were in the middle of the pack.