Secularism in the U.S. is larger, more diverse, and more dynamic than ever. But you wouldn’t know it from the media.

Author and commentator Chrissy Stroop breaks down the shortcomings of legacy, mainstream media in understanding atheists, nonreligious people, and the state of the organized secular advocacy community.

Regarding media representation, Fish lamented the tendency of the media to focus on New Atheist leaders and their angry, often bigoted style of atheist advocacy, when journalists should be looking to “actual policy advocates, community leaders, and grassroots activists.” Says Fish, “It’s certainly easier to always go back to the same people, but this does a tremendous disservice to promoting understanding of this community as it exists today.” As Fish sees it, journalists “don’t quite know how to talk about this elephant in the room: the fact that almost a third of Americans are no longer part of an organized religious tradition,” and no legacy media outlet does a particularly good job.