God of Media

I have been given the task of doing a workshop in March broadly entitled 'God of Media.' Here are my thoughts for a preamble.

In this 21^st century the media has omniscient scale, speed and reach. It is omnipresent, 365/24/7 coverage; events can be in millions of homes as they happen.

The media can shape consciousness and values. It doesn’t merely report events or pass on information or a message; it makes the news. News that is packaged in a pluralistic, ostensibly tolerant, value neutral, or value laden way. These values are not rooted in something such as a predisposition to Christendom, rather the media pursues its own ‘news value’ and sets the agenda for mass consumption. We only hear and receive what unaccountable editors and their owners consider ‘newsworthy’. What we hear is simplified, decontextualised often emotive and usually loaded. Even entertaining.

‘Breaking news’ doesn’t just mean sudden events but could also describe the invidious effect that leads to the progressive breaking of governments, of taboos, of cultural, societal and moral norms. There is ‘media power’ and this can be wielded politically, globally and morally.

So in this context of media power what issues are there for Christians, as message bearers, to think through and how can we respond practically?