MCS121 Faith and Media Lecture Notes PDF

MCS121: Introduction to Media and Communication Studies Lecture 23: Faith and Media Faith and Media Stasis and Course Purpose Fact: What are different forms of media? What factors shape media? How do audiences engage with media? Definition: How do we define and classify different parts of the med...

MCS121: Introduction to Media and Communication Studies Lecture 23: Faith and Media Faith and Media Stasis and Course Purpose Fact: What are different forms of media? What factors shape media? How do audiences engage with media? Definition: How do we define and classify different parts of the media landscape? Quality: Why should we care about how media works? How does it affect our lives/society? Policy: How do I want to engage with media? What kind of media do I want to create? Like & Subscribe for Eternal Life: Salvation through the internet by Yi Ning Chiu “The internet is not a spiritually neutral structure.” Ekstasis Magazine Like & Subscribe for Eternal Life: Salvation through the internet Seeking to become known and seeking to elevate the Gospel were indistinguishable pursuits. The Christian figures we imitated commanded enormous audiences online; our favorite worship musicians had enough social media clout to hold brand sponsorships, and a few ministers we admired became such credible Instagram celebrities that when they offered an influencer seminar titled “Glow Up for Jesus,” a few of us booked flights to attend. The social internet intertwined spiritual devotion and personal gain. I loved that social platforms made me feel like I could be seen and known forever, and that I could pursue this feeling in Jesus’ name. Social media seemed like a boon to all of my existential anxieties, and, amazingly, it was free.  Like & Subscribe for Eternal Life: Salvation through the internet Building upon Jaron Lanier’s idea that representing reality via information systems always requires users to simplify their understanding of the world, Smith describes social media platforms as sites where we participate in referendums that limit how a person should be. She writes, “Facebook, our new beloved interface with reality, was designed by a Harvard sophomore with a Harvard sophomore’s preoccupations. What is your relationship status? (Choose one. There can only be one answer. People need to know.) Do you have a ‘life’? (Prove it. Post pictures.) Do you like the right sort of things? (Make a list. Things to like will include: films, music, books and television, but not architecture, ideas, or plants.)”  Like & Subscribe for Eternal Life: Salvation through the internet During the election year, I had posted frequently in the name of bearing faithful Christian witness to a polarized moment, and noticed that with each post, the content on my screens shifted to mirror and intensify what I was thinking. I always put away my phone feeling validated enough to continue posting about my beliefs online, and sufficiently threatened to continue explaining my opinions to imaginary detractors. Whether or not my posts did anyone any good is unclear, but the purchases I made during this time are reminders that my activity made me so transparent to advertisers that they were able to persuade me of the urgency of my own opinions, and to convince me that I needed physical products to affirm the persona they were helping me create online.  Like & Subscribe for Eternal Life: Salvation through the internet I spent more time on my phone than I had before. I posted frequently, and when I wasn’t posting I was surveying my life and my thoughts for fragments that might be salable online. Were my spiritual epiphanies on- brand? Did I look good in the accompanying images? The ads cycling across my screens kept pace with these questions, churning out names of Christian influencers I could learn from, and, pragmatically, beauty and clothing recommendations that might make me look better in pictures. I only stopped trying to capitalize on my fifteen minutes of internet fame because I realized how much work it required to hold anyone’s attention. Propping up an internet persona, even one that I had ostensibly created in Jesus’ name, required a scaffold of anxious, spiritualized narcissism that I was building even when I wasn’t online. So, how do we engage with media as Christians?! “Under the guise of keeping itself from the “world,” the body of Christ then in effect allows the powers of secularization and distortion to dominate the greater part of its life. This is not so much an avoidance of evil as a neglect of duty....... “Whether we work in the arts, business, or the media, the strategy of reformation must always guide us.” Wolters, Creation Regained, p. 95 “... structure refers to the order of creation, to the constant creational constitution of any thing, what makes it the thing or entity that it is. Structure is anchored in the law of creation, the creational decree of God that constitutes the nature of different kinds of creatures. It designates a reality that the philosophical tradition of the West has often referred to by such words as substance, essence, and nature. Direction, by contrast, designates the order of sin and redemption, the distortion or perversion of creation through the fall on the one hand and the redemption and restoration of creation in Christ on the other. Anything in creation can be directed either toward or away from God—that is, directed either in obedience or disobedience to his law. This double direction applies not only to individual human beings but also to such cultural phenomena as technology, art, and scholarship... and to such human functions as emotionality, sexuality, and rationality. To the degree that these realities fail to live up to God’s creational design for them, they are misdirected, abnormal, distorted... Direction therefore always involves two tendencies moving either for or against God... The structure of all the creational givens persists despite their directional perversion.” Wolters, 59-60. Faith & Media: A brighter future together The Faith & Media Initiative™ is a nonprofit that connects and provides resources to a global network of media members, content creators, faith leaders, and community members to ensure accurate, balanced representation of all faiths in news and entertainment. HarrisX Study: Combines quantitative and qualitative research Multimedia presentation of research (expository report, video interviews, charts and infographics, snippets for social media) Uses stasis questions to guide reader Ethos is generated by ethical credibility and professional polish One-note Storyline “More people of each religion say current portrayals follow the same storyline over and over.” How would you describe depictions of religion in popular media?  Religious Illiteracy Scholars use the term “religious illiteracy” to identify the inability to accurately describe or critically engage with faith... Religious literacy entails the ability to discern and analyze the fundamental intersections of religion and social/political/cultural life through multiple lenses. “How Faith Molds Society and Why Media Needs to Care”  Religious Literacy Moore writes that we can tackle misrepresentation by teaching three principles. First, religions are internally diverse, not uniform. Second, religions evolve and change, rather than being ahistorical and static – in other words, what a religious group did or believed in the past does not necessarily represent its present state. And finally, religious influences are woven throughout all dimensions of culture; they don’t exist in isolated context, or solely in private lives and practice. These principles are particularly helpful for media to keep in mind. Stories about religion aren’t just stories about what a particular clergy member or community is doing. They’re about the ways that religion influences decisions in business and the arts, architecture and travel, food and education. Accurate representation of religion takes into account the changing nature of specific faiths, as well as the diversity of belief, practice, and identity that might exist within a religious group. “How Faith Molds Society and Why Media Needs to Care” How might a Christian work in media for the public good, rather than only for profit? The most basic, essential, fundamental truth of commercial media in a capitalist society, such as the media of the US and other rich free-market countries [including Canada], is that it functions as any business functions, and is subject to the same incentives and constraints. When we ask, “why is this the way it is?” it always pays to remember that most media we experience are produced by an industry in business to make money. Newman, 14 Culture Care Makoto Fujimura ”Culture care is to provide care for our culture’s ‘soul’... Culture care restores beauty as a seed of invigoration into the ecosystem of culture. Such care is generative: a well-nurtured culture becomes an environment in which people and creativity thrive...... What is generative is the opposite of degrading or limiting. It is constructive, expansive, affirming, growing beyond a mindset of scarcity.” Fujimura 22 Consider a specific media environment (film, tv, social media, music, news, etc.) In what ways does the media environment degrade or limit human thriving? “Culture care ultimately results in a generative cultural environment: open to questions of meaning, reaching beyond mere survival, inspiring people to meaningful action, and leading toward wholeness and harmony. It produces thriving crossgenerational community.” Fujimura 24-5 Consider a specific media environment (film, tv, social media, music, news, etc.) In what ways might the media environment afford interactions, behaviours, and messages that lead people to meaningful questions and action? ​ hen author, singer, and songwriter, Andrew W Peterson, visited the Oxford home of C. S. Lewis in 2006, he returned to Nashville with a conviction that community nourishes good and lasting artistic work—and that creative work nourishes community. Soon afterward, the Rabbit Room was born with the mission to create and curate stories, music, and works of art to nourish the life of Christ-centered communities for the life of the world. ​ In the years since its founding, the Rabbit Room has grown into a press, a theatre program, a beloved arts conference called Hutchmoot, a podcast network, an event space and community center called North Wind Manor, and more. Above all, however, the Rabbit Room is a vibrant community of creators, thinkers, writers, and art enthusiasts. ​ Our mission is to set a long table and pile it Self-Reflection If you were to work in some area of media, what would your IDEAL work/project look like? How might your work move culture toward God’s creational structure? How might your work be “generative” in Fujimura’s terms?