Media Models in Church and Parachurch Communications 401 Milligan College Spring, 1999 Terry Mattingly Associate Professor of Communications I. OVERTURE It would be worthless to teach students an impressive collection of statistics about trends in communications and popular culture that will shape the United States and the world, in the years and decades to come. By the time you've gathered together all your "facts," the river of change will have passed you by. As if that weren't enough, our society is splintered into a legion of interest groups, or "niches," each containing one or many differing viewpoints about the makeup of those "facts" and what they mean. The media tell us more than we need to know about some of these viewpoints, and precious little about many others. The view from Jerusalem is very different from that of Athens, Wall Street, Hollywood, Peoria or Appalachia. Why should modern Christians attempt to study media and popular culture at all? Why even try to shoot at today's moving targets? Why not join the majority of people in the church establishment and either ignore the mass media or invite them into our churches and living rooms unchallenged? However, ``Why ask why?'' isn't a viable answer. Apathy is not an option for those who believe they are called to be church leaders and communications professionals who walk the tense high-wire between secular standards and Christian commitments. The goal of this class is for students to learn methods that can be used to study the river of change, and motivations for modern Christians to want to do so. We need strategies to help us monitor what is happening around us before we attempt to respond -- as church leaders or as communicators. Our assumption: We live in mission territory, in a post-Christian culture that is foreign to values of the church. We will look at how the secular news and entertainment media shape public definitions and debates about several critical religious and moral issues, each of vital importance to the church in the 1990s and beyond. As we do this, we will look at changes in the modern media marketplace and a few of the theories that researchers use to describe the role media play in our lives. Then we will attempt to respond to these trends, completing projects that build on the unique strengths offered by churches and modern parachurch groups. II. OBJECTIVES (a) Like it or not, we learn most of what we think we know about public, and in many cases private, life through the secular news and entertainment media. Thus, in this class we will observe how our popular culture forces us to look at daily events and ongoing trends through the lens of the media. I will make assignments requiring students to monitor the role media and popular culture play in their daily lives, on and off campus. Special emphasis will be given to popular books, newspapers, magazines, television, the World Wide Web, movies and popular music and video. (b) In an attempt to narrow our focus, we will study several social trends or issues, while looking at samples of media and popular culture. Each will have great impact on the work of the church in the coming decades. Here are three examples: The entertainment culture: Is there more to life than one-liners and sound bites? How would we know if people don't ask this kind of question on TV? Who gave late-night talk show hosts the power to shape the political and moral view of millions? Those culture wars: Americans feel uncomfortable when religion becomes a part of politics. Yet we also feel uncomfortable when morality -- even in the private lives of politicians -- is divorced from politics. The fact remains that the defining political issues of our day are moral and social. The church cannot avoid this. Lowest-common-denominator religion: What is happening to religious faith in the public arena in this new age? How do the media serve as vehicles for secularization, privatization and pluralization? In particular, why has the so-called "New Age" movement had such a lasting impact in our culture? Changing family patterns: It is hard to define terms such as "marriage" and "family," in the post-Murphy Brown and Ellen sitcom era. How do Baby Boomers, Busters and other people in our society find their definitions for these terms, amid the static of modern media? Especially, what is happening to the lives of children? Ironically, the easiest way to study this issue is to study the role of television. (c) Let me stress: this class is about paying critical attention to the methods and messages of mass media, not about killing time by watching movies or MTV. Our goal is to blend observations of popular culture with reflections on how to make a case for the Gospel in modern times. We will, without apology, focus on the needs of the church. Also, we will discuss ways in which men and women can work in the media while maintaining a Christian worldview. Students will be shown examples of periodicals, alternative Christian ministries and secular agencies that contain useful information on cultural issues. Classes and events outside the classroom will include time for discussion, questions about the course and examination of current items from the media. (d) Assignments in the class will be flexible, allowing a wide range of students to take part. But we will assume that most students in the class are communications majors, Bible majors or studying in related humanities disciplines. This is not a journalism course. I know that. At the request of last year's class, I am actually adding several short assignments early in the semester, AND I am adding a mid-term exam. Why did these students do this to you? They said they needed to test their own grasp of a few basic concepts in the class before they did their final project and the final exam. Yes, I can provide a few names if you want to call and tell some of these students what you think of their request. III. TEXTBOOKS: Spring, 1999 (a) All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture, by Kenneth Myers. Crossway. (b) Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, by James Davison Hunter. HarperCollins-Basic Books. The Disappearance of Childhood (1994 edition), by Neil Postman. Vintage. (d) Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson. HarperCollins. A lengthy annoted bibliography is available of other books linked to this class. Feel free to ask for a copy, or check the "freelance" link at http://www.tmatt.net IV. REQUIREMENTS (a) Concerning my priorities in assigning grades -- please keep the following in mind. This is a class built on lively participation, especially in class sessions. When in doubt, dive in. Come up with new ideas. Speak up. Attendance is critical. My hope is that members of this class can work as a team by the semester's end --evaluating each other's work and even teaching each other various media skills. A communications-video major might, for example, help a Bible major with a project that involves video. (b) As for written work, I'm looking for clarity, not a particular writing style (unless a particular project calls for it, such as a feature story for a magazine). As mentioned earlier, this is not a journalism course. We want to produce ideas and materials for the church. Nevertheless, "academic" issues of spelling, grammar and accuracy will greatly affect letter grades. Take my word for it. Consider the words of one of my all- time favorite professors: "All I can do is pick up somebody's paper, read it, and look for signs of intelligent life." (c) The first half of the course will focus on reading, with a few short written assignments as well. We will gather information to help us find the seeds of the projects that will dominate the second half of the semester. Each student will read the required four books. Then, each student will - with my help - select and read an additional book that is related to the subject of his or her final project. The student will write and present a report on this book in class. The mid-term exam, a few other written assignments and this book report will contribute 25 percent of the final grade. (d) The final project will begin with a short paper -- four to five pages, typed and double-spaced -- focusing on one example of a media "signal" linked to Christian faith and practice. The "signal" is part of the following system we will use to think about Christianity and the secular media. Understanding the concept of the "signal" is the major goal of this class. 1. A "signal" is a single piece of secular popular culture focusing on a subject that is of interest to the church. It can be a newspaper article, a television show, a compact disc, a movie, a new video, a best-selling book or some other similar item. Step one is to select a "signal." The key: define your turf. Be specific. 2. Next we will study the contents of this specific example of secular media. Our goal is to find the "secular subject" of that media "signal," as defined by its secular creators. 3. From there, we will focus on the corresponding "sacred subject" in Christian teaching, as defined by the Bible and church teachings through the generations. 4. Then we will ask how the church could offer a "response" in preaching, Christian education or a parachurch program that is based on the original mass media "signal." I realize that this is an undergraduate class. We are not trying to produce seminary-level materials. But we want to do our best. (e) Here is where we step into the unknown. At the end of the semester, I want you to turn in a completed final project that responds to your signal. It may be the text of a sermon or sermons. It may be a series of radio broadcasts, It may be a new site on the World Wide Web. It may be a magazine cover story or a series of articles. It may be a packet of materials for use in a youth retreat. Whatever. The goal is the same - to help the church respond to an issue in the lives of people in this culture. We want to do something constructive. We want to respond, as communicators in this missionary culture. In your final projects, direct quotations from the "signal" and from outside source materials are required. Also, students should demonstrate knowledge of assigned readings. The written text that accompanies your final project should conform with standard academic forms -- such as those detailed in the fifth edition of Kate L. Turabian's "A Manual For Writers." This project must be accompanied by an annotated bibliography of at least 10 books or major articles in periodicals on the subject covered in the text of the paper. The goal is to provide a clear reference, along with at least one paragraph of newly written material that would help a church leader. All of the work linked to the final project will combine to contribute 50 percent to a student's final grade. Note: Without the annotated bibliography, the final project is incomplete. (e) There will be an open-book final exam This final will contribute the final 25 percent of your grade. Thanks for your efforts. In particular, I hope you enjoy the books in this course, as previous students have. Get ready to tune in some "signals." Under The Mercy, (w) 461-8994 or (h) 928-0706 tmatt@tmatt.net or Tmattingly@milligan.edu http://www.tmatt.net