Spreading the Message: The Nature and Paradox of Christian Broadcasting
Sit down on any given Sunday morning, turn on your TV, and you are bound to happen upon a religious program of some sort. It was the 1980’s that saw the powerful phenomenon of the religious broadcast emerge. No longer were game shows, soap opera’s, and Billboard Top 20 the biggest draw to the family television set and radio, but rather Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell. With their joyful church choirs, clean-pressed preacher suits, and booming messages of hope, protection, and salvation, religious broadcasts of church-services, evangelism rallies, and other such events and programs became popular and powerful television and radio fare. Over 130 million people were drawn to their radio and television sets, which together reached more people than all of the nation’s churches combined. This phenomenon continues today into the 21st Century, as the religious broadcast has come to find its staple and permanent place in both the consciousness and the home.
The relationship between broadcasting and religion has become increasingly complex, and many books have been written on the subject. Media scholars such as Peter G. Horsfield and Quentin Schultze have dedicated their lives and careers to researching and understanding the religious broadcasting phenomenon, and there are other innumerable supporters and critics. While I am personally largely supportive of religious broadcasting, there are some specific points and relationships with which I have come to be concerned about. In this essay I shall focus on the relationship between the religious television show and its presentation, both aesthetic and suggestive. From there I will also be asking some questions, such as, what is the nature of the religious broadcast in light of and in comparison to secular television? How does the entertainment factor affect the viewers experience and understanding? What secular connotations are suggested through religious broadcasting, and how do they affect the viewer’s religious experience? These questions and other will be addressed as I delve into the complexity that is religious television.
Many scholars, theorists, and clergymen are positive and optimistic about the current importance of religious broadcasting and what the future holds for this type of media. Religious broadcasting involves a new approach to a problem as old as the Bible, in that it is the revolutionary way in which to introduce un-reached individuals to the messages of redemption, hope, and salvation generously offered by a loving God.
Television has always been an industry whose profit has always been gained through ads. But in chapter 2 of Jason Mittell’s book, Television and American Culture, Mittell argues that the rise of the profit-driven advertising television model can be traced back through American television history, and that the rise of the profit-driven advertising model of television actually helped to mold American culture both from a historical standpoint and from a social standpoint.
Not only educational shows accomplish these goals, but fictional television programs can often incorporate information that requires viewers to grapple with a topic using logical reasoning and a global consciousness. In addition, not to diminish the importance of reading, television reaches those who may never pick up a book or who might struggle with reading problems, enabling a broader spectrum of people to interact with cognitive topics. Veith has committed the error of making generalizations about two forms of media when, in truth, the situation varies depending on quality and content. However, what follows these statements is not just fallacious, but
Moore does not devote much of his attention to religious ideas. Instead, he examines several different instances of the blending of the sacred and the profane in popular American culture. Moore narrates the direct and indirect effects of the public display of religion for both sacreds and seculars. History, lifestyle, work, education, government, music, sporting events, marketplace, literature, and womanhood influence people. He also brings up how religion can influence racial militancy and terrorism that threaten equality, domestic security, and national identity.
At first, the strictly Christian would watch the religious programmes, but over many years, these programmes became less popular. One of the many reasons for this was David Kremer - the programme editor for BBC religious broadcasting, who noticed that the country had become vaguely religious. The term 'vaguely religious' means; the belief in God, but only going to church for a Christening, wedding etc. As a result, BBC religious broadcasting now only deals with big questions of life such as, 'why are we here?
Public broadcasting was birthed, was to ensure that there is a medium where every voice had a platform. The goal was to ensure that citizens have access to information is essential in balancing the nation. Taras (2001) borrows a quote from Lowe and Juart (2005), who sate that public broadcasting “is to build social capital by “bridging” “bonding” and “witnessing”, but most of all by treating audience members as citizens rather than as consumers” (lowe & jauert, 2005).
In his novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman describes to the reader, in detail, the immediate and future dangers of television. The argument starts out in a logical manner, explaining first the differences between today's media-driven society, and yesterday's "typographic America". Postman goes on to discuss in the second half of his book the effects of today's media, politics on television, religion on television, and finally televised educational programs. He explains that the media consists of "fragments of news" (Postman, 1985, p.97), and politics are merely a fashion show. Although Postman's arguments regarding the brevity of the American attention span and the importance of today's mass media are logical, I do not agree with his opinion of television's inability to educate.
...d that television holds on us, Postman give two ideas. The first idea that he gives, he describes it as ridiculous to create programming that demonstrates how “television should be viewed by the people” (161).
Goodale, Gloria. "TV in black and white." 20 November 1998. Christian Science Monitor. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.
Portrayal of Christianity in the Media In this piece of coursework I am going to write an essay about how Christianity is portrayed in the media. I'm going to write about mainstream shows such as Songs of Praise and Paradise found. I am also going to write about how a Christian issue is dealt with on Eastenders which was Euthanasia. Then I am going to write about how Homosexuality is looked upon in the film Philadelphia.
Sweet, Leonard I. Communication and Change in American Religious History. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1993.
As described above, he is a hands-off type of manager. With the laissez-faire type of management, leaders provide little guidance, followers have the freedom to make decisions, needed resources are available, and followers are expected to solve problems (psu.edu, 2013). This style of leadership can best be related to the transformational style. According to pachamama.org (n.d.), transformational leaders delegate tasks, they are concerned with ideas over process, and they are inspirational, trustworthy, and strong role models, which Warren Buffett seems to fit the bill. Furthermore, Hay (n.d.) states that transformational leadership brings higher levels of personal commitment and high expectations, again, to which Buffett seems to follow suit in the way his companies are
In particular, interest over whether people who use SNSs have higher levels of Narcissism than non-users of such sites. Two reasons have been discovered as to why people who use SNS may have higher levels of Narcissism than non-users. Firstly, Narcissism is strongly associated with forming relationships as an opportunity for self-enhancement (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). Online communities, like Facebook and Twitter, encourage self-absorbed behaviour as they are built on superficial ‘friendships’ and often are used to maintain large numbers of relationships rather than deeper relationships. This allows Narcissists to maintain large numbers of shallow relationships, which constantly affirms their Narcissistic esteem (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). Secondly, these sites offer a highly controlled environment, providing owners with complete power over self-presentation (Mehdizadeh, 2010). This provides an ideal setting for the owner to manage the impression they portray to others and create their “hoped-for possible selves” (Mehdizadeh, 2010). In particular, SNSs can be used to only share attractive photos of oneself or writing posts that are self-promoting, creating a biased impression of themselves (Ryan & Xenos,
In conclusion these two poems by William Blake are both deep and have hidden meanings, they both use imagery, repetition, alliteration and ryming couplets as well as biblical references to create a vivid pictures in the readers head. But these poems do differ in many ways such as the structure, theme and way it is written. The Tyger appeals to me most as it has more hidden meanings than the Lamb and the Lamb is boring and as if written by a child (for effect). In this essay I have analysed, contrasted and compared the two poems The Tyger and The Lamb to the best of my ability detailing the poetic devices used and the underlying meanings.
Baehr, Theodore and Boone, Pat. The Culture-Wise Family: Upholding Christian Values in a Mass-Media World. Ventura: Regal Books, 2007.
is a vicar who preaches to you about god and how he created all and