when it comes to the intersection of media and faith too often we fall into two main categories:
- proclaimers: where we see each new media forms as an opportunity to be adopted to proclaim the message of our faith and look for ways to adopt them. Generally the main concern is to ensure that the "proclamation" of faith fits the required moral criteria.
- transformers: where we don't seek to adopt new media forms, but rather appropriate the media that are created and exist to enter into conversation with those outside of the faith. Generally the main concern is not moral criteria, but rather, how does this piece of expression enable a conversation around deeper things.
You can read more about these categories in the book by the guys who coined them (Prophetically Incorrect: A Christian Introduction to Media Criticism)...but like they point out, these two approaches are primarily focussed on the content and ignore so much else.
Which is why I've developed the media ecology toolkit. It was developed as I worked on my masters dissertation. The tool is focuses on three key areas to help expand our evaluative vision beyond content alone:
- Cultural Value Systems: what we create exists within a system of values. By evaluating them, we can see whether we're just adopting what our culture is reinforcing.
- Communication Theory: how we understand communication will shape how we go about seeking to engage and invite people into a journey of faith.
- Education: and how we believe that people learn will influence how we go about seeking to encourage them to explore faith.
