Initial thoughts regarding "Eyes Wide Open"

In our first group of readings for "Eyes Wide Open," there are two problems that William D. Romanowski identifies with the way people think about media.

1. Most people believe that they are personally immune to the effects of media.
2. People don't think too much about the media they consume.

Growing up in the chruch and having a Christian background exposed me to a lot of sermons and lectures about how "the music you listen to and tv shows you watch can effect your walk with the Lord." I remember a speciffic skit that we did where there was a girl who was going about her daily routine. She prayed first and asked Jesus to be with her throughout the day... then he actually showed up in person at her door. At first the girl was really excited that Jesus actually came, but then when she sat down to watch her favorite TV show she was a little uncomfortable watching it with him around. The same scene played out for the music she wanted to listen to and the magazines she wanted to read.

I think it's true that the media we consume can have an effect on our walk with Christ. Because of this belief, the Christian community has come up with many different ways to interact with media. Romanowski identifies three such reactions: Condenation (total avoidance of media) Appropriation (consuming Christian media, like CCM), and consumption ( intake of popular culture.) Not one of these reactions seems to be completely right or completely wrong.

In order to have a healthy engagement with the media, I think that Chrsitians first need to acknowledge the two "problems." We should realize that we aren't exempt to the effects of media, and we should learn to be concious of the media that we consume. Once we have identified these issues, I think that an implementation of each of the three above reactions to media is necessary. Consuming Christian media can be a great thing and foster spiritual growth. At the same time Christians shouldn't alienate themselves from the culture that they are a part of. It is okay, and even beneficial to consume secular media. However, there may be some media that is harmful to us as Christians and should definitly be avoided.

Becoming familiar with the problems in the way we think of media, and then making a concious effort to engauge it in a way that enables us to be a light to the culture is the ultimate goal for Christians in our interaction with media.

Thoughts on the upcoming summer!

Summer, to even be able to type that word and know that it is less than two weeks away brings such joy that I can hardly stand it. I have to get this blog done, and I figured I would type about something that I can still muster enthusiasm about- and after writing four research papers over the past two weeks, school definitly doesn't qualify. So, I am going to blog about my summer...

I've mentioned in previous blogs that I will be living in Guinea this summer for 6-8 weeks. As the trip gets closer, I'm beginning to wonder how I will react to being completely removed from the society I am accustom to and emersed in the culture of Africa. Lately I've been talking with a friend who went to Africa last summer, and it was interesting to hear what she had to say about my worries. As we talked about the "deprevation" of technology that I would experience and how I would deal with that, she commented that she remembered realizing how dependent she was on her cell phone. I know that I won't be getting cingular service in Guinea, and a hour phone call to the States may cost up to $20. Ouch. So of course we talked about technological adjustments, as well as other things like the food that they will have. Then we began to talk about clothes. How much should I pack? What do I have to wear? (I discovered that ankle length skirts are required as we will be in a conservative muslim culture)

I found out that for the whole time I am gone, it is reccomended that I bring about a weeks worth of clothes. For an entire summer I'm going to be wearing ankle length skirts and T-shirts, and being dirty most of the time. And... no one is going to care! I wonder what it will feel like to not have to worry about what my clothes look like and if my outfit looks allright. My friend Allyson told me that I would feel "free."

Free from what? I think, perhaps, free from the effects of media. Free from the effects of a counsumer culture that tells me what kind of shorts I should be going out and buying for the summer months off of school.

Instead it will be long skirts from Goodwil.
I am so excited about this summer! :-D

I've lived in the United States all my life and never had the opportuinity to travel to a less developed country. Will I really be "free" from the media there? I can't wait to find out.

Parasocial relationships/ Celebrities

Parasocial relationships: what a strage concept. I mean, just look at those questions on the little survey we were given in class. I mean "My favorite celebrity keeps me company when I watch/read the media text." Come on, what the heck does that mean?

I've always thought that people who were super obsessed with a celebrity or tv show had some kind of a problem. that they didn't want to face reality and were escaping their own life. while I've learned that this is one use for Tv and movies, I've also come to realize that parasocial relationshps can be kind of beneficcial.

One way that we use celebrities is for guidance and direction in our own lives. So, having a parasocial relationship with your favorite cleb isn't always a way of escaping life, but also a way for refferencing and learning to deal with issues in our own lives.

When I got to thinking about it, I realized that I used to have a parasocial relationship with Lizzie McGuire. I would always watch her show on the Disney channel, and I did use the show to deal with things that were going on in my own jr. high world. I would always compare Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo to me and my friends: Me, Katie and Christopher.

Another question from the parasocial relationshp questionaire I thought was strange was "When my favorite celebrity preforms, s/he seems to understnad the kinds of htings I want to know." I can now see how this related to my parasocial relationship with Lizzie. I remember watching shows where Miranda moved away after finding out that my friend Katie's dad got a job in Georgia and she would be moving in the summer. I could identify, it was like Lizzie knew what I was going through.

I guess parasocial relationshps aren't as strange or negative as I originally precieved them to be.

thoughts about the rough draft- what i'm learning about media and missions.

Wow, I am really learning a lot about the relationship of media and missions through my paper topic- imagine that. I'm really excited about this because not only do I think that the information is interesting, but I also think that the knowledge will help me this summer as I travel to Guinea.

This summer I am going to be living in Guinea for eight weeks and working with two missionaries who are currently stationed there. We will be working with the Fula people, who are 99.9% Muslim. Exploring my paper topic (which is the relationship between media and world missions- in case you didn't pick up on that yet) has brought a lot of things to my attention that I didn't think about before. Incorperating media in evnaglisim has a lot of different reprecussions for Christianity and developing cultures.

One thing that I found interesting was the debate of wether or not churches or types of evangelism too foreign to a native societies customs will be rejected. Because of it's belief that the medium used to convey the gospel message (various types of media vs. interpersonal communication) will shape the message in some way, this theory incorperates the theory of technological determinism.

Utilizing media as a medium for spreading the gospel has shaped the way the message is interpreted by other cultures. It has made native cultures percieve Christianity as a major globalizing factor. Some of these cultures have reacted negatively to this as the previously mentioned theory of chruch rejection predicts. Such groups include Islamic fundamentalists.
On the other hand, other groups have embraced media in christianity, and through doing so have become a more consumerist society, which isn't always a good thing either.

Through my research I discovered that in order to integrate christian mass media successfully on the mission field, missionaries need to understand the field they are evangelizing to (like the ways religion and religous media are already used in the culture), have a balanced view of globalzation and preserving native culture, and implement media in a correct context (linked to a local community or church.)

I think that knowing these things will prepare me a little more for going to guinea this summer and in any future missions career i may pursue

Good Society

what is a good society?

In my classes and expereinces this semester, there are two reoccuring themes that I believe are characteristics of a good society.

1) members of the society should have balance in their lives. By balance I mean that those who function within a society do not allow one aspect of life to consume them to the point that they are unable to experience and contribute to other areas. I'm sure that we could find many areas necessary for balance, but the one point of balance that has become evident to me is between individuality and community.

Community is valuable because communicating with others molds and fashions thinking in a way that can produce a masterpiece. When people are in group settings, one friend’s ideas about a particular subject will influence the other’s opinions. It’s like shaping a piece of clay- you take some away here, add some there, and in the end produce a work of art. When people change their opinions it doesn’t show weakens, as some might say. Rather, it is good for personal growth.

Solitude is the solution to these problems that arise from interaction with other people. For example, balance in the above three situations may look like the following: A member of a group or club may achieve balance and avoid becoming a puppet of the organization by being aware of the effect the group has on his or her individuality, the student may achieve a balance through allowing academic material to help form his thoroughly thought through views and compliment his articulation of them, and in pairs there should be sufficient time spent in personal growth and development.

So, it becomes possible to achieve a balance between solitude and fellowship by acknowledging the group’s effect on the individual, allowing outside influence to assist in forming and compliment our personal beliefs, and making sure to set aside sufficient time for personal reflection and development.

2) The second point is a bit shorter, but by no means simpler than the first. In order to achieve these areas of balance, members must be actively seeking to achieve "Good Society." Without the desire and action, nothing can be accomplished. If people don't want a better society, then they definitley won't try for it. But, wanting a good society isn't enough. It takes action to accomplish the goals that are set.

Digesting some research

Well, I've been reading those scholarly articles for my research paper, so i figured I would do a little free write here on some of the things I've been learning.

My Paper topic is going to research the relationship of media with Christian evanglism and world missions. Since missions is a passion of mine -and I am going to Africa this summer- the subject carries some personal interest for me.

The article that has impacted me the most so far is one that looks at the effect of Christian Evangleism in the Media in Nigeria and Ghana. My initial expectations of this article is that it would talk about all the ways that Media is working in a positive way to spread the gospel to the people of these African countries. After reading, however, I found that the article was moreso a critique of Christian Evangelism in the media. The author's position was definitly not against the use of media in evangelism, but he did raise a needed flag of caution to the way it is presented in the culture. He aknowledges that media is a useful tool for reaching large groups of people quickly, that it stirs the human soul in a unique way, and that it can be particularly helpful for reaching young people. The author also points out, however, that using media requires a certain responsibility of those who produce and use it in these countries. In areas of these two countries in Africa where Christian Evanglism was flooding -and often bringing in before unused- forms of media, there were large objections. People tried to eliminate or compete with the christian media that was produced. Also, people in christian media gained power and influence because of their capablity to produce a form of media.

In the end the author came to the conclusion that media in evangelism can be a very usful tool, or harmful to spreading the gospel message. He said that everything hinges on whether or not the presentation is attatched to or recieved in unison with fellowship in a local community such as local churches, outreaches,or camp meetings.

I think this is a great point and ties in the ideas that my group came up with for defending media conglomerates in our in class debate. We thought of the point that recieving the massive amounts of information these conglomerates could provide could be a good thing, as long as we balanced that out with personal growth and reflection outside of the media context. The same this is at work in Africa with using media to evangelize.

Reflection on Hollywood Simulation

Wow, class last wednesday was ridiculous!

Before I begin, let me give you a little bit of an idea of what my background was with the way Hollywood operates. I knew some of the vocab that goes along with the whole Hollywood scene: actor/actress, agent, producer, writer. I also knew that a lot of time, energy and money goes into making a major motion picture. Going along with this idea, I knew that dispite all the money put into a film, it still has the ability to flop at the box office. I knew that this is one thing that film makers want to aviod.

I also knew that Hollywood and the people who work and live there could have a reputation for being a little messed up. ( in the way they deal with fashion, marriges, money, etc.)

So there I was in class; part of a major Hollywood film studio, looking to put together a movie that would be a guartenteed success. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I figured that since we were the biggest studio, we wouldn't have any problems getting people to sign with us. At first this assumption was correct. There were people rushing over to "Big Time Studios" as soon as the simulation began.

The problems started when we starting signing. We signed our script first: The cute love story. So all we needed now were actors and actresses, right? Well, this became an issue because there were only four actors/ actresses, and three movies being produced. We ran into problems trying to sign an actress because the girl we wanted didn't want to be in a romance movie. We had already signed a contract though. What now? Also, our actors kept driving up their prices, and being enticed by other studios. Then, once they signed our actors wanted to be in other movies so that they could make more money. We learned that this would cost our studio.

We got to a point where we figured that it would be easier if we bought out one of the smaller studios and produced two movies. Then we would have a bigger budget and be wouldn't loose money from having our actors in multipule films. This, however, didn't work out. Maybe if we'd had more time...

Then there were annoying script writers (cough Issac and Amy cough) who kept trying to get us to buy their script after we already told them no.

And the annoying agents who kept driving up prices.

Overall it was fun to be able to pretend like we were throwing around millions of dollars like it was nothing in order to produce a major motion picture, but we all knew it wasn't real. Even so, I still heard someone say while leaving "that brought out the worst in people." Many of the things that happened showed people looking out for their own profit only. And you kind of had too.

Thinking about our class simmulation and what I know about Hollywood gave me a little better picture of why the movie industry is the way it is, and why the stuff that happens there can be really crazy.