Listserve This
is an e-mail discussion group about |
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members are welcome to raise issues, propose, discuss and
debate questions, contribute resources, and share news of
big or small experiments in adapting electronic media to
faith activities. For a general overview of the Listserve's purpose and scope, read Rev. Dr. Horsfield's Framework for Discussion of Faith and Electronic Media-culture.
______________________________________________________ 1. Communication is fundamental and theologically foundational to our practical and social being. Our being as human is created in communication and is constituted by communication. Theologically, we exist first and foremost because God communicates in the act of creating. 2. The different means by which we communicate bring their own colour and flavour to a communication situation and are part of the meaning of what takes place. Communication is most commonly (always?) mediated through different senses, which are part of God's making and share in constructing the meaning of what is communicated. Likewise, different technologies of communication address different senses and as such construct meaning in different ways. 3. Faith and culture are inextricably intertwined. There is no pure, unenculturated Christian faith, nor is there culture which is void of the grace of God. The faith ideas and practices we hold share commonality with other expressions, but are always particular to our cultural context. 4. Christian theology for much of its life has largely ignored the cultural influence of media in their analysis and reflections. Though most Christian theologians at some point address the place of culture in their theological construction and analysis, very few specifically identify the part played by media in constructing culture. To a large extent this reflects the tendency of academic thinkers to view media "instrumentally" rather than "culturally." 5. The technologies a society uses in its communication exert a powerful influence on the shape, values, meaning and order of the culture. In understanding a culture, one needs to give attention to the different forms of communication within the culture and how they relate to each other. Communication patterns as they are formed by forms of media are not the only determinative factor in a culture. But they are crucial because they form the web of the culture, the complex networks of connections and relationships that enable every other cultural activity to take place. Some of the reasons why differences in media contribute to the construction of different cultural meaning are: different media make different use of individual and social memory; they prefer different kinds of information over others; they require different skills and resources; they create different patterns of social status and power; they address different senses and develop different patterns and relationships of perception; they structure the representation of reality in different ways; they establish different patterns of social relationship in the communication process, which develop different forms of social organization; they have a different relationship and use of space and time, creating different cultural perceptions and values of place, history and movement. 6. When one media-form dominates in a culture, that culture will reflect major characteristics of that media-form. Walter Ong amongst others has identified major differences in cultural patterns between pre-literate, oral cultures and cultures that have systems of writing. His analysis identifies a correlation between characteristics of the dominant media and cultural characteristics such as patterns of thought, social organization and practices, structures and participation in community, and religious outlooks and practices. (See particularly his Orality and Literacy) 7. When there are changes in the dominant media within a culture, there will be significant changes in cultural perceptions, organization, meaning and value as a result. New ways of communicating change the nature of the communication web and there is a ripple or shake-out effect amongst other ways of connecting and relating within the culture. In some cases new ways of communicating simply replace the old. In other cases, the new overlays the old or integrates with it to create a new media-mix, with the old continuing but in a new way. 8. In practice most cultures now integrate different media systems in different ways, creating what Nestor Garcia Canclini has called "hybrid cultures." Most modern cultures also are composed of a myriad of different media-cultural sub-groups within the one culture. But Ong's proposition still retains interpretive force. The dominant media within the particular sub-group play a major role in giving that sub-group its distinctive patterns and values. Likewise the media of the political and economic elite, or media which by virtue of their power constitute a new political and economic elite, tend to legitimize and reward particular forms of cultural value and order over others. 9. We are currently in the midst of a major cultural paradigm shift in world societies because of changes in the dominant media of communication. We are moving from patterns of cultural value and organization that were defined by the ethos and social organization of the literate elite in western countries, to cultures that are being redefined by new patterns enabled by electronic media. The order and ethos of the new is still emerging. 10. Since its early beginnings, Christian faith has been closely identified with its organization in institutional churches that have closely aligned themselves with ascendant cultures, first of writing, then of print. Christian faith in the west early on adapted and defined itself significantly within the philosophy and politics of Greco-Roman Hellenism, a strongly literate culture. Martin Luther made extensive use of the printing press in his Reformation in the 16th century. In these adaptations, Christian faith has played a significant role in shaping the development of those cultures, and has named good theological reasons in doing so. But Christian faith has also been significantly shaped by the characteristics of those particular media-cultures in the development of its thought, its practices, and its organizational and political organization and alignments. 11. Today, a new form of media system has emerged, one based not on transmission and storage of information as words and numbers on a page, but one based on electrical transmission of information through sound waves or electrical impulses, its storage as magnetic digital data, and its potential for reproduction in any number of multi-sensory forms either sequentially or consecutively. This new medium presents a radically different way of appropriating information with subsequent implications for patterns of thinking and meaning construction, different potentials and necessities of relationship formation, different forms of social and political order, and the reconstruction of different concepts and centres of status and power. 12. This new media-culture that is in process of being formed presents significant challenges to the traditional conceptualizations and organization of Christian faith idea, practices and organization. Traditional Christian practice in this century has been strongly formed within the framework of the culture of the Western Enlightenment. This culture has been significantly influenced by the ethos of the literate elite, with a strong emphasis on order and clarity in its structures of thought and social organization. (Stephen Toulmin in his book Cosmopolis provides a very useful historical analysis of the social reasons for this emphasis). For Christians with roots in this culture and whose social and political power is tied closely to these cultural characteristics, the changes brought by electronics are seen as destructive and a threat to the interests and integrity of Christian faith. But God's creative Spirit is at work in the course of human civilization, continually bringing new into being. I see no reason why the new that is emerging now is not a result of God's ongoing creative activity in the same way as earlier periods, carrying with it all the same ambiguities of creation and fall that characterize all of our human endeavours. In some ways the new media-culture has potential for serious human destructiveness; in other ways it has the potential to root out some of the destructive patterns that have been entrenched for centuries. The question is how is Christian faith to be contextualised into this new cultural context? What creative changes is God bringing to our heritage of thought, practices and organization through the new; and in what ways does our heritage shape the creative way in which we live as members of this culture through adaptation, resistance, encouragement, critique, enjoyment, companionship and service in order to participate in God's ongoing creation. To explore those questions, and to share practical experiences of our engagement with them, is part of the purpose of the Christ and Media Culture list. |
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the impact of electronic media and
media-culture on Christian faith and practice,
and