Mass Media

The mass media can be traced to Gutenberg’s printing presses, which copied vernacular Bibles in German and helped launch the Protestant Reformation. Today the media include not only books but radio, television, movies, periodicals such as comic books, newspapers and magazines, recording media such as videotapes, audiotapes and disks, and the increasingly popular CD-ROM. Regardless of the technology employed, all mass media share one major characteristic: they enable a relatively small number of individuals to communicate with a large, more or less impersonal, audience.

The Functions of Mass Media

Overt. The overt functions of the mass media are quite obvious. Most of these media purport to entertain audiences with interesting stories or enticing aural or visual presentations. Other media, such as newspapers, many magazines and nonfiction books, provide information about the world. In addition are media of persuasion, such as advertising and, in totalitarian societies, political propaganda.

Priestly. It is helpful, however, to look deeper than the overt functions of the mass media. Perhaps the most significant covert role of the media is a kind of priestly function that helps the masses articulate their basic values and beliefs. This is especially true in a market system, where the economic goal of media is to maximize audiences for advertisers. In this context the media try to create messages that resonate with general consumer tastes and interests, as well as with fundamental values and beliefs. The major purpose of such media is not to alter audiences’ perceptions as much as to tell audiences what they want to hear, to show them what they want to see and generally to confirm existing beliefs regardless of their validity or veracity.

This priestly function exists across the spectrum of informative, persuasive and entertaining media. News stories, for instance, implicitly take the viewpoint that evil results from the wicked actions of evil people, not from any human defect that would implicate the entire human race. Such a popular theology confirms the common precepts that audiences wish to believe, namely, that evil can be eliminated by removing evil people from society. Similarly, television commercials, billboards and magazine advertisements reinforce the public hope that various products and services can make anyone happy, beautiful or popular. Even the entertainment media join in this prophetic role by confirming a myth such as individualism through various narrative formulas. From a priestly perspective, the media accept the world the way it is and make it even more that way.

Prophetic. Media also function as prophets by purporting to bring truth to the people. We see this not just in news media (for example, newspaper columnists and TV-news anchors) but also in political talk-radio (thus saith the host), literature (novels that “reveal” aspects of life and the human condition) and cinema (the filmmaker’s vision of the human condition). Media offer this type of prophetic word or image whenever they claim a new insight, privileged information or prescient knowledge.

Of course it is often difficult to determine the line between prophetic and priestly media without both critical discernment and a standard of truth external to the media. A popular political talk-show host and an established highbrow novelist may seem to have little in common when in fact each one panders his or her prophetic insights to a particular audience predisposed to such beliefs.

Mass Media and the Culture Wars

In many parts of the world, the mass media have a growing cultural influence over all areas of life. Most importantly they compete for authority with local nurturing institutions, including the family, schools and churches. This tension creates waves of antagonisms between media elites and the leaders of local groups who feel that their ways of life are threatened by the media. Many of the battles over sex, violence and profanity in the media, for example, are rooted in conflicting moral standards represented by Hollywood (or the Western world) on the one hand and particular religious, ethnic or nationalistic identities on the other.

While some groups merely criticize the media, others take the more positive approach of establishing their own, alternative media. The trend toward mass media is always challenged by this countervailing force of media that serve distinct cultural, even religious, groups. Christians, for example, have their own publishing houses, periodicals, radio and television stations and networks, and recording industry. Ironically, evangelicals often view these specialized media as evangelism when, in fact, distinctly Christian media rarely appeal to the broader culture.

Newer electronic media also promise to give religious groups an opportunity to organize in opposition to mainstream media. Fax machines, satellites and especially electronic mail (computer-to-computer communication) are important challenges to traditional broadcasting and publishing. It remains to be seen, however, whether new media will eventually become merely a part of the existing media empires, commercial or ideological.

The Media-Savvy Christian

It is increasingly apparent that the church needs media-savvy believers. Among the greatest needs are (1) well-informed, discerning critics of the mainstream mass media, (2) gifted writers and producers who can work in both Christian and mainstream media, (3) talented engineers and technicians who can help connect the church to the new world of electronic media, (4) articulate Christians who can help establish public policies ensuring that the media do not become the exclusive domain of self-interested business or ideological groups and (5) motivated teachers who will educate future generations of Christian media professionals and critics.

» See also: Culture

» See also: Leisure

» See also: Recreation

» See also: Television

References and Resources

J. Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Knopf, 1971); J. D. Hunter, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (New York: BasicBooks, 1991); M. McLuhan, Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965); M. McLuhan, The Medium Is the Message (New York: Bantam, 1967); Q. J. Schultze, ed., American Evangelicals and the Mass Media: Perspectives on the Relationship Between American Evangelicals and the Mass Media (Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Academie Books, 1990).

—Quentin J. Schultze