Oct
25
2011

You are the Media You Consume

An article by Matt

Todd Rhoades posted a video on his blog yesterday that has had me thinking hard about whether I fully understand the affect that the media I consume has on me, and whether I am able to fully process some of the more subtle messages being communicated.

The video is a simulated cable news program from around the time that Moses was preparing to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. The video is well done, fairly accurate, and it disturbed me… but more on that later, take the few minutes to watch this:

The power of video is incredible, is it not?

As I watched this, knowing full well that this was not real, the thought of how horrible this Moses guy was, and began equating him with Osama bin Laden. I was amazed at how quickly my feelings about something that I have often celebrated as a move of God became something different. This was Moses, hero of the faith, being portrayed as a terrorist, and I was going along with it. It has me thinking about just influenced I am by the media I consume, and just how affected I am by the continuous news cycle.

As I was washing dishes last night, reflecting on what to write about this, three different thoughts were rolling around inside my head:

I am reminded of Shane Hipps’ book Flickering Pixels, which discusses how medium affects message. Hipps’ book toyed with me the first time that I read it, and had me taking a hard look at how we use media in our worship services, and the message that sends. I think that I am going to have to reread the book with an eye towards how I am being affected by the more subtle aspects of the media industry.
Todd Henry, the author of The Accidental Creative, spoke about developing a stimuli budget when I interviewed him over the summer. Several years ago I gave up on talk radio, finding that the constant negativity that drives the majority of those programs was having a negative affect on my moods. I migrated to sports talk radio, listening to DC stations so that I could keep up with my favorite teams. I found that being a Redskins fan was not helping the negativity problem, so I have found myself scaling that back and listening to more podcasts aimed at creativity, marketing, and leadership. This has been beneficial, but I need to diligent about protecting what I allow to influence my mind.
There has been a second round of mockery as Harold Camping’s predictions for October 21 have been unfulfilled. Much has been said about Camping’s followers, and how much they sacrificed to get the word out. I think that Family Radio’s success in mobilizing their listeners is a testament to the power that media consumption has over us, and should make us ask who and what in out media diet is influencing us (for good or for bad).

How does YOUR media consumption affect YOU, what does YOUR media diet look like?