The Media and Junk Culture
By Larry | July 3, 2009
Around three in the afternoon on July 2, three cable news networks simultaneously played and replayed a video of Michael Jackson’s last rehearsal taken two days before his death. California was effectively bankrupt, issuing IOU’s for the first time since the Great Depression. Unemployment was up and stocks down, depressing hope for the end of the Great Recession. Sen. Kennedy announced a plan for national health care costing far less than those proposed before. But Michael Jackson, whose tragic death is as revealing of the paucity of celebrity culture as anything, led the news.
The video was provided by the company that bankrolled his planned comeback. There was much speculation that it was released as a preview of marketing plans yet to come. The cable networks took the bait.
That we are told more about Jackson’s will and the custody of his children than we are informed about the "public option" in the health care debate, war in Congo or the current state of Darfur, might understandably lead a reasonable person to wonder how the sideshow of popular culture became the main event.
In a provocative post on Alternet, Chris Hedges writes about the compliant relationship between junk culture, junk politics and the media. Hedges says over the years major media succumbed to corporate propaganda enabling corporations to undermine long held cultural values, redefining "American culture" and replacing it with a manufactured commodity culture. We are left with junk.
I thought his thesis severe until I turned on the TV that afternoon and saw it lived out before my eyes. David Shuster even analyzed it as he participated in it on MSNBC.
Chuck Todd, NBC’s chief White House correspondent, spent a quarter hour of Hardball, a program dedicated to politics, on Jackson. Talk about the marriage of junk culture and junk politics.
CBS and NBC led their national newscasts with Jackson. ABC opened with the unemployment figures released that day, the cutback in state government services and comments by President Obama about the state of the economy. To their credit, ABC got to Jackson eight minutes into its nightly newscast.
Hedges claims this insidious, corrosive process has undermined journalism and traditional cultural values.
Recently I’ve been reading a lot about key issues confronting traditional institutions and organizations and their constituencies. I recall research by the Barna Group that says 18 to 34-year-olds say they can’t see a difference between professed Christians and others in the culture. One would assume that claiming the values of faith would distinguish a person of faith from the wider culture, especially if that culture is based on consumption, the attainment of personal wealth and idolizing celebrity.
These cultural values are in conflict with those of Jesus who called his followers to give up their material goods and serve other others, not hoard their wealth, take advantage of others for material gain or seek fame.
When Christianity, or at least those who claim Christianity, becomes indistinguishable from junk culture it has a problem. In fact, junk or not, it’s fair to ask if those who follow the teachings of Jesus can identify with any culture, or must stand within culture and remain in tension with it? If following Jesus is an ultimate claim, a claim that gives meaning to life and reshapes it, then that claim will, at some point, result in conflict with virtually any other system, most especially a lifestyle of consumption, excessive admiration of celebrity and political maneuvering.
It begs the question: What difference does belief make? What difference does it make to follow the teachings of Jesus?
The answer to these questions will be more determinative for the future of faith communities than the current cultural debates that are dividing them. The earliest followers of Jesus described their faithfulness as following The Way. The Way was an active journey through which commitment to God and other persons was expressed. It was about what you live for, and in those early days, what you were prepared to die for.
More than dogma, it was how you lived your life in faithfulness, and it remains so today; ideals that cannot be contained by the smallness and shallowness of a culture of celebrity, consumption and politics.
Hedges holds out a glimmer of hope that a form journalism could emerge that combines rhetorical ideals with authentic storytelling, respecting but not misusing emotion, and it could help us to reclaim a more genuine, humane culture. Communities of faith will require a similar dialogue if they are to re-affirm that following Jesus really does make a difference; faithfulness to a way that is open to new possibilities, expansive, compassionate and committed to justice for all. A faith that does no harm, does good and helps us stay in love with God.
It isn’t rooted in popular culture and it’s unlikely to abide with it easily. But it could be a transformative presence in an otherwise sad and shallow culture of distraction.
Topics: On Faith, On Journalism, On Media | No Comments »
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The Coup in Honduras
By Larry | June 30, 2009
Expressing concern for fractures in Honduran society between the poor and the powerful, a group of faith leaders in the U.S. condemned the coup that deposed President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales and called for a return to constitutional law.
The President, still in his pajamas, was forced from his home and transported to Costa Rica by military officers in a move to prevent a non-binding referendum to repeal a constitutional term limit for the presidency. Honduran presidents are allowed only one four year term.
The faith leaders’ letter says U.S. law requires a suspension of military aid in the event of a coup and they call on the Obama Administration to halt such aid until constitutional rule has been restored.
A resolution passed today by the UN General Assembly called on world leaders to recognize only Zelaya. The World Bank paused lending to the country and said it is working with the Organization of American States as it seeks to restore Honduras’ "democratic charter."
The coup was a shock to modern governance in Central America because it hearkens back to an era when military takeovers were engineered by political elites, corporate executives in the U.S. and elements of the U.S. government. The phrase "banana republic," coined by the novelist O. Henry, came to describe governments such as Honduras and Guatemala, ruled by a military junta under the influence of a small power elite dependent on agricultural exports such as bananas.
Despite gains under modern democratic government, Honduras remains a society of extreme wealth and grave poverty. President Zelaya has gained popular support by appealing to activists and advocates for the poor.
The faith leaders say they are concerned about "the safety of social and political activists, including trade union leaders, heads of organizations of small farmers and the rural poor, indigenous leaders, opposition politicians, and others. Many leaders, fearing arrest, are in hiding. Many media outlets were shuttered yesterday. We call on Honduran security forces to respect human rights and basic freedoms for all citizens."
While pentecostalism has been growing rapidly across the southern hemisphere, so too, has a United Methodist community. The United Methodists have addressed the need for housing, education and social development in addition to traditional expressions of a faith community such as worship and pastoral care.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
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The New Journalism
By Larry | June 29, 2009
As the street demonstrations turned ever more violent and deadly in Iran, I watched CNN in an airport lounge in Grand Junction, Colorado. I also read the news online on a laptop and kept Twitter on a cellphone.
I noticed CNN repeating Tweets shortly after they appeared on Twitter. It was startling, amazing and a real concern. As I read the Tweets I wondered if I was getting first-hand information, or fanciful concoctions. I had no way of assessing from my seat in the airport what was reliable and what was disinformation.
Nor did I have a clue about those posting, one way I assess reliability on this public forum.
Therein lies the problem with citizen journalism and it came to the fore in unmistakable fashion during the Iranian protests. Not only were those of us outside left to judge credibility for ourselves, the clamp down on journalists by the Iranian authorities meant we had decreasing ability to compare the online reports with journalists on the scene.
Left to our devices to accept or reject the Tweets, we were awash in information but I kept asking myself, is it reliable? This is the conundrum we face now with an empowered digital citizenry, the blessing and curse of instant media. First reports of major events are now as likely to come from a cellphone account as from a reporter for a news organization.
As the NY Times reports this morning, what happened in the Iranian protests revealed a new methodology for traditional journalism, a willingness by news organizations to pass along citizen information with limited verification, and in some instances with no verification.
As the article notes, it’s a new form of journalism in which we all become part of the gathering and distribution of the story. It raises several significant questions that will take time to sort out, I think. Which elements are truly significant and which are of only passing importance? How many perspectives can we absorb before we become overloaded and lose perspective altogether? What is not seen that contributes to the story but goes unreported because it’s not visible? What is the veracity of the various reports we receive and how do we sort out disinformation?
Journalism has attempted to deal with these questions among many others by developing a set of procedures and practices that strive to assure accuracy, reliability and context. Despite well-known criticism and some breaches in these procedures, journalists have reached for a level of dependability and trust that has given us quality story-telling and a sense that we could rely on the reporting. And even then we sometimes vociferously disagree with the way a given story is told.
With citizen journalism, we’ve entered a new day and my guess is that it will take us time and experience to decide upon how we will check veracity, dependability and context under these new circumstances. My experience on that day led me to multiple sources. I became engaged at a different level than my engagement with traditional print media. It required a different kind of media literacy and my unspoken but very significant cautionary suspension of belief. I took the information in but with held my belief in its accuracy until I could do more searching, watching and comparing.
That places more responsibility on me as I receive information from many sources. I need greater backgrounding in order to assess claims and make judgments, and I need to become my own fact checker as I suspend belief in all that comes to me from so many different perspectives.
The protests in Iran marked a turning point, not only for Iranian citizens who face repression and violence, but also for those on the outside trying to understand. And in both cases it’s too early to know the outcome. Internal conditions in Iran remain uncertain. The influence of citizen journalism cannot be assessed just yet.
But we do know this: the new journalism is launched.
Topics: On Journalism | 1 Comment »
Southern Naming Comes Back to Haunt
By Larry | June 12, 2009
It’s coming back to haunt me. Being named ‘”southern,” I was given two names, both of which are abbreviations of full names. I lived with the sing-song “Larry Don” until I was old enough to eliminate one name, and move far enough away so that no one knew me by my two nicknames.
I wasn’t the best of children. I learned early on that when an adult called out my two names in a high pitch emphasizing a hard “D,” it meant I was in trouble. Likely as not whatever I’d done they’d found out. On the other hand, if they slid past the “y” and into a soft, staccato “D,” it was almost melodic. I liked that best.
Part of my lack of enthusiasm about the two names was that I wasn’t alone. There were Larry Genes, Gary Dons and Jerry Dons galore in my neck of the woods. Seemed like a lack of creativity to me.
I had a friend in West Texas whose parents showed real imagination. Herman Caesar Augustus. Now that’s a name with destiny. It carries expectation.
I thought about Lawrence. But it seemed presumptuous. To be a Lawrence you need a yacht and boat shoes. We lived in the dusty high plains of West Texas. It didn’t work.
All of this reflecting was inspired by the TSA. The Transportation Safety Administration says our boarding passes must be identical to our photo IDs.. They want to know me by my full name. Well, actually they don’t care so long as it’s consistent. But my driver’s license is Larry Don and my passport says Larry D. Hate that.
Either way, I’m caught. And it’s beyond protest.
I wonder what Herman Caesar Augustus is doing these days?
Larry
Topics: On Culture | No Comments »
Twitter Transparency
By Larry | June 4, 2009
We live in the age of Twitter transparency. Yesterday staff of United Methodist Communications and the United Methodist Publishing House met to discuss collaborating on the Rethink Church media and hospitality campaign. It was a good meeting. Lots of enthusiasm and good ideas.
When I returned to the office someone asked me about the meeting and I said it was a good discussion. Another person said, “Yes, so I heard.” As it takes only five minutes to drive from UMPH to UMCom, I asked if she had talked with someone there. “No,” she said, “someone was twittering from the meeting.”
Twitter is an instant megaphone. The moment the words are out of your mouth they can be repeated to the world. This is happening in millions of ways now. It’s disconcerting to some and liberating to others.
Twitter brings its own form of accountability. It’s a tool for transparency. When a speaker’s comments can be sent to the world instantly, accuracy and credibility are on line. Every phrase can be literally parsed and communicated to the world.
Anyone with a cellphone and a Twitter account is now a broadcaster and a content producer. Words of presenters have always been important. But now under the scrutiny of immediate communication, they can be sent around the world before the speaker can take a breath and begin a new sentence. There is power in this, and danger.
It seems to me that it places even greater responsibility on a speaker to be clear, coherent and careful. A mis-spoken ad lib can haunt me forever now. In the past, it may have taken on a life of its own within a small group of listeners. Now the world can mull it over.
And more serious implications can be drawn as well. In an age of great division and controversy, words can incite or motivate in a more immediate way, with good or harmful consequences.
The age of transparency is upon us and with transparency comes accountability.
Topics: On Media, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Did Pres. Obama Borrow a United Methodist Phrase?
By Larry | May 27, 2009
Did President Obama or one of his speechwriters borrow a phrase from The United Methodist Church when he spoke on abortion at Notre Dame’s commencement? I don’t know, but I’m getting blog posts and emails from people who think he did.
I would have thought it old news, but reaction to the speech still seems to have some energy behind it. The church invites people by concluding its advertising saying, “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors. The people of The United Methodist Church.” President Obama used a phrase in his speech calling for “Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words. It’s a way of life that has always been the Notre Dame tradition.”
One blogger critical of Obama’s abortion position speculates that in the Internet age it’s possible an Obama speechwriter found the phrase and wrote it into the speech. (The church was advertising heavily at the same time and the phrase was on television and radio, the Internet, in national magazines, on billboards, taxis, busses and bus stops around the nation including a national launch event in Washington, D.C. In addition, several Internet and print publications wrote about the campaign before and concurrent with the President’s speech.)
The blogger questions the wisdom of using the words of one religious group to address another and attributing the concept to the second group’s tradition.
United Methodist clergyperson and blogger Lee Carey also thinks the President borrowed the United Methodist phrase. Rev. Carey believes United Methodist leaders are “overwhelmingly pro-abortion” and, presumably, the President knows this too and used it for this reason.
As I can’t recall having had a conversation about abortion with the leaders I know, I can’t confirm Rev. Carey’s observation.
But I did think it curious when I heard the President speak the words and immediately sent emails to a couple of staff people to call it to their attention.
If the phrase was borrowed it wouldn’t be the first time. We noted with appreciation that Laura Bush borrowed without attribution a phrase from the Nothing But Nets campaign to encourage people to donate to a campaign to end malaria.
In both cases it’s possible the speakers were not aware they were borrowing language from particular campaigns. There are copyright issues. But if we can end malaria through a global partnership that focuses on the bottom line of saving lives and doesn’t get mired in who gets credit, I’m all for it.
And if we can discuss contentious differences with open hearts, open minds and fair-minded words, I’m for that, too. But I’d like to make note that the phrase is very similar to, if not adapted from, a self-description of The United Methodist Church which is rooted in the Wesleyan tradition.
And on a selfish note, I get a little pleasure when we craft a phrase that people hear, remember and re-use, if that’s what happened.
This was posted at 12:30 pm and re-edited at 6:40 pm.
Topics: On Culture, On Media | 2 Comments »
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Faith and Religious War in Somalia
By Larry | May 26, 2009
As if fractured Somalia were not divided enough, a report this week says Islamic groups are realigning for renewed fighting. Somalia disintegrated 15 years ago when a corrupt government fell. Clan fighting plunged the country into anarchy and it’s remained there.
Jeffrey Gettleman writes in the New York Times that Sufi moderates are joining the fight against the Islamic Shabab insurgents. The Shabab teach an extreme form of Islam and have destroyed Sufi mosques. It’s a new and dangerous turn. Gettleman says Western nations hope the Sufis taking up arms will give moderates the upper hand.
More likely, however, it’s a sign of an intractable situation and a desperate hope for change. Trading clan for sectarian warfare is a dangerous exchange. In a society riven by division, it’s yet another deadly divide. The idea that changing the configuration of violence as a path to civic stability indicates the hopelessness of any other path and it takes more than a leap of faith to believe it will work.
It requires ignoring the potential for wider regional instability and rationalizing away the cultural and religious tensions that have long simmered in Ethiopia, disregarding the religious cleavage that is a major factor in the genocide in Darfur, minimizing destabilizing border tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea and long-standing rivalry between Somalis and Ethiopia.
If the Sufis resist the insurgents and establish a working government with support across Somalia, it will reverse a decade and a half of bloody fighting that has taken a horrible toll on the Somali people and has made the region a tinder box. But the long term solution is to address the poverty, disease, land disputes and the need for justice. In Somalia’s anarchic state these have not been at the top of the list of policymakers. But the risk of Somalia becoming a base of operations for terrorist training and international lawlessness is clear.
Somali pirates have reminded the world of the danger of this failed state, once considered so remote and insignificant it was virtually forgotten. We now understand that’s an inaccurate perception.
It’s a long shot that a moderate government can take control. If it does, however, it will need more than moral support. It will need development assistance, infrastructure reconstruction and technical assistance. The last thing the Somalis need is more bloodshed and the last thing the world needs is a prolonged religious war in the Horn of Africa.
Topics: On Faith | No Comments »
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The Institution as Connection
By Larry | May 17, 2009
Institutions are necessary, desirable and, for all their faults and foibles, valuable. Here’s why. They can mobilize and when they do they achieve scale. They enhance capacity. They empower. In the case of religious institutions, they are expressions of missional theology.
Mobilization isn’t their most important function, but I’ll start here. When the people of The United Methodist Church in the Texas Annual Conference came together to raise $1 million for bednets they partnered with United Methodists in Cote d’Ivoire. That partnership and that million, small as it sounds, got the attention of the Ministry of Health and other civil society groups including international donors.
It was combined with other funds. Volunteers from Texas went to Cote d’Ivoire and participated in a national distribution that included vaccinations, de-worming and instructions for mothers on child care.
In Texas people talked about health needs elsewhere. They learned about the connection between diseases and poverty. Equally important, in Cote d’Ivoire a national grassroots community was energized, trained and empowered. This led to a more focused discussion about health care nationwide. A national conversation followed. Cote d’Ivoire captured this experience and put it to work. A plan was submitted to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for a wide-ranging attack on these killer diseases. Their plan was approved in round eight for $34 million dollars! (The United Methodist investment was multiplied thirty-fold.)
I would not presume the only catalyst was the participation of United Methodists, but I do contend their participation was important. It signaled the church, which is present in many places that others are not, was concerned and would walk the walk with officials and local people. And it revealed external allies from across the globe. This authenticity, scale and reach contributed to a growing belief that the challenge of eradicating malaria could be met. Resources could be brought to bear. Together, we can make a difference. All of us together. Scale.
But for those of us in the United Methodist faith community there is a deeper point. We are taught by scripture, and we re-state every Sunday, that we are connected to the whole human family, to the Creation and to God. This bond is transcendent, sacred and immutable. In The United Methodist Church we call this “the connection.” We define it in organizational terms. Lately, we’ve diminished it. We criticize it and act as if it’s a punching bag. Some are even considering how to dismantle it.
The connection is about more than scale, but it incorporates scale. It’s about more than organizational structure but it incorporates ecclesiology, how we describe ourselves in the language of theology. It’s about understanding our bonds to the Creator, the web of life and each other. It’s about how together we can influence the circumstances that affect quality of life globally and how together we support each other, relate to God and express our beliefs in the holy.
Empowerment, scale, influence. Mission, engagement and faithfulness. Transcendence, holiness and the sacred web of Creation. That’s the connection, and faithfully engaged it could transform the world.
Topics: On Faith, On Health | 1 Comment »
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The British Museum Website
By Larry | May 16, 2009
Speaking of institutions, as I did in the previous post, I received a list of recommended websites from StumbleUpon and the British Museum’s site was listed. When I think of an institution, I think of the British Museum.
I’ve done research there and I find it a remarkably interesting place. And I realize even writing that last sentence can offend those who take offense at the very existence of institutions such as the British Museum.
I’m referring to the conversation about the role of museums, their authenticity, their value as archives, their social and cultural function as conservators or as exploiters. Museums are returning cultural objects and human remains to people from whom they extracted them years ago. It’s a conflicted context and a worthy illustration of the interplay between an institution’s mission and the social context in which it was formed. A museum reflects the values that informed the mission when it was organized in addition to the values it seeks to display through its offerings. A changing context calls those values into question and, in the case of museums, demands adaptation and deep change.
That said, this is one of the most intriguing institutional websites I’ve seen. On the face of it, it’s worth visiting for the experience it offers. It’s an example of an old-line institution breaking into the digital world.
Topics: On Culture, On Technology | No Comments »
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Are Institutions Obsolete?
By Larry | May 15, 2009
Institutions. We don’t like them or trust them. Sometimes we want to bring them down a notch or two. They’re cumbersome, territorial, political and dysfunctional. They’re always behind the times. It’s easy to dislike them.
Writing in the 19th Century about governing institutions the sociologist Thorsten Veblen said, “Whatever is, is wrong.” He was observing the rise of institutions for a newly affluent “leisure class” in the Industrial Revolution.
Veblen said we form institutions out of our social experiences. But circumstances that cause us to create organizations have already passed by the time we get organized to deal with them. Therefore, institutions are always behind the times. It’s a social paradox.
I just sat through three weeks of non-stop meetings of an institutional church. Thinking about the institution is top of mind right now.
There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that this institution must change. It’s organized around human experiences of the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. The need to change is urgent. Not merely for financial reasons. That focuses attention, but the change was needed long before the global economy fell off the cliff.
Bishop Gregory Palmer, President of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, told the Connectional Table and General Council on Finance and Administration this week that the church is not structured for life in the digital age. “Life happens,” he said, “off-cycle of the General Conferences of The United Methodist Church. And we’re not structured to make certain movements that might need to be made in a world, in a digital age that is changing everyday.” The General Conference is the legislative and governing body of the church.
Bishop Palmer repeated his call for a realignment of the church to allow for faster response to its mission.
I think he’s right on target. When the last general conference met barely one year ago Twitter wasn’t even known to the delegates. Most had probably heard of Facebook but weren’t using it. That’s changed. Today young adults and youth are moving from Facebook as older adults are flocking to it. Twitter is the current most popular tool for social media and many others are also out there. And we’re still learning how to use it.
These tools have affected how people relate to each other and form communities. They obviously affect how we communicate with each other. Community is a central part of the life of the church–worshiping, learning, supportive community. But community enhanced by digital tools is something the institution hasn’t known before. And we’re not organized to adapt to it quickly enough. Veblen was as right for our day as for his.
The institutional church isn’t obsolete, but it must change. I’m skeptical of anyone who claims to know precisely what the change should look like. But I’m also in agreement with Bishop Palmer that the need for change has arrived, if not passed, and we must get on with it. We’ll probably stumble and make a mistake or two along the way. But that’s OK with me because we are trying to find new ways of being the church and making its teachings relevant in a whole new social context, one unlike the human race has ever known. A bit of humility and a lot of forgiveness seem necessary prerequisites as we journey to find a new way. But we must make the journey and it’s already begun.
Topics: On Faith, On Technology | No Comments »
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