For
a good portion of my life, I've wanted to work in the media in some
form or other. When I was younger I wanted to work in marketing, then
I wanted to be an actress, then a few years ago I finally
settled on wanting to edit television shows. As a Christian, this has
forced me to consider many questions about how my ambitions and my
faith match up. Is the media a worthy career? Isn't it a selfish
ambition to follow? Shouldn't I want to be involved in something more
wholesome or at least something more meaningful? I think the problem
lies not in the answers to those questions but the questions
themselves. They make several assumptions that need to be
re-evaluated:
Assumption
1: The media doesn't and shouldn't affect a Christian life
I
want to make something very clear. The media is a powerful, relevant
part of modern day life, whether or not we want it to be, whether we
think it's good or bad, and whether we think we can ignore it or not.
It's intertwined into modern day society and you can't escape it.
What a newspaper chooses to report, what a comedian can write off by
belittling and making look stupid and irrelevant, and what actions a
TV drama choose to justify are just the beginning of an endless list
of ways in which the media affects our opinions, our decisions and
the way in which we live our lives. Countless times I've found myself
going along with a TV drama or comedy show, getting to the end and
having to stop myself and remember 'hang on, I don't agree with any
of that'. In the wrong hands, the media can be truly dangerous and
frightening – just look at the News International scandal. In the
right hands, it can be an amazing force for good. Just look at the
lives transformed by big charity events or remember a time a video
that's gone viral online or been shown at church has touched you. It
matters that it's there and it matters how it's created and who by.
If we don't sit up and take notice of what we're watching, reading
and listening to, we could easily let it overtake God as our source
of guidance in our lives,
I
think there's another vital point to be taken from this - as
Christians how can we ignore something that has so much power and
influence over so many people's lives, not just our own? If it
affects us, it affects the person next door, and we all know what the
Bible says about our attitude to our neighbours. (If not – check
out Matthew 22:38-40)
I
also really believe that sometimes this industry can stand as a
mirror to us and our behaviour. I know we don't like having our
traditions, values and beliefs picked apart in the press and in front
of big television audiences, and of course we shouldn't automatically
take on board everything that is said, however, as much as God is
perfect, we are not .We get it wrong, and sometimes it takes an
outsider to show us that. Even when we're not getting it wrong, the
media can still show us how we come across to those who don't
believe. That's an incredibly powerful and insightful tool, and I
think we should be using it instead of always getting upset when the
topic falls to Christianity in a way in which we're uncomfortable.
Assumption
2: The media is no place for Christian values and ideas
I
was told from day one at Ravensbourne that 'editing is about
storytelling,' but I don't think the concept is limited to video
editing. If you think about it, the entire media is about stories,
some of them true, some of them made up and some of them masquerading
as truth, but whether a news piece, documentary, film, piece of
television drama or someone's blog, it almost always bottles down to
a story, and there's something else full of stories: the Bible. Jesus
told stories all the time, we call them parables. What's more, he
told stories that were relevant to the people of the
time, just as the stories in the media now are intended to
be. For Jesus to have used them, they must have been important.
This
really bottles down to why I am so passionate about the media,
particularly television. I long to try and reflect even just a tiny
bit of Jesus' actions by telling stories that are relevant to people
today and reveal truths about who God is, about today's society and
how we go about living a Christian life. One of the great things
about the stories Jesus told is that they didn't ram the message down
people's throats – it was there if you wanted to see it, but to
others, it could just be a story. In fact, in Matthew 13 Jesus
explains that He doesn't actually expect everyone who hears His
parables to understand them. I think this approach is vital in this
day and age. Proselytising is not allowed in public service
broadcasting, but more than that – people don't like it, and don't
want to see it. But people like to be told a good story. I really
believe that you can tell a story that's a completely enjoyable piece
of drama, and has a deeper level to those open to it without shoving
religion down people's throats.
Assumption
3: The media is a completely immoral entity we should steer clear of
It
can be surprising when something seemingly unrelated to our faith can
provide incredible insights to our lives. Sometimes it's not even
something a Christian might 'approve' of. I remember watching an
episode of Torchwood – a show that is full of bad language and
adult references, and being overwhelmed by the help and insight it
gave me in helping to deal with the death of my grandma. That clip
was full of language I wouldn't repeat and is in the context of a
very twisted storyline, but I truly believe God spoke to me through
it. Stories can provide such clarity and I don't think God is narrow
minded enough to only use the squeaky clean ones to give us insight
into our lives.
Something
else that's really to important to consider is this – the media
isn't actually one big evil 'thing' that's determined to take over
our lives– it's made up of people. In this case it tends to be
people under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines, work to budgets and
(in the case of television), maintain viewing figures. Sometimes that
leads to less than admirable output, and sometimes it brings out the
worst in people – and often we only see and hear about these
incidences, but in my experience so far, I've seen people work
incredibly hard to make the best programming possible and work their
way up in this incredibly competitive industry. That's not evil,
that's human, and I have yet to meet anyone I would even come close
to describing as evil.
We
shouldn't just care about the people consuming media, we should care
about those making it. I've been pretty rubbish at sharing my faith,
or even just being a good, compassionate Christian at work but I am
starting to see just how much I need to. I genuinely don't know how I
would have got through my first couple of months in the industry
without the love and grace of God and the support of my Christian
friends and family, and I think it would be incredible for some of my
work colleagues to experience that level of God's goodness. Remember
– as a Christian I don't come into the industry as one tiny bit of
a better person than anyone else, just with an incredible, powerful
and loving God by my side. Trust me, I'm going to need Him, but I
shouldn't be keeping Him to myself.
So.
The media affects us, it affects others, it tells stories just as
Jesus did and it's made up of people. I can't pretend that there
aren't also some wholly selfish reasons for me to want to get into
editing, but I don't think it's impossible to line up with my faith
either.
