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In the past few years a battle has raged in media circles about advertising directed to children, especially advertising for sugar-coated cereals and snacks.
Both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have investigated the need for regulations to govern the amount and kind of advertising to which children might be exposed.
Currently, the issue is still "under consideration" and, no matter what is decided, it will probably go to the courts for long litigation. In the meantime then, the situation, and any solution, comes back to where it started... Read More
Movies these days reflect almost every aspect of life and death but seldom do they deal with an experience common to millions in every age--religious faith.
Why is it that moviemakers, particularly in America, neglect the dimension of religion in the stories they film? When in a dramatic sequence on the screen did you last see a character really praying? It hardly ever happens.
And yet, people do pray. Most of the people in the United States and Canada believe in God and certainly these believers turn to God in prayer either regularly or occasionally.
Many will honestly and genuinely voice... Read More
Filling Gaps in the News
A guide to finding out what's really going on in the world By Elizabeth Thoman, CHM
In today's media-rich culture, the question, "what is news?" is as enigmatic as Pilate's query to Jesus, "what is truth?" two thousand years ago.
Events of the past decade --Vietnam, Watergate, now El Salvador -- make us more and more aware that what many people believe to be the news, meaning factual information about a person or event, may not be that at all
There are at least three problem areas when it comes to coverage of news and information today, especially in other parts of the world.
First, the limitation/demands of the media means that much good information never gets through to... Read More
Chitrabani, a Christian communication center in Calcutta, India, has developed a set of guidelines for still photography which provide thoughtful insights for all who go around 'shooting pictures.'
What to Photograph
What you shoot and how you shoot is determined by why you shoot and whom you shoot for.
Then photographing people do not treat them as if they were things.
Do not take people's pictures, give images, especially to the imageless.
Never depict people as useless or inadequate. It is their helplessness which has to be Shown.
Do not invade anybody's privacy except when it is... Read More
If Religious Life is Dying, PR Won't Save It
Some new ideas on the organization of communications and public relations programs in religious congregations today. By Elizabeth Thoman, CHM
Some say that religious life, as the Church has experienced it for the last 200 years, is nearing the end of its historical moment. Those exploring the life cycles of religious congregations throughout history say that religious communities in the 1970s have begun to show all the signs of entering into the "breakdown and disintegration" period — stress, doubt, decline in numbers, demoralization.
While some might despair at such news, others remember that the key tenet of the Christian message is not the Crucifixion, but the Resurrection! Historically, religious life has been through several... Read More
Growing Up in a Media World
As we wrap up the International Year of the Child, here are some reflections and resources for better understanding how children are growing up in an increasingly mediated world. Edited by Elizabeth Thoman, CHM
Recently I heard a teacher say, "Don't ever try to run a projector, tune a television or fix a tape recorder... if there's a competent third-grader around."
How true. When I was a child, the Brownie box camera was a technological marvel. Today even kindergartners can record and play back their favorite TV show on the family video recorder, learn math on their own $10 calculator and master videogames faster than their parents.
Regularly there is a hew and cry about the "effects" of all this media on children. Is it good for them? Is it bad for them? Will passive TV viewing cause permanent... Read More
Outside the United States, everyone knows the U.S. is the most influential country in the world. Its economics, education, politics, technology, science, and culture, just to name a few areas, color the world's every socio-economic fabric.
Inside the U.S., what Americans know about the rest of the world is disproportionate to the influence they wield. A misguided rule of thumb for foreign correspondents covering the news of the world is: "All anyone cares about is coups and earthquakes."
But most Americans get their foreign news from television, which is the least effective in communicating... Read More
UN Plaza, Geneva, Switzerland, October 7, 1979...As I turned the corner toward the UN conference center, the big red sign made my heart skip a beat: "Conference Administrative Mondiale Des Radiocommunications" — the World Administrative Radio Conference — WARC.
For at least five years, I'd been reading about what would be happening here at this time and place. WARC — the every-20-year conference when all the nations of the world come together to decide how to best divide the world's radio spectrum. IMIARC — the treaty-level international meeting where radio engineers create the huge book of... Read More
Printing has a language all its own. A knowledge of its vocabulary will help you understand the process and improve your working relationship with the printer.
The best way to bring your project to the printer is in the form of camera-ready copy. Camera-ready copy is any material to be photographed by the printer for reproduction without further changes. It is also called a mechanical. It is quite important to write all your instructions related to the mechanical either in the margins of the camera-ready art or on an overlay tissue over the art work in addition to discussing them with the... Read More
Sports: Is It Just
Why are television sports so popular? Is it because they gratify some very basic needs in each of us? And in our society? By Michaela Conley
It's an endless cycle.
Football now begins in July, just after baseball's All-star Game. By November, basketball and hockey are well underway -- the pros on the networks; local teams on independent and cable stations.
In between it's soccer and swimming, gymnastics and track, skiing, surfing, sailing, skydiving, skating and skateboarding. And every four years, the greatest televised sports marathon of them all — the Olympics — is broadcast, live, throughout the entire world.
Sports television is now Big Business. In fact, some say the whole face of professional and college sports has... Read More
No, Walter, That's Not the Way It Is...
That's only the way it seems to be from your point of view. By Sister Elizabeth Thoman, CHM
When Walter Cronkite signs off each night with "that's the way it is,'' one might realistically request another half-hour of the very same news stories, but presented from another point of view.
Such a request would be appropriate because although the reporting of news is often thought to be ''objective," it is increasingly obvious that the reported "facts" may differ depending on the class, race or sex of the reporter, the time pressures of the newscast or the multinational investments of the parent corporation.
In recent months, interest has heightened in the communications world about a "... Read More
"Television can be a positive practical training ground for moral growth in a changing world"
Christian values need exercising just as much as muscles do. To be "fit in the faith,' we need to get into a program that challenges us on a very basic level, a program which is grounded in our daily life.
How to do that in a busy complex world? Well, try television! Yes, television.
The average American will spend nine full years of his or her life watching television. In many families, televiewing is the thief home activity.
Despite criticism from many quarters that television is a 'wasteland... Read More
An ecumenical consultation on "Satellite Communications and the Church," sponsored last fall by the National Council of Churches in New York City stretched one's awareness in many directions. The program embraced matters as pragmatic as current communications legislation and as futuristic as training catechists for remote missions via satellite.
Satellite might be defined as a mid-air television "dish" positioned to receive electronic signals transmitted from earth and having the capacity to beam them back to other "earth stations" (receiver "dishes" on the ground). Potentially less... Read More
Stereotyping is an insidious process. Mental categories and labels are necessary if we are to cope with the fast- paced world around us. Without stereotypes we would have to learn each day what fire-fighters do, how to behave at a funeral or what foods to eat for breakfast.
But categorizing is dangerous too. Stereotypes can become too rigid and when there is no room for growth the label becomes stifling, both for the individuals who are labeled and for the category itself. The challenge is to keep an open mind even for the most solid "givens." Absolutism is not a virtue in our constantly... Read More
Is It Time to Move the TV?
Reflection questions for 'families' of 2 to 20 By Sister Mary Clare Yates, RSM
About seven years ago, sophomores that I had for an English Humanities class commented on television's effect on their family. These young women protested the substitution of TV as baby sitter and quasi-parent for their younger brothers and sisters. They observed that shared activities and conversation in the family had diminished because of TV's constant usage and that multiple TV sets about the house had fragmented the family unit.
If one needs scientific data to accept the students' observations, such scholarly information is in the spring, 1978 issue of the respected and recognized... Read More
Whether it's for the National Enquirer, People magazine, or the Catholic Digest, nuns are pretty good copy. Stories about sisters always seem to make enticing reading. Pictures of sisters seem to be just the thing an advertiser needs to make a visual point.
The articles and pictures — what are they saying between the lines about sisters, and religious life today? Who makes the decisions about what appears — and how? Its it what religious women themselves consider appropriate? Can we afford to be misrepresented to the women who may be considering religious life, to the church community, to the... Read More
An understanding of computers is, today, necessary basic knowledge for all of us. But the answer to "what is a computer?" is not simple, despite the fact that the computer is based on very logical human processes and very familiar concepts.
Like the automobile, which is more important for what it does (transport you from one place to another) than for its size, style, or other physical aspect, the computer is more significant for the processes it can perform—software—than for its physical components—hardware. A computer isn't of much use unless it is doing something, unless it is creating... Read More
In an impassioned plea to Catholic educators recently, Father Al McBride urged us to "convert the Jordan to ~ to use modern communications technology to share Gospel values.
This same spirit permeated a Symposium on Catholic Education that met a few years ago in San Francisco to chart new leadership guidelines in the light of the Greeley study. Participants rated media use ( and shared responsibility) at the very top of their priorities. I'll never forget the exhilaration I felt at the Symposium when I saw colleagues almost unanimously endorse this media proposal.
And yet…
Once stated, a sort... Read More
The word has come from CBS. "In the Beginning," the new TV sitcom featuring irrepressible Sr. Agnes and irascible Pr. Cleary as a clerical team running a ghetto street mission, has been cancelled after only six episodes. Whether it will ever appear again is doubtful given the vicissitudes of the TV industry and the fickleness of TV audiences.
For many months now the N.S.C.S. has acted in a minor consulting role particularly to Virginia Carter, vice- president and resident social advocate at Tandem Productions, creators of the series. Through her we shared news, ideas and resources about... Read More
During May, the Church celebrates World Communications Day. These excerpts, taken from the Statement on Communications Media and Catechesis presented by U.S. Bishop-Delegates at the 1977 Synod, stress the impact of communications in contemporary society. Although the statement is specifically addressed to "catechists," all of us involved in any way in the teaching ministry of the Church will find it relevant.
Statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1977
From the very beginning, the Church has used the arts to communicate Christ's message and fix it in people's minds and hearts. Biblical... Read More
This past October marked the twentieth anniversary of Sputnik, the tiny Russian satellite that launched the whole world into the space age. Since that time over 10,000 satellites and space probes have been rocketed from earth, many of which continue to circle the globe providing meteorological information, scientific observations and a growing opportunity to communicate instantaneously with almost every part of the world.
A communication satellite can be defined as a space platform on which are mounted a complex of earth-oriented antennas which serve as "transmitters in the sky." At 22.500... Read More
Like most other field, the area of communication has developed its own specialized vocabulary. Some of the jargon we hear daily, and many terms have become part of our contemporary language usage. Other words are still absurd to the non-specialist. This column then is offered an informal and informative glossary of communication terms, particularly for those who want to better understand the influence of media technology on our world.
Mass Media includes all the "tools" we have for communicating with large numbers of people… television, radio, film, magazines and newspapers. All carry... Read More
Recently the Sisters of the Precious Blood took a "trend census" to evaluate the future directions of society in such areas as education, health care, government, etc. When asked to submit some thoughts about communications trends toward 1990, the community sent the following reflection. We hope its appearance in Media&Values will stimulate further discussion and comment by all those interested in the future of communication.
Technological changes in the field of communications will be the most obvious in terms of impact on society. It will be a different world for those who follow... Read More
With millions of cameras owned by even more millions of individuals, photography is probably the most popular hobby in the United States. It is also a basic building block of modern communications. Without it, television and movies would not exist. Even newspapers and magazines would not be the sane. As for the milestones in our own lives-vacations, holidays, celebrations - how much photography contributes to our sense of personal history and sharing with one another!
Whether a camera is the simplest instamatic or the most complex adjustable model, three ingredients are necessary for picture... Read More
I Hate It, But I Love It: Television and Listerine
A teacher-turned communicator explores the challenge of media education in the Catholic Church. By Elizabeth Thoman
Even though we sometimes hate TV, like Listerine, we also love it. And more importantly we have gotten used to it. It has not only taken over our living rooms, but our lives. We wake up and go to bed by the "Today" show and the late night news. We pattern our habits of eating around it. We count on it as a dependable icebreaker... "Did you happen to see that TV show last night about. In some schools, teachers even assign it for homework.
What is this "thing" which has intruded itself so totally on our society in less than a lifetime? How do we cope with human life in which the common values... Read More