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George
Plathottam, SDB (Fr George Plathottam, SDB, is Director of Don Bosco communications, Guwahati. He is a member of the International Catholic Union of the Press (UCIP), and of the Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA). A thorough analysis of the impact of the new information superhighway and the consequent challenges evangelization faces are clearly presented here by the author).
1. Colonialism and Christian Mission: Examining the Common Ground The old colonialism disappeared decades ago from most parts of the world. It had a distinctive identity; the colonisers had a face, a language. What began as a commercial enterprise later manifested itself in territorial conquests and political dominance. Presented through the coloured glasses of colonialism, Christian mission appeared to enjoy certain distinct benefits from the era. A more serious and dispassionate analysis over the years tells a different story. It is true that the task of proclaiming the Christian message received certain distinct advantages like patronage and protection, easier access to places and people, and in certain instances, financial support. Those who brought the gospel message and the colonisers had many things in common: often the missionary and the conqueror travelled together, they spoke the same language, shared common cultural links, had similar physical features, and above all had the same religion, Christianity. These apparent advantages themselves became a source of discredit for the Christian mission. Countries under colonial powers had difficulty in distinguishing the missionary from the conqueror. Christianity came to be identified with the West. For most people it was hard to draw a dividing line between the two. Today, theologians as well as pastors in countries formerly under colonial control, have begun to raise doubts about the so-called advantages for missionary activity. In many countries the missionary is still considered an outsider, and the term carries derogatory connotations. Such a bias leads people to believe that a missionary is a sort of subversionist, a mercenary, someone who is anti-national. Such prejudice stems also from ignorance or indoctrination. In some cases, the part is identified with the whole, and the missionary becomes a scapegoat for the segregation and oppression their fellow citizens have inflicted on them. 2. New Forms of Technology, New Forms of Colonialism Our aim here is not to go into the historical circumstances under which the gospel was brought to most Asian, African and Latin American countries. Nor are we attempting to assess the merits or demerits of the association between the missionary and the coloniser. Rather, we are concerned here with a new form of colonialism ushered in by scientific and technological advancement. We speak of the information superhighway marked by cable television, home computers, Internet and a host of global networking systems that have revolutionised life and relationships. Sometimes we hear evangelization enthusiasts harangue on how St Paul, the greatest missionary to the gentiles, or St Francis Xavier, the apostle of the East, had they lived today, would preach the gospel to millions across the globe by means of mass media. Whether such a possibility could have enabled them or others like them to evangelize the world by networking with computers or via cable television is, to my mind, a mere academic question. It would be more realistic to look at the mass media today from the perspective of one concerned with the mission to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ at the threshold of the Third Millennium. The task becomes more pertinent when one realises that the world is currently going through a new form of colonialism: a colonialism of the mass media. One distinctive feature of the present day colonialism, unlike that of the past, is that it has no face, no name, sometimes not even a clearly defined nationality. Its culture and language are stereotyped to portray a super-culture and language. The ritual, the symbols, the high priests of the new colonialism appear to have such a universal visage and an equally global appeal that people easily get allured by it. 3. The Myth of the "Global Village" and Cultural Invasion The information superhighway has at its fingertips a technology that has to some extent helped transcend time and space. The world was supposed to have become a ‘global village’ as a result of such information revolution, but it does not appear to have become one despite claims to the contrary. Critics of mass media today strongly suspect contemporary mass media’s ability to bond the world into a global village. Instead, they fear the advent of a new form of invasion in which the identities of ethnic communities and cultures will be bulldozed to make way for a single, uniform, dominant culture that does not admit diversity just because it is not commercially rewarding. Mass media is currently playing an irreversible role as a great leveller of cultures. The Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, commenting on the dominant American culture in relation to the indigenous peoples, writes: "the dominant culture acknowledges Indians as objects of study, but denies them as subjects of history; the Indians have folklore, not culture; they practice superstitions, not religions; they speak dialects not language; they make handicrafts not art" (Eduardo Galeano, "The Blue Tiger and the Promised Lanf", Rome: IDOC International, 3/91 as quoted in Carlos A. Valle: Challenges of Communication, Delhi: ISPCK, 1995, 5). Such distinctions are aimed at steepening the inferiority of ethnic cultures and peoples. 4. Ethnic Aspirations and Search for Identity: Contrasting Approaches, Confusing Images Indigenous tribes and ethnic groups across the world are going through a phase of transition. They are in the process of a passionate search for identity, political autonomy and freedom, they want to assert their values and worldviews, to resist the forces that are trying to act as levellers. This process is not always well articulated, not always expressed in ways tenable with the precepts of the gospel. Instead, one can observe a deep-rooted desire to shake off the shackles of existing structures and systems, sometimes manifesting their discontent through violence, insurgency, armed conflicts and what has come to be described as "ethnic cleansing". Ethnic affiliations and emotions play a more dominant role in determining their thought patterns and action than reason or argument. But the paradox is that often those who rebel against the system end up becoming themselves very much a part of it. The paradox becomes sharper when we consider the fact that they admire and adopt the very system they wanted to overthrow. The most articulate expressions of modern media — Western dress habits, the English language, Western music and cultural values — are freely adopted. They become new status symbols in one’s search for individual as well as collective cultural upward mobility. The inexorable sway the dominant cultures exercise on the lifestyle and the worldviews of those who fight them make one wonder whether change is possible. This contradiction is all too obvious among ethnic minorities who, while wanting to articulate their unique cultural values and symbols, adopt the values of the dominant class in an effort to move up the social ladder, to get more global recognition. They have been made to believe that to be individuals of some consequence in the modern world they must wear a particular kind of clothing, use this or that popular brand of cosmetics, ride the most widely advertised (not necessarily the most economic or comfortable) bikes or cars. People must dress, dine, walk or behave in ways dictated by the dominant culture. Interestingly, one advertisement for suiting which carries the picture of a lion has the following caption: Be Somebody! The art of persuasion not only supports and even sustains the capital interests of industries, but is itself a multi-million dollar industry. The language of advertisement is bewitching to say the least. Its allurement is irresistible for many. Not to follow suit would imply that you are going to be left behind if not totally left out. As Gregory Baum rightly pointed out: "Mass media do much more than mediate information: they create the categories in which we perceive the world" (Gregory Baum, "The Church and the Mass Media", Concilium, Vol., 1993, 65. Media Development, 2, 1994, 46-47). Together with luxuries they sell lifestyles and a set of values and worldviews as well. 5. Who pulls the Strings of the Multi-Million Dollar Mass Media Industry? Who pulls the strings of the mass media industry? It is not easy to answer this question. One must look at the power of mass media which controls the information superhighway. It is indeed mind-boggling! Media today are a multi-million dollar industry controlled by large corporate multinationals and individuals. They are not only economically the most lucrative from the point of view of profit, but have strong political ideology and act as powerful forces controlling the world today. Take for instance the way the world’s leading news agencies collect and distribute information. News about events in the developing world passes through these agencies situated in the West before it reaches various countries of the world. The agencies claim that news needs "to be edited". In fact, the process acts as a filter through which news undergoes careful selection, receives new emphasis, issues change perspective. Often violence, human misery and poverty get disproportionately highlighted. Events are considered newsworthy only if they have characteristics like impact, prominence, conflict, proximity, timeliness, and the event itself is unusual. Reporters are to have a "nose for news". Sensationalism is most welcome. In the newsroom the news is "treated" to suit the needs of the potential buyers. The stories must suit the canons of the global economy giant! News must be "marketable", "saleable". Unfortunately sometimes, even church news agencies tend to adopt these precepts of the secular press to stay afloat and not to lose their customers. Now think of the colonial practice of taking raw materials to their home countries to manufacture products that were resold at exorbitant prices back in the countries which produced the raw materials. The Swadeshi movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in India to reject British products was aimed at challenging this unjust system. Today the phenomenon has come in a new, and probably a more disguised way in the media market. The raw materials for the news stories originating in the developing world are carried over to the West and processed and sold back. George Gerbner’s study on the treatment of news from Latin America, re-routed after it passed through the Western news agencies, showed that the news marketed in the West after being "treated" had a far greater percentage of violence in its content than the same news used at home. News writers and editors know that conflict has a prominent news value. Reports on wars, battles, ethnic conflicts make absorbing reading. Even sports reports resemble closely the language of war. Information is a highly priced commodity. The language of media is itself one of domination. For this reason, we cannot proclaim the gospel in that language without making the gospel itself appear to be a message of domination. The communication media today are in the hands of a few who control their distribution. The gap between the information rich and the information poor keeps widening. The Sixth MacBride Round Table on Communication held in Honolulu, Hawaii, recognised that the lives, languages and cultures of indigenous peoples are at great risk of extinction amidst today’s revolution in communication technologies (Peter G. Horsfiled, Religious Television, the American Experience, New York, London: Longman, 1984, 7-8). The churches need to be in an ongoing dialogue with the cultures and languages of the indigenous people, and resist the temptation to wean them away into the dominant cultures and languages. The church’s task should be directed towards integrating them, not widening the existing gap. 6. Church’s Attitude to Mass Media: How Tenable is the Gospel vis-à-vis the Mass Media? All this does not suggest that the Church should look at the modern mass media with downright suspicion and extreme caution, and consider media as a monster untenable with the precepts of the gospel. Enthusiasts who jumped onto the bandwagon of mass media which moved along the superhighway hoped they would be able to do a far better job than St Paul or St Francis Xavier in preaching the gospel and winning the world for Christ. The phenomenon is referred to as "the Electronic Church". That kind of enthusiasm is no longer widespread today. Such electronic optimism about evangelizing the world quickly reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the sower: (cf. Mk 4:3-8). I would like to think that the seeds that fell on the rocky ground or beside the path, in some way, depict the Word proclaimed through the electronic media of the information superhighway. To swing towards the opposite extreme would be equally fallacious. The churches today should not develop a kind of paranoia or phobia about the mass media. After all virtue lies in the middle. Malcolm Muggeridge, a leading name in the British print and electronic media, warned of the eventual fall of the Western civilisation much like that of the Roman Empire. Muggeridge blamed the media, particularly television, for most, if not all, of what he looked upon as a slide towards perdition. About his own association with the media, Muggeridge said he was like "a piano player in a brothel who, from time to time, is able to play ‘Abide with me’ for the edification of the patrons". Muggeridge, who was profoundly influenced by the life and work of Mother Teresa, became a Catholic a few years before his death. He was one of the strongest critics of contemporary mass media. 7. Mass Media and Religion: A Few Success Stories When we trace the history of the evangelization of the world it becomes at once obvious that the missionary, concerned with proclaiming the gospel, did not hesitate to use whatever media was available: film strips, magic lanterns, print materials: pictures, tracts and books, Bibles and Bible stories, visual charts: Fulton J. Sheen, the renowned American bishop, author and television personality, used media effectively to reach millions. His radio broadcasts were so popular he came to be known as "the angel of the airwaves". Sheen did not have to buy air time or prime spots on the television as religious leaders are compelled to do today. Instead, he was paid $ 26,000 each week for his television show. Sheen spent about 30 hours each week preparing for the telecast. Many bars tuned their television sets to his programme; taxi drivers would stop work for half-hour in order to watch. Mothers could get kids scurrying to watch T.V. by saying Bishop Sheen was coming on the television. Such was his popularity. In our own day the media continues to be keenly interested in religious leaders like, Mother Angelica, whose Eternal Word Television Network Inc. is the first Catholic Cable Television Network in America, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Billy Graham or the Dalai Lama. One can confidently say that there is no danger of wearing off the mass appeal of religious programmes on the modern day electronic or print media. The popularity of television programmes and radio broadcasts with religion as the main content has continued to capture popular imagination. In India, for instance, the teleserials Mahabharata and Ramayana had profound mass appeal. So powerfully did these celluloid versions of the popular Hindu epics appeal to the masses that some of the stars were voted to power in the country’s political elections. The Hindu dominated Bharatiya Janata Party catapulted to the national political mainstream riding an the wave of such "electronically generated" opportunity. In some instances, Catholic pastors had to reschedule Mass timings to enable people to view the serials which were telecast on Sundays. I once witnessed in New Delhi, India’s capital, a devout Hindu woman replay recorded portions of the Ramayana while she performed Puja (devotion). The teleserial on the stories of the Bible ki Kahaniyaan produced to capture the imagination of the masses, too, did whip up lots of hope for the vast masses irrespective of the religion it represented. If the serial failed to meet with the success it was expected to, it was largely due to the fact that it was embroiled in other contentious issues than lack of viewership. Such was the impact also of films of yesteryears like Daya Sagar (Ocean of Mercy) a film on Christ, originally produced in Telegu and subsequently dubbed into several languages. The new information superhighway has not taken away or replaced religion’s mass appeal. Similarly the impact of media on the masses continues to grow. There is no sign of decline. One reason for this, I believe, is due to the fact that the benefits of the electronically engineered information highway is largely a "highway phenomenon" remaining confined to the urban centres. Even these centres are carefully handpicked to ensure that it is capable of boosting profits. The missionary whose primary task is to evangelize the rural poor may have reason to be optimistic as long as his / her audience remains largely unreached and unaffected by the onslaught of media invasion. To that extent they will continue to be receptive to the message offered through whatever media the evangelizer has at his / her command. 8. Challenges before the Contemporary Evangelizer But the evangelizer has reason to be concerned with another phenomenon, namely, the alarming rate of urbanization which is more conspicuous in developing countries. The city offers many possibilities: from mere survival to making a fortune. Many of the so-called rags to riches stories have an urban setting. Now the one concerned with the proclamation of the gospel message in an urban setting has to cope with many voices competing for attention. He or she has to address an audience which is culturally uprooted or not properly attuned to his or her message. He / she has to fight the concept of time where time is money, and one is less willing to invest it on some values that do not have proximate goals. Yet another characteristic of urban life is speed. The sense of urgency to cope with speed is evident in the advertisements on the electronic media. Prime time advertisers have to dole out whopping sums to advertise their products. On the electronic media often the advertisements are far too many and they come and go so fast that the audience is too baffled even to know what product a particular advertisement was trying to promote. Such a sense of urgency is seen not only in electronic advertising. As I look out of the bedroom window I catch glimpses of a flyover with several huge hoardings on either side. But what surprised me recently was the discovery that while the hoardings remain unchanged the ads keep changing every fortnight or month — new colours, new figures, new products on sale! From baby food to pan masala to chewing gum — there is something for everyone. In Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, I was struck by a stranger phenomenon. An entire suburban railway station was draped in riotous colours advertising just one single film. I was told that the railways sell out the advertising rights of an entire station to just one customer for a few weeks at a time. The evangelizer has to operate from a different perspective altogether. He / she cannot blindly adopt the medium, space, jargon or language of the media world. A missionary would be too naïve to think that after a powerful radio broadcast or television programme, he has successfully accomplished his mission and that people will be queuing up as in the time of John the Baptist to receive baptism. The language of the gospel may contradict the values the media proclaim. Its creed of well being may be in stark contrast with the beatitudes proclaimed by Jesus. All this may sound like not too optimistic a warning to the one concerned with proclaiming the message of Christ. But there is reason for hope when one considers the fact that religious places continue to have stampedes, churches and temples and mosques continue to draw large crowds, and religious leaders still enjoy popular favour. The urban people have not become so ‘immune’ to the religious message. But the evangelizer who wants to reach the urban masses must study his audience, understand their idiom, their lifestyle and struggles. He or she must be willing to contextualize, be willing to change, be challenged. 9. New Millennium and Challenges Ahead As a new millennium dawns, the information technology may spring new surprises. One need not be a prophet to predict that the 21stcentury will pose new challenges to the evangelizer. The one who wants to announce the Good News from roof tops will be dismayed to find that the roof tops are too much wired up with cables and dish antennas. One may find all access to the household as well as to the roof tops closed. Whatever be the challenges the evangelizer faces, he / she must be attuned to understand the signs of the times so as to respond adequately to the new challenges that will confront us more sharply in the decades to come. Ethnic groups and communities are searching for a new identity. They are beginning to assert their rights and independence. Their ranks include the tribals and the indigenous peoples. Those who have been oppressed for centuries want to break out of their silence, they want to speak up: they are the Dalits and the oppressed classes. The women in a predominantly male dominated Church want a new interpretation of theology, a more gender neutral portrayal of God and faith content. They want not merely greater powers, but deeper involvement in the Church. The youth wants to see the Church and religion more realistic, religious leaders more understanding, less rigid and condemnatory; they want the liturgy to be more dynamic and more life centred, more creative and participatory. And the evangelizer, like a good farmer, must be in continuous contact with the soil as he ploughs and as he sows. The seeds may be a high yielding variety, but that alone will not ensure a good harvest. I foresee that the most important challenges the one concerned with proclaiming Christ will face is to find fresh ways to ensure that the good seed is not cast about in a haphazard manner. The good news we have inherited and are invited to proclaim is timeless and too precious to be left to itself. The most significant challenge, therefore, of the evangelizer of the 21st century is to continue the unending quest for discovering newer forms of expression for that timeless message. Ref.: INDIAN MISSIOLOGICAL REVIEW, Vol. 20, n. 4, December 1998. |