Media Discussions

I've been observing with interest the kind of discussion that is generated by the 'comment' function on smh online. In the ones I have observed, the comments tell us a lot about what Herald readers (at least, the ones who post comments on articles online) see as the function of the Herald in the Sydney community, and also how the issues being discussed are seen to fit into the life of the nation. On Friday, the SMH published an opinion piece by Ross Cameron (described simply as 'the former federal member for Parramatta'), entitled 'Christmas message holds true'. In it, Cameron argues that "Jesus is easily the most influential person in history, and the most universally loved", and concludes that "From whatever perspective we come, thinking people ought to be able to agree, the birth of Jesus was a good day for mankind." A bit presumptuous, perhaps, but this is an opinion piece! He doesn't explicitly state his own position on the gospel of Jesus, but says at the end that he suspects he "may never quite shake the childlike hunch that there is some uniquely divine imprint on the central individual [i.e. Jesus] of the human story." This suggests to me that he does not yet have a relationship with God through Jesus, but is open to the gospel. Interestingly, some of the commenters assume that Cameron is a Christian, with one reader commenting that "It really is unfortunate that religious figures automatically assume that 'From whatever perspective we come, thinking people ought to be able to agree, the birth of Jesus was a good day for mankind'", and another numbering Cameron with Christian apologists!

The discussion generated by this article seems to follow the pattern of most discussions on smh online around articles that mention Jesus. Non-believers and atheists tend to start the ball rolling by condemning the Herald for publishing something that mentions religion in any kind of supportive light, and issuing a challenge to any 'thinking people' to reject the 'propaganda' put out by the organised church. Believers then respond by defending Jesus against the criticisms and sometimes turning the charges of hypocrisy back on the atheists. There is a strong underlying current in the posts from unbelievers that the topic of religion should be kept out of the mainstream media and left to the private sphere, e.g. John C's comment that "Religion in Australia is probably best considered as a matter for consenting adults in private" – a view that, at one time, would have held for the topic of sex instead of religion.

Once upon a time the Herald did put forth an overtly 'Christian' (in the nominal sense, at least) worldview – some of the earliest editors (e.g. in the 1830s) were clergymen, who took the opportunity to publish sermon-like editorials. In the early 1900s (and probably before - I would have to check) the churches of Sydney had regular spots in the newspaper to publicise service times and announcements. When the end of the Boer War was reported on 3^rd June, 1902, there were very unselfconscious, matter-of-fact reports that 'the congregations in the churches in Durban sang the National Anthem', '"Now Thank we all our God" was sung at the close of the service at St Paul's and the Chapel Royal' and 'there were thanksgivings in most of the churches yesterday'. It appears that in that context it was assumed that the readers of the Herald would share this worldview that it was natural and normal to give thanks to God for the end of war and entrust the peace time to Him. That was in another time, and Sydney is now a more diverse, heterogeneous community. So it is inevitable that not every topic in the newspaper will be relevant or interesting to every member of the community, and newspapers should continue to publish articles and opinion pieces on a range of topics that are relevant to the whole cross-section of the community. But I have to disagree with a number of the unbelievers who claimed that the 'religious right' control Fairfax. A Christian worldview is not the prevailing one in the Herald, although it may be Eurocentric as some of the readers in the discussion noted.

Truth in the media

My research has been on the reporting of armistice in the Sydney Morning Herald from 1902-2003, which covers 7 major wars Australia has been involved in. Reading the news is a good way of finding out about what's going on in the world around us - it has been for more than 500 years, since the first newspapers were put together for the purpose of informing European merchants of the goings on that might affect the progress of their trade shipments. But the news can never claim to have been 'the whole truth' because what we find out about the world around us in the news is brought to us from human perspectives. Human perspective, the Bible tells us, is not only limited (e.g. Job 42: 2-6), but also inherently flawed (e.g. Romans 3:23).
I think we need to be careful about expecting too much in the way of 'journalistic truth'. This is not to say that we should not expect journalists to do the best job they can in reporting the events that go on in the world around us. Rather, we need to be clear on where 'truth' can be found, and what is a reasonable expectation of our fellow human beings.
Human journalists, who are made in the image of God just like everyone else, can bring us just a fraction of what can be known about the world around us. No one person can know - or bring together - everything that is relevant to a topic or event. Only God - who is all-seeing and all-knowing (omniscient) - can do that.
The Bible tells of Daniel, an Isaraelite scholar who was exiled to Babylon, who undertook to interpret a strange dream for the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, a dream that was beyond the powers of interpretation of the Babylonian wise men. Daniel prayed for wisdom to understand the dream (otherwise he and all the other wise men would have been destroyed because of the king's rage!), and when the mystery was revealed to him, he praised God for his wisdom and knowledge of all things, saying (Dan 2:20-22):
²⁰ "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.

²¹ He changes times and seasons;
he sets up kings and deposes them.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.

²² He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.

I do not wish to criticise journalists in particular for what they do, but to encourage all consumers of news in all its forms to recognise that they will not find "the truth" in the news - only perhaps a small fragment of it. Humanly speaking, there is not, and never has been, a 'right' way of reporting an event. We all notice different things about the world, and attribute significance to events in different ways. Why should we expect that journalists in particular will notice and bring out all the things that we think are significant or worthwhile?
The truth we need to know about our world and our place in it comes from God. The Psalmist praises God, saying (Ps 119:160):

All your words are true;
all your righteous laws are eternal.

And in Isaiah, the prophet tells us (Isa 45:11-12 and 18-19):
¹¹ "This is what the LORD says—
the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
do you question me about my children,
or give me orders about the work of my hands?

¹² It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts.

...

¹⁸ For this is what the LORD says—
he who created the heavens,
he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited—
he says:
"I am the LORD,
and there is no other.

¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret,
from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I have not said to Jacob's descendants,
'Seek me in vain.'
I, the LORD, speak the truth;
I declare what is right.

Cite 2009

I've just returned from the inaugural Cite Conference in Canberra. Around 40 academics and postgrads from all around Australia gathered (alongside around 1300 undergrads who were there for AFES's National Training Event).
It was such a full week - full of useful, encouraging sessions, full of new and interesting people to meet, full of things to think about for the future.
Along with the undergrads, we heard Bible talks from John Dickson and Andrew Reid on the Kingdom of God and his appointed King, Jesus Christ. We also joined the NTE-ers for meals en masse in the enormous Budawang Pavilion.
Our own sessions included sincere, convicting talks from Daryl McCarthy from the International Institute for Christian Studies (www.iics.com), brainstorming and planning sessions for The Simeon Network (www.simeonnetwork.org), and Research/Gospel/Public Interest sessions with Malcolm Williams and a host of guest speakers with media experience to help us think about how we can use media opportunities to get a Christian worldview on our research area out into the media space. This blog is my first practical step following on from that.