Taiwan Church News 3294 Edition April 13 - 19, 2015 Editorial Editorial: The Mission Of Mass Media Needs New Perspective In the beginning of 2015, when Northern Korea celebrated the third anniversary of Kim Jung-Un as their highest military commander, the repeated TV broadcast of Kim's driving a jet fighter impressed the outside world as it kept eulogizing the greatness and holiness of Kim dynasty and trying to stir up the patriotic emotions the people. But, such phenomenon is satirized by major western media as the apotheosis movement, as many pretentious titles, like "The Guardian of Human Kind" or "The Giant Philosopher", were ascribed to Kim and bombarded on the TV screen up to about 2,000 times according to a statistics. An identical news yet with different perspectives helps people to reflect and unveil the mystic curtain of Northern Korea. What a penetrating and boundless power owned by the mass media! When Ms Chao Chin-huei, current Director of Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of Tainan City Hall and a former Chief of Information Management Center, changed her career from a newspaper reporter into a civil bureaucrat, she stated that she will play more like a fax machine than a cosmetician! Well said, but her statement also reminds us a joke of cold war between US and Russia in 60's or 70's. It was said when Russia was disadvantageous in US-Russia arms race, the Russian media never bothered to honor Russia as the second champion next to the first and deride US as the 2nd loser next to the bottom one. In a closed system, information control could be easily obtained. But, in this new age of burgeoning media environment, rampant with flooding internet messages, hundreds of e-mails and diverse opinions in mass media every day, we should build up our instrument for mass media mission in the spirit of light and salt! According to Ezekiel 16:4, keeping a new born baby clean it needs to be washed by salt. In the same traditional and effective way, utilizing some salty water soaking in our mouth, a same cure can be used to alleviate the inflammation in our mouth or throat caused by bacteria infections. In this age, filled with massively confused news or even damaging stories, the church media should help the Christians to be free of the evil, instead of being deluded to the "neutral values" deems as the sacred cow of the secular media. In addition, salt can be used to season in our daily lives, as the scripture said in Mark 9:50, "Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?Have salt in your selves, and be at peace with one another". Such principle of making peace with the people, speaking words in wisdom, benevolence and positiveness, is same as the Apostle Paul's advise in the scripture: "[T]he Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone"(2 Timothy 2:24). Especially, to promote harmony and progress in the society, speaking the truth in love is the most important missionary value for the ecclesiastical media institutes. In 2001, PCT set up a Mass Communication Foundation symbolizing a new epoch of mission through mass media is opened. In 2004, based on a resolution by the 49th PCT General Assembly, New Eyes Television(NETV) was established to proclaim the good news to Taiwan society. Though NETV is an ambitious vision to expand the kingdom of God, yet due to many crises like giant financial demands, being short of PCT confession in the program outlooks and etc, this visionary TV still stumps on her way to survive. We deeply believe, if our brothers and sisters unfailingly carry on to support and recognize the necessity of our mission through mass media, NETV will finally do her best service for sure. This week's Sunday is designated as Mass Media Mission Day by PCT General Assembly, let's not loose our hands and turn away from our initial vision of NETV! |