Taiwan Church News
3190 Edition
April 15-21, 2013
Editorial

Translated by Lydia Ma

Before the advent of communications technology, the only way a person could promote a good thing was to talk about it to others. The dawn of communications technology has helped people pass on messages using words, sounds, and images quickly and reach wider audiences we would never have imagined possible before. In the past few years, mass communications has also evolved a great deal and it is no longer one-sided as it used to be, but rather, interactive.

The PCT has always wanted to communicate something very important to Taiwan. For this reason, it began using mass communications as a tool from the time Rev. Thomas Barclay founded “Taiwan Church News” in 1885. The goal of this ministry was not only to proclaim the gospel and lead people to Christ, but also to educate them and provide them with spiritual food. Hence, helping people to build a Christian worldview is an important legacy of the PCT and an important contribute it has given Taiwanese society.

However, mass communications has evolved a lot since its inception. More than ever, companies compete fiercely against one another to see who can produce better special effects and who can get a wider audience at all costs. Sadly, the goal of mass communications organizations has become pleasing the readers’ senses, resulting in the increasing use of graphic images. Furthermore, trends such as embedded marketing, deliberately misleading reporting, and the lack of fact verification has cast a dark cloud over the reliability of mass communication organizations because the public has noticed its Machiavellian behavior.

In contrast to mainstream media, which is known to go to extremes to get high ratings and viewership as if those two things were all that mattered, the Christian media has been much more self-controlled. To make a point, the PCT spearheaded a movement in 1992 called “Cancel Your Subscription to Save Taiwan” because it wanted to condemn inappropriate behavior and reports from the United Daily News at the time. This movement called on Taiwanese to stop reading, cancel subscriptions, and stop buying advertisement from the United Daily News to make it change its behavior. This gesture and movement reflects the PCT’s tradition of being very discerning and careful on the kind of information it disseminates.

We could argue that mass media is merely a tool and there are more important things to consider, such as content. In Christian circles, information content gets more emphasis than the means of delivering it. Perhaps we could play to the crowd’s preferences and secure their attention, but in doing so, we would risk compromising the core values of Christianity and becoming no different than mainstream media or for-profit corporations. More importantly, we would no longer be an evangelistic organization if we were to go down that path.

All these things are important reminders that the PCT considers when it uses its own mass communication tools. It’s true that sometimes the content of our news stories may not be spectacular and our insistence to never follow a trend for the sake of being trendy has made some readers lose their interest in us and even question our raison d’ȇtre, but we are aware that doing the right thing is a lonely mission in real life. Sometimes, one can only appreciate God’s wonderful plan and vindicate one’s convictions when looking back.

As we mark the PCT’s “Mass Communications Center Fundraising Sunday” on the 3rd Sunday of every April, we would like to invite all of our members to pray for this ministry and support it with a financial offering.