Disconnecting with Culture
Some time in the next three years our elderly television set will have to go, since it provides merely four analogue channels. Our dilemma is whether to live without TV, or embrace a multiplicity of digital possibilities. So I decided to read thoroughly a broadsheet media guide.
I immediately had a problem with the vocabulary. I started with an article about South Park - which I have never seen. The guide's cover had a cartoon character from South Park, saying, 'Respect my hilarity! Why South Park is still kickass'. The article began, 'After 12 years, South Park's potty-mouthed satire still, like, totally rules!' I don't fully understand, but actually I don't want to. Is there a need to know? Is that what working for an Institute for Contemporary Christianity calls for?
Then I read about an MTV offering called Nitro Circus in which,
'selected buddies plunge from a variety of different vehicles on to a variety of different surfaces. It is mildly diverting to ponder just how severely someone must injure themselves before it's unfilmable. "This is so awesome!" guffaws one rider as yet another hunk of flesh scythes into the dirt. Somehow it's difficult to look away.'
Here's another problem. If young men want to be filmed damaging themselves, so be it. But I thought we had dealt with the problem of circus exploitation of damaged humans and, more recently, animals, so it is hard to see the voyeurism of the freak show revived. In a two week period there was a documentary about Indonesian circus performers whose medical conditions made them 'the star attraction', programmes about the world's heaviest man getting married, embarrassing illnesses, and the tallest children in the world. And, even on terrestrial TV, 'reality' programmes are, as far as I can see, built on the almost universal human weakness for watching others being put down, embarrassed, ejected. For every winner there are always many losers.
Should we silence the cacophony and withdraw to BBC radio? Or should we immerse ourselves in all of this in order to be connected with culture?
(Of course, there are great programmes - documentaries, travel and natural world, history and comment - but that is not my point.)
'Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever in commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things' (Philippians 4:8). How do I do that and sit in front of the circuses on the screen?
Over to you...
Margaret Killingray
Comments
I don't watch a lot of TV - mostly sport, comedy, some drama and documentaries and the occasional film. But what technology now largely allows us to do is to choose. To choose what we watch, when we watch it and, often, how we watch it (live, on catch-up or 'classic' TV, or via the internet). Abandoning media because of the poor examples of it is not the answer - encouraging more talented Christians to invade it with imagination, high level skills and commitment to Christ is one way forward. And if we fail to keep up with what the millions outside the Church are watching and consuming, and how this is shaping and influencing them, we're in danger of communicating a message that doesn't understand our changing culture, or where people are on their own spiritual journeys.
On a practical level we've found the BBC I-Player (and Channel 4's 4oD) to be helpful in encouraging us to be selective in our TV watching and not just sit down tired to whatever trash happens to be on... Plus you don't need to a new TV (if you have a laptop),... plus you don't need to buy a TV licence (which is another debate in itself).
New TV certainly requires us to be more selective and discerning than ever. I am happy to let most 'Reality TV' pass me by. Yet every now and then there are lovely surprises, such as the recent appearance of Susan Boyle - if you've not seen her, look for her on YouTube. The best bit is watching the cynical looks on the faces of panelists and audience alike - until the singing starts... And for more about the real, God-honouring person behind this, see 'beauty that matters' in The Herald website: http://tinyurl.com/cmebcu
I totally agree, and the danger in the multiplicity of TV chanels - amongst other things - is that it fragments culture to such an extent that culture will cease to exist - all we will be left with is a number of minority interests. This is what happens with classical music: it's often branded 'elitist' because it requires a degree of concentration beyond that required by You Tube, and a degree of skill and dedication if you are going to participate in it. But having seen and heard the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela I know that it is possible for young people to engage with 'high' culture. What is the answer? I don't know. Maybe we are entering a second Dark Age, like the one that preceded the Medieval Period and Renaissance. But I don't want to wait so long for a second Renaaissance!
Hello, Margaret Thank you for pointing out some of the less good parts of the media. If I had a penny for every time I had read Philippians 4:8 being used to help us think of what we shouldn't watch I would have over 20p by now. But why is Ph 4:8 never (well, I've never seen it used this way) used to illustrate what we should watch?
Years ago I remember Francis Schaeffer talking about Good Good Art, Bad Good Art, Good Bad Art and Bad Bad Art. Good bad art is powerfully at work in our culture, and Davids are needed to slay these Goliaths. Bad bad art is trash - I wish we could ignore it; but how can we find a bargain without sifting through the rubbish? I go a lot by hearsay - from younger folk, who inhabit the appropriate universe of discourse - to help me know what I really MUST watch. I also think rationing is needed. And I pray for young artists, writers, philosophers who will make bad art not just unpalatable but UNTHINKABLE - by displacing it with good art, just like you get soap suds out of a soya sauce bottle by filling it with - clean water.
New TVs still have off switches. And if you can't find anything honourable, just or commendable on digital broadcasting then you haven't tried very hard.
Dark ages? Ye Gods. Television is more demanding mentally now that it has ever been. Yes, and morally too. The people making it have a more developed understanding of the artistry involved than ever before. There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't apply as much intelligence to it as any piece of classical music. People accused Shakespeare of operating low art, appealing to the lowest common denominator and having low standards (moral and artistic). The people who enjoyed his art were indeed common. I suspect some of the same snobbery here.
Date:
2009-04-28 15:25:56
Author:
Simon Jones