The threefold media challenge from Cape Town

The second part of The Cape Town Commitment (CTC) was recently published, summarizing the thematic content of CT2010 .

The first section of part two (CTC IIA), on Bearing witness to the truth of Christ in a pluralistic, globalized world, includes a significant sub-section on the threefold media challenge:

4. Truth and the globalized media

We commit ourselves to a renewed critical and creative engagement with media and technology, as part of making the case for the truth of Christ in our media cultures. We must do so as God’s ambassadors of truth, grace, love, peace and justice.

We identify the following major needs:

A)    Media awareness: to help people develop a more critical awareness of the messages they receive, and of the worldview behind them. The media can be neutral, and sometimes gospel friendly. But they are also used for pornography, violence and greed. We encourage pastors and churches to face these issues openly and to provide teaching and guidance for believers in resisting such pressures and temptations.

B)    Media presence: to develop authentic and credible Christian role models and communicators for the general news media and the entertainment media, and to commend these careers as a worthy means of influence for Christ.

C)    Media ministries: to develop creative, combined and interactive use of ‘traditional’, ‘old’ and ‘new’ media, to communicate the gospel of Christ in the context of a holistic biblical worldview.

This threefold media challenge is shaped by my Cape Town 2010 Advance Paper and corresponds conceptually to the vision of this blog.

The global resource site www.EngagingMedia.info is gradually being established in response to the three key needs identified in the quote from The Cape Town Commitment above. The site has already a number of significant media awareness resources.

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Norsk: The Cape Town Commitment ble nylig publisert. Dokumentet inneholder også et viktig avsnitt om den tredelte medieutfordringen: behovet for mediebevisstgjøring og mediekritikk, behovet for kristent medienærvær i de allmenne nyhets- og underholdningsmediene, samt behovet for kreative mediemisjonstiltak. Denne tredelte medieutfordringen bygger på mitt CT2010 Advance Paper og korresponderer samtidig med visjonen bak denne bloggen.