Infinite Bandwidth: Encountering Christ in the Media by Gan Eugene

Author:Gan, Eugene [Gan, Eugene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Emmaus Road Publishing
Published: 2010-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

SPEAKING TRUTH

As with the other media keys, the fourth media key isn't just about the films and television shows we watch. It's also about keeping truth at the heart of the media we make and use. In the world of blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, and online forums, we all, at least potentially, are media-makers. We can all “make” media that leads people to the truth, and we can all use media in a way that obscures truth.

We “make” media that leads people to the truth when we use our blogs or Facebook pages not just to gossip or report on the more mundane aspects of our life, but to talk about what really matters to us and why. Our blog can be a vehicle for articulating our struggles with the culture, our questions about the Faith, or our journey to God. In online forums we can evangelize, and on social networking sites we can post interesting articles about faith or culture that can spark discussions among friends from various viewpoints. Even posting pictures of our children on a social networking site can communicate some of the truth about Catholic family life. In all those ways, our use of the social media reflects and promotes an understanding of truth.

But those forms of media also make it particularly easy to let lies, both big and small, worm their way into our use. There are the obvious lies, the lies that began this chapter, designing avatars or online personas that have no grounding in who we really are. But there are plenty of lesser lies we can tell without pretending to be of a different, sex, race, or species.

For example, it's for good reason that Facebook has earned the nickname “Fakebook.” All too often the profiles we devise for ourselves don't represent who we are, but who we want people to think we are. We can leave out the details we don't like, overemphasize the ones we do, and present to the world an idealized and ultimately false picture of our life. 34

In online forums and chat rooms, it's equally possible to mask our identities, as well as to do or say things we would never do in real life (like hurl insults at a perfect stranger). The Internet affords an anonymity that can embolden us to violate charity. It's easy to throw out insults or spread malicious gossip when we can't see the pain our words inflict.

It's also easy to cheat. Several years ago, one British professor characterized higher education in the UK as a “cut and paste culture.” Those same words can just as easily be applied to the U.S. Thanks to the vast amount of content easily searchable online, not only can students copy and paste passages from articles they read into their own Word documents, but they also can purchase ready-made research papers from websites like essayprofessors.com. According to a 2005 Duke University study, at least 40 percent of America's college students admit to passing off material they found online as their own.

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