Mission As Globalization by Scott David W.;

Author:Scott, David W.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

News Content

News reporting was an international affair for the MEC and its Malaysia Mission, involving as it did both the distribution of news about the Malaysia Mission to the rest of the MEC and the reporting of a variety of news from elsewhere to the Malaysia Mission. While the Malaysia Mission sought to use news about itself to build support for the mission, it also adapted the news it promoted to reflect readers’ interest in the lives of the missionaries and the land of Malaysia and their preferences for missionary successes over struggles. News about the rest of the world published in Malaysia helped create a Methodist worldview and sense of connection to other Methodists, but it also satisfied missionary and church members’ natural curiosity about events and topics beyond their local sphere.

As the mission’s official media outlet, the Malaysia Message had an important role to play in the task of informing the rest of the MEC about the mission. Information about the work of the Malaysia Mission in the Malaysia Message ranged from periodic updates to pieces on specific topics to abridged versions of annual reports given by missionaries. It included regular updates, among other things, about the work in Penang, stories of conversions from the women’s work, reports from the Hoovers in Sarawak, recaps of recent events at Methodist schools, accounts of visitors to Singapore, and biographies of deceased missionaries. In addition to sporadic articles about these and other topics, the Malaysia Message devoted systematic coverage to every meeting of the Malaysia Conference. Beyond all of this official news, the Malaysia Message printed reports about missionaries’ lives, including travels, vacations, social calls, health, births, birthdays, and special events at churches and schools.[52] This news aimed to project a comprehensive though upbeat run-down of the goings-on in the mission that kept church members in Malaysia as well as mission supporters in the United States, Britain, Germany, Sweden, and beyond up to date. Beyond news about the activities of the Malaysia Mission itself, missionaries also broadcast ethnographic information about the people and places of the mission’s Southeast Asian context that satisfied the curiosity of readers.

In addition to publishing its own newspaper, the Malaysia Mission worked to place articles about itself in other newspapers. The mission assigned official correspondents for a variety of Methodist and other Christian newspapers around the world. The list of newspapers includes the various Christian Advocates published by the MEC in the United States; German, Swedish, and Norwegian-Danish language MEC papers in the United States; Methodist mission magazines; non-Methodist papers in the United States concerned with mission; British Methodist and other British Christian newspapers; and Christian newspapers in India, Germany, China, Ceylon, Switzerland, and Sweden.[53] By 1910, the mission was corresponding with twenty-five foreign papers.[54] Some of the above-mentioned papers gave the mission extensive treatment. For years, the May edition of World-Wide Missions paid particular attention to work in Malaysia. The Heathen Woman’s Friend helped promote Malaysia as the monthly mission topic for study in all societies of the WFMS in May 1894.

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