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Religion, Television and the
Information Superhighway
BIOGRAPHIES AND STATEMENTS
All participants were asked to send their bios and invited
to submit statements giving their views of contemporary
and future relationships between western commercial
television and spiritual and religious values. Nearly
all responded, expressing deeply felt convictions. The
statements represent a brief, unique treasury of eastern
and western philosophies of life, secular and religious,
which not only laid the foundation for the conference
dialog but constitute a collection of rewarding insights
of intrinsic interest in themselves. We include them
here.
SWAMI AGNIVESH
paperback $10.00
55-minute video $10.00
This 98-page report describes a conference
held at The Annenberg School for Communication, University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia in April 1994. Fifteen
panelists from around the world came together to discuss
the effect of commercial consumer-oriented television
on the major world religions and the possibilities which
the information superhighway hold for the future. They
were joined by another fifteen invited guests to expand
the dialogue. The conference grew out of the conviction
that the worlds of media leaders and religion tend to
be totally separate, yet each could learn and benefit
from an ongoing conversation. Representatives from communication
schools in different parts of the world comprised a
third element of the conference since they provide training
and influence future media leaders.
The report consists of a brief summary
of the conference and recommendations for action. The
bulk of the report is devoted to statements written
prior to the conference by participants giving their
views of contemporary and future relationships between
western commercial television and spiritual and religious
values.
Conference Participants
PANELISTS
Religion
Swami Agnivesh, Chairperson, United Nations Trust Fund
on Contemporary Forms of Slavery; General Secretary,
Arya Samaj, an activist Hindu reform movement, New Delhi,
India - Hinduism
Dr. Azizah Y. al-Hibri, Associate Professor of Law,
The T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond,
Richmond, VA - Islam
Rabbi Michael Paley, Chaplain, Columbia University,
New York, NY - Judaism
Sulak Sivaraksa, Founder, International Network of Engaged
Buddhists, Bangkok, Thailand - Buddhism
Dr. Michael Traber, Director of Studies and Publications,
World Association for Christian Communication, London,
England - Christianity
Communication Schools
Dr. James Carey, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia
University, New York, NY
Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dean, The Annenberg School
for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
PA
Dr. Jose Marques de
Melo, School of Communications and Arts, Comparative
Journalism Research Center, University of Sao Paulo,
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dr. William Melody, Director, Centre for International
Research on Communication and Information Technologies,
Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi, Director, Centre for
Mass Communication Research, University of Leicester,
Leicester, England
Television
Judith R. James, Producer, Dreyfuss-James Productions,
Warner/Hollywood Studios, West Hollywood, CA
Norman Lear, Producer, Act III Communications, Los Angeles,
CA
J. Patrick Michaels, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Communications
Equity Associates, Tampa, FL
Jeffrey C. Reiss, Chairman and CEO, Reiss Media Enterprises,
Denver, CO
John Sie, Chairman and CEO, Encore Entertainment, Denver,
CO
INVITED GUESTS
St. Clair Bourne, Writer, Producer, Director, The Chamba
Organization, New York, NY
Diana L. Eck, Professor, Comparative Religion and Indian
Studies, and Director, Pluralism Project, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA
George Dessart, Center for the Study of World Television,
New York, NY
Rev. George Exoo, Religion Critic, WQED-FM, Pittsburgh,
PA
William Fore, former Executive Director, Broadcasting
and Film Commission, National Council of Churches, Madison,
CT
Gregor Goethals, Professor, Art History, Rhode Island
School of Design, Providence, RI
Riffat Hassan, Professor, Religious Studies, University
of Louisville, Louisville, KY
Kathryn C. Montgomery, Co-Founder and President, Center
for Media Education, Washington, DC
David Nostbakken, Executive Director, International
Broadcast Development, IDRC, Ottawa, Canada
Charles Oliver, Telecommunications Attorney, Cohn and
Marks, Washington, DC
Yale Roe, Chairman, Yale Roe Films, New York, NY
Susan Rook, Co-Anchor, CNN News, Atlanta, GA
Donald Shriver, President Emeritus, Union Theological
Seminary; Senior Fellow, Freedom Forum, New York, NY
Tran Van Dinh, Emeritus Professor, Communications and
Political Science, Temple University; now living in
Washington, DC
Jeff Weber, Executive Vice President, Programming and
Operations Director, Faith and Values Network (VISN),
New York, NY
BIOGRAPHIES
AND STATEMENTS
All participants were asked to send their bios and invited
to submit statements giving their views of contemporary
and future relationships between western commercial
television and spiritual and religious values. Nearly
all responded, expressing deeply felt convictions. The
statements represent a brief, unique treasury of eastern
and western philosophies of life, secular and religious,
which not only laid the foundation for the conference
dialog but constitute a collection of rewarding insights
of intrinsic interest in themselves. We include them
here.
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JOSE
MARQUES DE MELO
Dr. Jose Marques de Melo was born in the town of Palmiera
dos Indios, state of Alagoas, Brazil, on June 15, 1943,
and was educated in the heart of a Christian Catholic
family. He first studied in public and private schools
in his home state and completed secondary education
in the American Baptist College in Recife, state of
Pernambuco, where he earned a B.S. in Law and Social
Sciences and a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication.
He continued his graduate studies in the state of Sao
Paulo, where he received a Ph.D. in Mass Communication,
followed by postdoctoral studies at the universities
of Wisconsin (USA) and Madrid (Spain).
He
began his academic career as Journalism Assistant Teacher
at the Catholic University of Pernambuco (1966). He
also worked as Professor at the Catholic University
of Sao Paulo, Methodist University of Sao Paulo, State
University of Sao Paulo, and lectured in the foreign
universities of Caracas (Venezuela), Iberoamerica and
Colima (Mexico), Barcelona (Spain), Grenoble and Bordeaux
(France), Texas and Michigan (USA) and Victoria (Australia).
He has occupied top positions in the Brazilian educational
system: Dean of the College of Communications and Arts
of the State University of Sao Paulo, President of the
National Committee for Communication Education, Member
of the Board of the National Council for Science and
Technology, President of the Brazilian Christian Union
of Social Communication and Founder of the Brazilian
Association for Mass Communication Research.
At the international level, he acted as past President
of the Latin American Association for Communication
Research and present Vice-President of the International
Association for Mass Communication Research. He has
written 16 books and edited 30 readings, besides writing
numerous articles for national and international journals.
Since he was 15 he has been a professional journalist,
writing articles regularly published by national and
local newspapers in Brazil and specialized magazines
in Latin America.
Religion and Television in Latin America
Since the early fifties, when pioneer television channels
started to operate in Brazil and Mexico, the relationship
between institutional religion and commercial television
has been ambiguous, reflecting the hegemonic policy
of the Catholic Church, despite the plurality of religions
throughout the continent including Afro-Latin American
groups.
At
first an attitude of suspicion prevailed peculiar to
those times before the Vatican Concilium II. Bishops,
priests and nuns refused the spirit of the new technologies.
But they soon learned that telecommunications could
play an important role in evangelical messages, especially
in societies rapidly urbanized, where people were experiencing
massive processes of migration, replacing their traditional
cultural values with modern social behavior.
On the one hand they tried to occupy all spaces given
to reproductive spirituality. But on the other hand
they coexisted with a global structure led by amoral
convictions.
This ambiguity is reproduced in the heart of the communication
schools (including those supported by the Christian
universities). They provide a kind of education for
their students, which is characterized by professional
legitimized knowledge, but isolating the question of
values in the discipline of ethics. It means that discussion
about social responsibility is a kind of conscientious
refreshment.
The immediate result is the near impotence faced by
new mass communicators inside the cultural industries.
They struggle between two tendencies: the owners' "profit
obsession" and the unions' "political correctness."
There is very little opportunity to think about public
interest, citizenship and morality. Sometimes these
subjects are considered when they serve merely to reinforce
arguments used by entrepreneurs or political leaders
in their occasional campaigns.
It is important to understand that Latin American is
still a region where democracy, social justice and economic
equality have only become stronger in recent years.
Mass communication has been a tool in the hands of state
and private oligarchies. Television was originally a
way to reproduce elite visions, the majority generated
abroad. But as fast as it was converted to the rules
of the mass market, many signs of the national popular
culture were incorporated in almost all countries. It
is a mechanism called mestizaje (melting point) where
tradition and modernity, national and transnational,
cult and rustic, are creatively mixed.
Because of this change, TV is really acting as an alternative
school for extended populations, mainly illiterate people
or young citizens early excluded from formal school.
It increases the responsibility of communication scholars
in order to educate more effectively the professionals
who will perform the tasks of collective education for
the next century. It challenges the attitude of religious
leaders who should develop up-to-date feelings to avoid
cultural mistakes as, for example, between morality
and moralism. It also means an ethical revolution in
the mass media business just to understand that the
broadcasters' main job on their communication channels
is to help our people to overcome poverty, becoming
consumers of goods and services that today are enjoyed
by a small contingent of the privileged.
In this struggle for survival, spiritual messages delivered
through television in Latin America should not avoid
the daily problems of real existence. Entertainment
programs, like serial fiction, represent a space to
dream and to cultivate fantasies but also allow many
viewers to recognize their cultural identities. This
socializing process affords psychological compensations
for human beings marginalized from "western consumerism."
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