I know there is preaching on television, but that is not my focus here. I was just reading Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman and his interesting perspective on the influence of television.  Allow me to share some snippets and then make a couple of comments for us as preachers.

The print age was the Age of Exposition.  It was replaced by the Age of Show Business. (63) . . . It  introduced irrelevance, impotence, and incoherence — context-free — information reduced to novelty, interest, and curiosity.  News became sensational events.  Information moved quickly but it had little to do with those who received it.  “In a sea of information, there was very little of it to use.” (67) . . . The photograph presents the world as object; language, the world as idea.  (72) . . .  This new language “denied interconnectedness, proceeded without context, argued the irrelevance of history, explained nothing, and offered fascination in place of complexity and coherence. …that played the tune of a new kind of public discourse in America.” (77)  All public understanding is shaped by the biases of television.

Ok, just a few more snippets:

Television has gradually become our culture.”   “The peek-a-boo world it has constructed around us no longer seems even strange.” (79) . . . “We have so thoroughly accepted its definitions of truth, knowledge, and reality that irrelevance seems to us to be filled with import, and incoherence seems eminently sane.” (80) . . . Television speaks in only one persistent voice–the voice of entertainment.  “Television, in other words, is transforming our culture into one vast arena for show business.” (80) . . . The average network shot is 3.5 seconds.  There is always something new to see, devoted entirely to entertainment.  It is now the natural format of all experience and all subject matter is entertaining.  The news is not to be taken seriously.  Several minutes of news should give us many sleepless nights – but newscasters don’t even blink.  Neither do we. (86-7) . . . TV sets the format for all discourse.  Americans exchange images, not ideas, argue with good looks and celebrities, not propositions.  (90-93) . . . Any murder can be erased from our minds by, “Now this….”  (99) . . . “Credibility” refers only to the impression of sincerity.  Nixon was dishonored not because he lied on TV but because he looked like a liar on TV.  (102)

Ok, three comments from me:

1. We should not be intimidated by television. There may be some things we could learn from effective communicators on the TV, but we certainly shouldn’t feel pressured to have a new visual image every 3.5 seconds, or a new subject every 45 seconds!  People can and will concentrate if the communicator can grab and retain attention.  Gimmicks are not the key to this.  Powerpoint certainly doesn’t fulfill any so-called requirement for visual stimulation!

2. We may find people drawn to good preaching exactly because it offers something different, substantial, lasting and inherently valuable when compared to standard fare on TV. Which therefore means we should be neither deliberately poor communicators, nor should we unthinkingly replicate our culture’s way of communicating.

3. We don’t need to come across as anti-cultural and anti-TV, but we do have opportunity to raise questions about the cultural values being pumped into most living rooms. Gracious commentary on culture has immense value to Christians who are often unwittingly over-influenced by the corruptions in the culture.