Good Media… Evil Media:  A Matter of Choice
     Sr. Debbie S. Ponsaran

I.    Don Bosco and Media

St. John Bosco made use of the available media of his time.  He wrote on varied areas such as religion, apologetics, arithmetic, the Bible, and Church History.  His publications were well-read; for instance, The Companion of Youth, a book of prayers which reached six million copies in 1884.  He not only wrote books and other reading materials but he also established his own printing press.

Don Bosco also made use of other forms of media of his time such as theatrical plays, music, and songs.  The theatricals he presented during his time were varied:  historical and sacred dramas, operetas, melodramas, anthologies chosen from the lyrical theatre and romances, (Braido, 1989, p.153).  In Don Bosco’s mind, these are means by which the young are both entertained as well as taught lessons in values and morals, (ibid, p.154).

Like the theatrical plays, music and songs formed part of the tradition in Don Bosco’s educative method.  The rationale behind this is connected with his idea of education through joy and a harmonizing atmosphere that prevents sin (ibid, p.154-155).  Music is a means to attract the young.  When they are engaged in music, they find joy and are productively busy, thus, far from the possibility of moral dangers.  The discipline of the practice of songs and music also help the young to be cultured, transcended, and become better persons. 

Don Bosco knew that media attract young people and that these should be used to the advantage of education.  He knew very well that when values and morals are integrated in these media forms, these would produce a lot of good as well as entertain the young.  An educative intervention that entertains is easily welcomed and assimilated in the mind of the young. 

II.   Positive Use and Effects of Media on Salesian Spirituality

The Catholic Church welcomes the progress and development in media and communication. It considers one of its duties to announce the Good News of salvation also with the help of the media of social communication (Inter Mirifica, 1964, no. 3). The following are some ways by which media are used to promote values:

1. Using Film Spirituality to Deepen Values and Christian Doctrines

In teaching a particular Christian message, viewing of a suitable film may be used to reinforce the message. For example, in teaching love and good-heartedness, the film “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” may be viewed and analyzed in a group discussion. A film could be assessed in two aspects: technical and moral. The spiritual message could be deduced from the moral assessment of the film. The spirituality of a film is not something obviously religious in nature. It is a message from the film that could generate transcendent values.

2. Intellectual Advancement and Development of Reason Using Media with Good Contents

Educational programs (e.g. National Geographic, Sineskwela), news programs (e.g. ANC news, CNN, etc. except the tabloid type), talk shows (on socio-political issues), newspapers (broadsheets, not tabloids) and good magazines (e.g. Newsweek, Readers Digest), award-winning films, etc. have good impact on the development of the intellect and therefore their use must be encouraged. These types of media are highly effective in supplementing formal education in school, hence as intellect is trained to think critically, the capacity to reason is enhanced.

3. The Internet as Easy, Fast, Low-cost, and Immense Source of Knowledge and Information

One blessing of information technology is the internet which makes information easily accessible at low cost. With the advent of the internet, access to knowledge and information is democratized. However, it should be noted that the internet contains all types of information from sacred to profane, from scholarly to rubbish, from elegant to filthy; therefore, discretion is recommended when surfing the net.

4. Using Media for Education and Evangelization

The different forms of media and communication technology could also be used for education and evangelization --- e.g. magazines for religious articles, radio for religious programs, computer for powerpoint lectures, religious music on CDs, etc.The traditional lecture with chalk and board as visual aid will no longer hold the attention of the electronic-generation. Occasional multi-media teaching can enhance classroom teaching and buoy up enthusiasm of the learners.

5. Media and communication technology are not deterrent in the assimilation of Salesian Spirituality when used moderately

Media in itself is not bad but just like anything when taken in excess, reverses its original good nature.The moderate use of media and communication technology may even enhance the assimilation of Salesian Spirituality when these are used as tools in teaching.

III.   The Negative Effects of Heavy Media Use on Salesian Spirituality

Heavy exposure to media has a negative effect on the assimilation of an element in the Salesian Spirituality which is the “capacity for sacrifice for the sake of a higher value". The following are some of the reasons:

1. Media and communication technology are human inventions that make life comfortable, thus decreasing man’s capacity for sacrifice.

A century ago, there were few gadgets to make life easy. People are used to patient waiting for the snail mail; today, people send and receive information in a few seconds with the mobile phone. Students used to sweat researches in libraries; today, type a single word on Google and you get millions of information in a few seconds. Easy life just like hard life is a habit internalized. Experiences of a hard life, makes one steadfast amidst difficult challenges.

2. Heavy viewing of entertainment shows in television creates an easy-going attitude and limits the drive to strive hard in life.

Entertainment shows include all shows that entertain the viewers (e.g. variety show, telenovelas, etc.). Heavy viewing is approximately at least 5 hours of viewing everyday for a period of time which is not less than 5 years consecutively. This constant heavy exposure to entertainment creates in the person an easy-going attitude that is easily satisfied with a “good enough” outcome while forgoing the possibility of a better result in avoidance of difficulty.

3. Media often present love as eros (romantic love) and rarely as agape (oblative and selfless love) thus under-developing the capacity for self-sacrificing love.

Just a quick and casual examination of how love is portrayed in any form of media, we get all forms and angles of romantic love. Romantic love is not bad. It is a necessary ingredient in married life and in procreation. But an over emphasis on romantic love and rare portrayal of oblative love, is high-impact education especially to the young. Unconsciously, they get the concept that romantic love is everything and is the only source of bliss and fulfillment. The hard truth is, romantic love will not survive without oblative love.

4. Physical beauty, pleasure, and material well-being are glamorized in media particularly in advertisements, consequently downplaying the place of the transcendent in man’s life.

Physical beauty, pleasure, and material well-being are good when taken in reasonable doses.But when these things are glamorized in media, there is a subtle over-emphasis on the importance these play in a person’s life.These things, which belong to the physical level, become empowered to depose transcendence.

5. The unabated accelerating communication through the latest technology lowers man’s tolerance for waiting.

Development in communication technology unabatedly pursues speeding up of transfer of information: internet, e-mail, webcam, mobile phone, PDA, etc. This has a lot of advantages in life as well as disadvantages, for instance, in the development of our patience in waitingCharacter and spiritual formation take time and entail a lot of patience with oneself; formation is not an instant job.

Heavy media exposure has a negative effect on an element of Salesian Spirituality, namely the “family spirit, which is characterized by a sense of belonging, openness, spontaneity, and generosity.” The following are some of the reasons:

1. Technology is a form of acceleration of human activities which provides momentum for further separation and specialization of action (McLuhan, 1964, p.89)

The key word in the above statement is momentum for further separation. This is contrary to the values fostered by the family spirit of Salesian Spirituality. Fifty years ago, few families owned television sets. The after supper activity consisted of story-telling, family Rosary, and bed-time stories which all enhanced the bonding and communication among the family members, thus family spirit was strong.

Other forms of impersonal communication came to the fore: email, chat, texting, etc. Communications of these types are prone to deceptions for the fun of it: faking one’s identity in friendster, chatting and texting, getting used to a habit of deleting text and email from friends when they are considered a “bore” thus, translated in other realities, becomes deleting “people” or signing when they talk. Heavy use of impersonal communications hinders enhancement of developing personal rapport that is so central to the family spirit.

2. Television decreases vigilance, induces passivity and trance-like fixation (www.epas.utoronto.ca/mcluhan-studies, October 2006).

The statement above is true only for heavy television viewing. Occasional viewing and light viewing may have short term or light effect. Examine one’s behavior when watching television. The combination of overwhelming images and high-impact sounds produce vicarious experience on the part of the viewer, as though the viewer is involved in what is taking place on the television or film. This participation demands so much attention that the viewer seems to be in a mild trance and becomes unaware of the surroundings outside the television or film, decreasing vigilance and inducing passivity. If this behavior is consistently repeated, for instance, 5 hours daily for long years, it would develop into a disposition or a habit of passivity and oblivion of the surroundings when they do not give stimuli as high-impact as those of the television. Family spirit is a spontaneous, aware, alive, active participation in community life. The disposition developed through heavy television viewing is exactly the opposite.

3. Priming effects for violence and anti-social behavior in media inhibits family spirit.

Constant heavy exposure to these anti-social behaviors prepares them for real life anti-social behavior as to develop tolerance for them which is also contrary to the family spirit. Examples of these anti-social behaviors which may be tolerated indiscreetly are: backbiting, lack of sensitivity to the needs of others, individualism, insubordination, indifference , etc.

Heavy media exposure has negative effect on the assimilation of an element of the Salesian Spirituality which is the “capacity to make choices and decisions that are motivated by sound judgment and discernment.”  The following are some of the reasons:

1. The information overload brings overwhelming choices, thereby confusing man’s capacity to make choices and decisions.

Suppose we find 10 colors of a particular shirt available at the mall: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink, peach, lavender, white, and black. The probability that one color would be chosen is 10%. A young woman thinking of trying religious life is faced with the same dilemma which sometimes results in a stalemate. If she succeeds to decide and is now a formand, the chances of sticking to the initial decision is still affected by the same reality: there are overwhelming choices --- career, higher studies, married life, single-blessedness, lay volunteer, etc. The electronic generation is saturated with the information overload and the great number of choices retards arrival at a decision. Compare how many television and cable channels we have now with that of 20 years ago. When you want to listen to music, how many possibilities are there --- radio, ipod, cassette tape, CD player, mp3, mp4, music video? How many magazines and newspapers are in circulation? How many millions of information will a search engine provide for a single word?

2. Television changes the form of information from rationalistic to emotive which, in turn, makes viewers juvenile adults (Griffin and Park, 2006, p.22 ).

Television gives information in emotive form. Observe your own play of emotions while watching television. The underdevelopment of the rational mind produces a dangerous imbalance:a TV generation ruled by emotions rather than the intellect. A paramount characteristic of growth in maturity from juvenile to adulthood is the capacity for rational decisions behavior.If this case continues, we would see more and more cases of juvenile adults, adults in age but juvenile still in maturity. What is the implication now to formation in Salesian Spirituality? In this type of reality, her capacity to make decision from sound judgment and discernment would be adversely affected.

3. Television causes lack of organization in thoughts and non-selective associations and inhibits purposeful behavior (www.epas.utoronto.ca/mcluhan-studies, October 2006).

When one reads a story book, the reader organizes the setting, the emotional climate, the characters, etc. as to create a movie in one’s imagination. This is not so with television viewing where everything is ready for the viewer and leaves little space for mental work. Since, everything is fed in television viewing, the viewer becomes passive and tends to accept the images non-selectively. When this pattern is reinforced over time, this inhibits purposeful behavior, meaning, a person may go about daily life with some actions that are non-purposeful, examples of which: walking as though under the moonlight during work time, lagging in completing any task because of moments of staring blankly or doing unnecessary movements, beating around the bush instead of performing right away the duties of the moment, etc.

4. Most forms of media over-emphasize the use of the right brain (the emotional side), consequently minimizing the use of the left brain (the thinking side).

There is a serious problem when the use of the left brain is downplayed (the ideal of course is to develop both sides of the brain). People’s judgment would be less based on reason and more conditioned by emotions. Certain forms of organizational abilities, logical and critical thinking, hard science and mathematics, etc. may not be thoroughly learned using right brain techniques. When daily living is anchored more on the emotional side of the brain, how volatile and unpredictable life would be!

Heavy use of mobile phone and telephone has moderate negative effects on the assimilation of Salesian Spirituality. The following are some interpretations:

1.Telephone/mobile phone decentralizes the production of information and democratizes formation of opinions and ended relations of dominance in communication relations (Stevenson, 2002).

The mobile phone/telephone allows an equal exchange of information coming from both parties and with other parties as many as one uses this gadget, thereby decentralizes information, not coming from one but from several sources. The form of exchange of opinions is democratic, which means, both parties freely express their mind. This form of communication relations does not encourage domination by one party because the other party has equal opportunity to express his opinion. This situation is best understood when differentiated with the communication relations fostered between the reader and the book. The book holds dominance over the reader by virtue of its credibility and acts as centralized source of information. Let us compare a 50-year-old lay teacher in a Salesian school who comes from a book generation and a high school student who is a heavy cell phone user. The teacher unconsciously transfers the same communication relation with the Sisters, thereby she is more docile in accepting information in the assimilation of Salesian Spirituality. On the other hand, the girl, also unconsciously, has more tendency to question, express personal opinion, or challenge the proposals given to her by the Sisters/teachers with regard to the assimilation of Salesian Spirituality or she might simply unconsciously “delete” (as in deleting sms), the inputs she receives from her formators.

2. Telephone/mobile phone changes the way we relate to our own psychosomatic unity and how we relate with others because it appears we overcome physical limitations and the human body becomes obsolete. (www.epas.utoronto.ca/mcluhan-studies, October 2006).

The psychosomatic unity is the oneness between mind and body, that is, if I am in front of you talking with you now in person, I am sharing with you a piece of my mind and my body is present at the same time. In the case of the telephone/mobile phone, I am talking with somebody on the line, the other party is sharing with me a piece of her mind but her physical body is disconnected because it is kilometers away from me. The human body appears to become obsolete. This is one characteristic of virtual reality. Heavy use of mobile phone/telephone therefore adds to tolerance to virtual reality which in turn, confuses one’s assessment of truth and reality. If truth or reality is confused with what is virtual and false, how could a Spirituality be genuinely lived?

IV.   Conclusions

Media exposure is a deterrent in the assimilation of Salesian Spirituality but only if media exposure is high. High media exposure is approximately at least 15 hours daily (Example: television/film viewing – 4 hours, internet/email – 2 hours, listening to music on radio/CD player/ ipod – 6 hours, texting/calls – 3 hours, a total of 15 hours. Note that 2 or 3 media gadgets are ordinarily used simultaneously). Young people today could register a range from 1 hour to 27 hours per day media use. The 27 hours/day media use is possible because 2 or 3 media gadgets are used simultaneously, e.g. texting while listening to music on the radio, watching television while chatting on the net.

Of the 3 core values (Reason, Religion, and Kindness) in Salesian Spirituality, it is Religion which is most negatively affected by high media exposure. This is easily explained by the fact that media in general deals with the physical level of existence while the core value “Religion” deals with spiritual realities, the particular element of which is, “capacity for sacrifice for the sake of a higher value”, which is the most negatively affected by media exposure. Next is Reason but which has still relatively low proportion. Yet, at the rate that media is taking over the life of the people, it is highly probable that both Religion and Reason will be negatively affected by high media exposure in the near future.

The good news is, the negative effects of media on the assimilation of Salesian Spirituality are all revocable over time of formation!