The senior class at JP Catholic is currently in the pre-production stage of their senior project: a feature film, entitled Red Line, about the survivors of a subway crash who are stuck in the Metro tunnel with a bomb – and, as they soon suspect, the bomber. The students often ask me how to get Christian investors excited about investing in Red Line. The subtext of their question is that Christian investors are only interested in films about Jesus or a saint or abortion – and Red Line is not about any of those things. They’re often right about these investors, and therein lies the problem.
Christians who care about culture and media tend to get rather excited about films like Bella, Fireproof, and – of course – The Passion (more on this in a later post). That’s not a bad thing. But it isn’t my thing, and here’s why. Too often as Christians in media, we neglect an essential question: who is this film for?
Many of us get really excited about the New Evangelization – as we should – but too many times we forget that not every audience is ready to hear all that what we have to say. We get so excited about films that show people or ideas we think the world needs, but then we find ourselves making films that only people who already agree with us will watch. Certainly, these films have a place, but I don’t think that’s what the New Evangelization is primarily about.
The crux of the problem is often a failure to appreciate who the audience is. Communication requires both a speaker and a listener – it’s not communication if you’re just talking to yourself. So if we are called to communicate truth to our audience, we better make sure there’s an audience listening. Evangelization is not about communicating to an audience who already knows the truth – it’s about reaching those who’ve never heard it.
Jesus didn’t spend his time converting the scribes and the Pharisees. He addressed his sermons to the crowds, the common, everyday people – sinners, like us, desperately thirsting for truth. In the same way, we can’t be caught up in only delivering truth to devout Christians. Rather, we should focus on offering truth to those who probably don’t even realize that they’re missing it.
St. Paul, addressing the Athenians, shows us that we need to find common ground with our audience before they can bear the whole truth (see Acts 17:22-31). He boldly proclaimed the truth, but he didn’t start with Jesus or the story of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, or how sinful and terrible the Athenians’ idolatry was. He even quotes non-Scriptural, Greek poetry. The Athenians weren’t ready for the whole truth – St. Paul had to start somewhere basic, and he had to speak in their terms. This historical event offers us great insight into how we should communicate in the New Evangelization.
So if we as Christians are really serious about creating mass media for the New Evangelization, we need an effective way to analyze who our audience is and how best to approach them. Here’s a simple summary of my audience landscape idea that we will develop in the next several posts:
Audiences can be segmented into four broad categories: Uninterested, Religious in Name Only (RINO), Active Seekers, and Faithful. Each category represents a specific worldview, and any media approach should reflect the differences. I think we can all agree that someone who is uninterested in religion needs to hear – and is open to hearing – a very different message than a faithful daily communicant.
Before we get too far analyzing the differences, we should lay some ground rules. There are a handful of precepts that should be integrated into all media (good, true and beautiful), no matter which audience we’re aiming at. They are best summarized in the following statement adapted from Benedict Ashley, OP: A work of fine art should provide the audience a recreative form of contemplation.
Next week we will look at the broad category I describe as uninterested.
