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Communications Resolution


From owner-umethnews@ecunet.org
Date 26 Nov 1996 17:11:54

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3309 notes).

Note 3305 by UMNS on Nov. 26, 1996 at 15:51 Eastern (4958 characters).

SEARCH: resolution, network, UMAC, communications, cable,
television
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the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
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CONTACT: Linda Green                             591(10-71B){3305}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             Nov. 26, 1996

Communicators express dissatisfaction
with proposed cable TV news program

     
     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- Action was taken here Nov. 23 by members
of the United Methodist Association of Communicators (UMAC) asking
United Methodist Communications to rethink its plans for a new
weekly television news program for the Odyssey Cable Network.
     A motion introduced by the Rev. Ken Horne, Charlotte, N.C.,
commends UMCom for its leadership in developing programs for
public media and for supporting the concept of partnership with
annual conferences. However it "urgently" requested that the
communications agency consider using other electronic media than
the Odyssey network to tell the church's story.
     The action taken by UMAC stems from a resolution adopted by
the Southeastern Jurisdiction Association of Communicators on Nov.
8. The resolution, circulated here, recommends that the $1.4
million budgeted for "News Odyssey", be spent instead on spot
advertisements that can be placed on a variety of commercial and
cable channels.
      UMAC members also requested that UMCom take to the General
Conference in 2000 a proposal for funding a major public media
communications effort to reach the unchurched.
     The governing body of UMCom has approved the production of
39, 30-minute "News Odyssey" programs for the network, formerly
known as the Faith and Values Network.  A pilot of the program was
shown to the communicators here.
     According to Horne, the Southeastern communicators were
"surprised" at the direction of the General Commission on
Communications and questioned whether the television show would
provide a strong United Methodist presence in broadcast media.  
     During the past two years, approximately eight annual
conferences in the nine-state Southeastern jurisdiction have
participated in a multi-year media campaign and placed television
and radio spots aimed at the unchurched. 
     The Southeastern Jurisdiction awarded $50,000 in 1995 and
1996 to the jurisdictional association of communicators for spot
advertisement and the money was distributed to the annual
conferences as grants for media placement.
     Cathy Farmer, communications staff member of the Memphis
Conference, expressed doubt that a show on the Odyssey network
would reach the unchurched. "I think we'll be talking to the choir
members," she said.
     The resolution approved by the Southeastern communicators
said the show's cable location "is not recognized as the most
effective means of reaching the unchurched and marginalized."  
     To be launched in February, News Odyssey would not explicitly
promote the United Methodist Church, but would serve a larger
religious community and society by showing how religion affects
and is affected by newsworthy issues, said Wil Bane, UMCom's
director of public media.
     News Odyssey is acknowledged by UMCom as a departure from
what has been done in the past, according to Bane. "We are trying
to produce programming that attracts viewers who have no
association with an organized church and who get their information
and form their values primarily from television. It is a step
forward to use news events to help explore religious and faith
issues, thus enabling the church to be part of the public moral
discourse."
     Earlier the Rev. Thomas Boomershine, professor of New
Testament at United Methodist-related United Theological Seminary,
Dayton, Ohio, told the UMAC members that only those churches that
take seriously the electronic culture in which they live will
survive and grow.
     He said the church's print-oriented communications system was
developed for a literate culture that is declining. The church
must recover its narrative story telling tradition, which
communicated the faith of the ancient Jews and Christians. Unless
the United Methodist Church changes the way it communicates the
gospel, church membership will continue to decline, he warned.
     Contrasting the literate culture of the church to the largely
electronic culture of the general population, Boomershine said the
present electronic communications revolution is the "largest
change since the development of writing."
     Another speaker, Kofi Asiedu Ofori, communications official
with the United Church of Christ here, and a communications
lobbyist, presented UMAC members with an overview of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.
     He urged the communicators to lobby the video industry to
adopt a rating system that treats violence, language and sex
separately.

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