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PC(USA) missionary to head media organization
03512
November 24, 2003

PC(USA) missionary to head media organization

Dennis Smith rues stampede to 'lowest common denominator'

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - A Presbyterian Church (USA) missionary has been elected
president of the World Association of Christian Communicators/Latin America
(WACCLA).

Dennis Smith was elected last week in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Smith, 52, has worked in Guatemala for 27 years. He coordinates the Pastoral
Program of the Center for Evangelical and Pastoral Studies in Central America
(CEDEPCA) in Guatemala City.

Smith also is president of the Commission for the Verification of Codes of
Conduct in Guatemala, an independent commission that monitors labor
conditions in the apparel and agricultural export industries, notably coffee
and bananas.

"Communication rights, the presence and representation of women in media, and
reflection on theology, communication and culture are the three areas where
we'll be putting our focus for the next four years," Smith said in a
telephone interview from his home.

He said trying to influence commercial media is always a focus.

To that end, Smith will be part of a panel at a three-day United Nations
Summit on the Information Society and the Church that starts on Dec. 10 in
Geneva, Switzerland. His topic is: "The Role of the Commercial Media in
Making the Poor Invisible."

"Our experience of the commercial media is that - despite producers who are
our age, with kids - they get locked into a trap that (media have made) for
themselves: Appealing to the lowest common denominator with violence and
human sexuality. We're trying to work with them to be true to what they know
is best and more ethically sound.

"We also want to affirm the good stuff that is coming out," he said, citing
the new CBS television series, Joan of Arcadia, as evidence that quality work
is still done.

Smith said the media are the principal source of dreams and expectations in
the culture and often create its values. "While we don't have a monopoly on
ethical values as a church," he said, "if the church is not present there,
we're abandoning one of the most important spaces where values and meaning
are created in contemporary culture. And that's irresponsible."

In terms of communication rights, Smith said that poor communities are often
neglected when radio and TV frequencies are doled out to the private sector.
WACCLA is pushing for indigenous populations to gain greater access to
broadcast frequencies, especially in conflict zones such as in Colombia.

Smith's new regional executive committee includes four others: Luciano
Sathler, coordinator of the distance learning program of the Methodist
University in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Alma Montoya, president of the "Grupo
Communicate," a project of community radio stations in Colombia's conflict
zones; Daniel Favaro, the director of communications for the Regional
Ecumenical Center for Assistance and Services and director of the Methodist
journal, The Evangelical Standard; and Claudia Florentin, a journalist who
coordinates the communications of the Waldensian Evangelical Church of the
River Platte.

Smith first became involved with the WACCLA in 1978, when he was an advisor
on communications for the Presbyterian Church of Guatemala, and taught
communications at the seminary there. He was elected to the association's
regional executive committee in 1999.

Smith has written books about religious communications, the impact of the
global economy on Central America, and the growth of Pentecostalism in
Central America and Brazil. He earned a degree in communications from Wheaton
College in Weaton, IL.

He and his wife, Maribel Perez, have two children - Lucas, 11, and Benjamin,
9.

WACC was founded in the 1950s when Christian communicators in Europe and
North America were seeking guidelines for religious broadcasting. The
organization encourages cooperation among Protestant, Orthodox and Roman
Catholic communicators, as well as between people of other faiths and
beliefs.

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