Online Interfaith Media: Odyssey Networks? Journey

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Online Interfaith Media: Odyssey Networks? Journey

Odyssey Networks: Call on Faith by Rev. Eric C. Shafer
Odyssey Networks

> http://www.odysseynetworks.org/

It was 1987 and America was riveted by the

?televangelist? scandals?celebrity TV ministries
collecting millions of dollars in donations that
ended up supporting their own lavish lifestyles.
In response, the leaders of the cable industry
met with major US faith leaders, all determined
to restore the integrity of faith on television.
Together they founded the National Interfaith
Cable Coalition (NICC) and underwrote what would
become its Odyssey Channel, giving the new
interfaith offering carriage on cable systems throughout the United States.

Fast forward to 2011: Today the media is not
plagued by scandal but fueled by it. ?Controversy
sells.? In religion this means an emphasis on
conflict rather than cohesion, strife rather than working together.

> We saw this most clearly last year in the
> controversy surrounding a Muslim-sponsored
> community center in Lower Manhattan. Its
> construction was welcomed by the community and
> media until a set of bloggers and interest groups
> latched onto the story and made it appear
> controversial, bringing with it all sorts of
> attention ? mostly negative ? from the national
> media. Odyssey addressed this controversy and the
> people of faith who favored this community
> addition in a video covering an interfaith rally
> held on September 12th in support of the center.

This is but one example of how Odyssey Networks
has found a new niche as America?s largest
multi-faith coalition, with nearly 100 member
faith groups, faith related organizations and
individuals. We tell the stories of people of
faith working together for the common good,
promoting understanding among people of different
faith traditions or even no faith tradition.

Other stories we have told recently include faith
perspectives to on the death of Osama bin Laden,
World Interfaith Harmony Week, the unprecedented
Peter King hearings on American Muslims, the move
to divide the Sudan into north and south,
Archbishop Timothy Dolan?s visit to
quake-devastated Haiti, and the ?Politics of Hunger.?

Unsurprisingly in this era of ?viral media,?
these reports all first appeared on Odyssey
Networks but then traveled around the Internet to
sites like CNN online, Democracy Now, and the Huffington Post.

Yet not all of our work is ?viral.? We recently
sponsored an in-person national gathering to
foster conversation around the topic of 9/11, the
Conversation We Never Had. And although no longer
a cable television channel, cable television
remains a vital platform for Odyssey. On July 28,
the new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) will air
Odyssey?s Serving Life, the story of a unique
convict-staffed hospice program in at Angola
Penitentiary in Louisiana. In April Odyssey?s
production of The Shunning, based on Beverly
Lewis? best-selling novel, debuted on the
Hallmark Channel earning top ratings and critical acclaim.

And now, instead of a cable television channel,
we have a growing ?channel? for the fast-growing
mobile telephone platform: our Call on Faith
smartphone application. Odyssey has also
increased its presence of Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube and plans to begin a channel on Roku, one
of the new ?over the top? Internet television providers, in 2012.

We like to call these efforts ?Odyssey

Everywhere,? meaning that to tell the stories of
people of faith working for positive change in
the world in 2011 we must use all of the
so-called media ?platforms? available to us and use them well.

Our world has become increasingly multi-media.
Odyssey Networks is working to spearhead
innovation, especially technological innovation,
within the multi-faith movement. As people of
faith with the important overall message of God?s
love for the world to share, we must use all of
the new technological advances to help us share this story.