Powerful people.

I am currently Workplace Support chaplain to Allied Press in Dunedin. They produce the Otago Daily Times, the Star Community paper, various other community papers and have a TV Station linked to them. I met the "top man" in the corner office today. As I talked to him briefly I thought that this man is POWERFUL!

I was talking to another man from another country where there is unrest recently. We were talking about elections, democracy and such things. He is a very clever University graduate and he talked about the wide range in the population of his country. There were rich people, successful corporations and universities. But then there was a large part of the population who were subsistence farmers, fishermen, or very poor people living in very basic conditions. He pointed out that for democracy to work properly, these people, often relatively poorly educated, had to some how become aware of the issues. He said it depended very much on who was informing them.

As I talked to this Media big wig today and as I see the reporters, sub-editors and others doing their job, I recognise that they have a very important part to play in our society. They inform us. Their slant on things can have an incredible impact. The things they report about and the things they leave out can set the tone of our society. They can make or break elections. Professor Andrew Bradstock in his inaugural lecture on Public Theology commented how in New Zealand there is not much very serious public debate about the big issues that face our society. TV tends more to entertain in short sound bites rather than delve deeply into issues. There are few magazines or newspapers (though he thought the local paper was an exception) that really explore deeply the topics they discuss. He felt this was a serious limitation in our national life. Some reporters have told me of the word limits for articles. I realise how difficult and frustrating it must be for them to give full and serious treatment to the issues they write about with relatively small word allowances. I guess too, those limitations are governed by what we, the public are prepared to read and pay for. It is a vicious circle.

Anyway, if you believe in prayer, pray for our media people. They have a big responsibility and are in very powerful positions in our society. I hope they realise their importance and their awesome responsibility.