The Family and Mass Media The Challenges of the Mass Media in building a community of persons

It has been said many times that media is the wildest experiment ever-unleashed on mortal man. True enough, it is a powerful educational force in our society today. There is really no aspect in our life that has not been affected by media. Our thoughts, our words, what we say and how we say them, our lifestyle, our preferences, beliefs and ideas, what we are, have been shaped by media. Maybe some of us are not even aware of this, but it is a reality that we cannot ignore. We are all products of the so-called media generation.

Mass media is but a means of communication. And when we speak of communication, we speak of communion, which leads to community.

The Holy Trinity is the model and source of communion. And this profound communion and communication that transpires between the three Divine Persons is the root of all human communication.

If we analyze the situation of the modern family nowadays and the role the mass media play in shaping the basic unit of our society, we can see how media have really entrenched itself deeply into the life of the family.

The children of the 21st century have been dubbed as the children of the media generation. Television, computers, movies, video games, comics, and popular music are part and parcel of the lives of the young today. Today’s youth are multi-sensorial. They study with the textbook in one hand while the other one holds the remote of the TV or VCD. They study with their Walkman on drumming their fingers to the beat of the music. Young people today, would not ride a jeepney that has no radio or stereo in it. Patrons of video game shops are young people. They like the noise, the music, and the vibration.

So much changes have happened in the structure of our family life especially towards the end of this century. Before the family consisted only of the parents and the children and for some maybe a set of grandparents, or an uncle or a cousin. Now it is no longer so. There is an added family member in every household today that also oftentimes acts as surrogate parent to the children especially in the absence of the real parents. Television, the big medium, also serves as the “yaya”, the pacifier, the entertainer, the teacher, the family altar, etc. The actors and actresses, the announcers, the commentators have become for us an authority figure to believe and to follow.

It is important that children be guided in their use of the media especially television. I know of some families who set a specific time for viewing TV, and parents make sure that one of them, if both cannot be present, at least should be watching with the children to be able to explain to them the meaning behind the image. The children cannot see the difference between the negative and positive. They have the tendency to accept everything at face value. This is the danger when they are exposed to too much violence on TV. Cartoons are the most common programs that children watch. But there are cartoons that are too violent for comfort. When children clap gleefully on a killing scene, something is wrong there. Evidently, the children cannot distinguish between what is right and wrong.

Another important aspect of television programming that our children need to be guided to is the understanding of commercials. Advertisements are often presented positively and appealingly although they have an underlying negative value. Television is very powerful. It is very sensorial. It affects all our senses. That is why pizza on TV tastes more wonderfully than the real pizza. The hotdog on TV is juicier and tender than the hotdog we cook at home.

Children are the target audience of the multi-million advertising industry not only here in the Philippines but around the world. So many advertising materials especially on TV are addressed to children. Children are the best consumers. Even if they do not have the money, they have the power to ask their parents. And parents, not wishing to offend their children, or not wanting their children to be left behind by their peers would give in to their wishes. This is part of the strategy of the advertising industry. When they create a concept or idea to advertise some products, they would think first of the children, then they would create another concept for the adolescents and the adults until the whole family is targeted. Nobody is left out in the process.

Is television bad? It is bad when it is too much, when it is used as a tool to shield us from communicating authentically with other members at home, when we use it indiscriminately and unreflectively. Here I am talking not only of the children’s viewing habits but of adults as well. Unrestricted use of television can be addictive and can create strain if not destroy communication and relationship in the family.

We have to become aware on how the media affect our personal and family life, how they influence the life of the young and how they can manipulate us. This awareness should lead us all to educate ourselves in the use of media. And this media education, I believe, should start in every home. I think it is an ideal thing for a family to cultivate good viewing habits in the children. Select good programs. There are a lot of educational programs on television. Set specific time and date when children can watch television preferably with an adult beside them to explain scenes that need to be explained, especially those that have conflicting values in them. I know of a friend who does exactly this. This friend of mine also encourages her children to give in their views and share their feelings so they could process the experience together. Commend good programs. Be critical of negative ones. This practice will help develop your skills and the children’s as well in being critical in the use of media. We should not let media control us. We should control it by using it in the way it is meant to be.

These are some positive ways of answering the challenges that the modern family faces in the use of media today. Church documents affirm the fact that media are gifts of God. These are primarily invented to facilitate information and communication. Media when used positively, is an effective means for us to foster solidarity within the family and the larger community. It can also strengthen our religious identity and nurture our moral and spiritual life.

We cannot deny the fact that we also get a lot of enjoyment listening to music, watching movies, reading comics and tinkering with the computer. We live in a mass-mediated culture that constantly bombard us with noise and conflicting messages. We are inundated with so much information. In this kind of environment, we can probably ask, is authentic communication (which is a pre-requisite in building up a family and community) possible? Yes, it is. We look up at the Holy Trinity, who is the model of communion and communication. The communicative love that transpires in the Trinity gives us the impetus to generate the same kind of creative and loving communication within our family and community.

Y2K And the Great Jubilee

The coming of the millennium has brought jitters to some people who believe some preposterous ideas such as three-day darkness or end of the world will happen when the year 2000 comes around. Some well-meaning individuals justify this theory by giving as example the millennium bug or Y2K. They claim that the so-called three-day darkness may happen after all if a computer glitch (not necessarily jelly fish) cause power outages and plunge the whole city in total darkness. No wonder why there was a shortage of candles sometime ago.

Banks everywhere and other computer-generated corporations constantly assure (us) the public that they are Y2K ready and we need not fear. Meaning, our money (if we have any) in the bank will remain intact and continue to grow in interest. There is no need to withdraw and get held up in the process. Other basic services will also continue to be rendered to us, so the government entities assure us. Even one simple sari-sari store got the idea of putting up a streamer with bold letters screaming: We are Y2k ready!

The year of the jubilee is a time of joyful celebration and not of fear or useless worrying, Y2K or not. We usually celebrate a twenty-fifth or fiftieth jubilee with meticulous preparation and great aplomb at least outwardly. But this 2000th year of the birth of Jesus is an extraordinary jubilee. Our celebration should not only be focused on the external preparation and activities but greater weight should be given on the spiritual aspect of this great event. We rejoice at the gift of salvation, which Jesus by his coming has gratuitously bestowed upon us. At the same time, we are invited to look deeply into ourselves and heed the call to conversion of heart, personally and as a community.

The Association of the Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines came up with a five-point Jubilee Action Plan as a response to the prophetic challenge of the great jubilee. Two of the five-point action plan is the cancellation of the national debt and the return of ancestral lands belonging to indigenous peoples and the implementation of genuine land reform. These two issues have been gnawing into our social consciousness for already a long, long time. Let us hope those rich countries as well as individual people concerned will finally heed the call of the great jubilee. Great Britain has already promised it will cancel the debts of poor countries. Are there other countries, which will follow suit? Let’s hope so.

Pope John Paul II, in his bull of indiction Incarnationis Mysterium laments the reality of “some nations oppressed by a debt so huge that repayment is practically impossible.” He said that unless effective cooperation between the peoples of every language, race, nationality and religion is achieved, there could never be real progress in the world. The Holy Father further stressed the need “to create a new culture of international solidarity and cooperation, where all – particularly the wealthy nations and the private sector – accept responsibility for an economic model which serves everyone.”