| "To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization." - Bertrand Russell This book was written by five professors from Calvin College who teach in the following disciplines: communication arts and sciences, English, history, music, and philosophy. I picked it up after listening to a tape by Howard Hendricks from Dallas Theological Seminary, who gave it a fabulous recommendation. After reading it, I would have to do the same. This book gives it's own statement of purpose better than I would be able to - "In short, our thesis is that youth and the electronic media today are dependent upon each other. The media need the youth market, as it is called, for their own economic survival. Youth, in turn, need the media for guidance and nurture in a society where other social institutions, such as the family and the school, do not shape the youth culture as powerfully as they once did" (11,12). This book is now ten years old and it is outdated by some standards, but it's only ignorant in naming the newest forms of the influence it speaks so perceptively about. The focus of this book is on the critical evaluation of the music industry, the music television industry (MTV), the film industry and the impact they have on the teen population. It's chapters plod much deeper into these issues than I'm able to do here without opening a can of worms, but their insight is invaluable. Being twenty-five years old, I learned as much about myself and the influence of the media on my own life as I did about the media itself. This book suggests that we have today is a "generation gap" that has been created by the media. Youth have been isolated from the more traditional worlds of previous generations, their parents included. The promise of the media is that of intimacy, identity, meaning and guidance, but the teens pay a price. Today's youth have a greater feeling of disillusionment, boredom, fatigue, addiction, abuse, narcissism and suicide than ever before. Cultural distinctions have been blurred and distant images have taken the place of intimate relationships. The youth today have a culture all their own. The media tells them what music rocks, what clothes look good, what to say to their girlfriend/boyfriend and what are good goals to shoot for in life. However, the media must evolve at a breakneck pace to keep up with teenagers because teens are fickle. The media must constantly reflect the youth culture in order to continue upholding it. It is a reciprocal relationship that pours gasoline on the fire of our consumer driven culture. Teens buy more music and watch more movies than the rest of the population combined even though they only comprise about one-fifth of the population. Why? Largely because their emotions are unstable on the journey from childhood to adulthood and our consumerist society has thought it good to capitalize on the opportunity to make a buck. I found this book to be a great level-headed approach toward the media from a Christian perspective. Obviously film, music and other forms of electronic media have value if used correctly and intelligently. We must make the effort to separate the wheat from the chaff using discernment and analyze the content, form and function of popular art so we can truly benefit from it in it's rightful context. Instead of bashing what teens place great value in, this book suggests asking the question, "What is it in the media that tries to meet the legitimate needs in teens?". Kids have real needs, and the better we understand them and the better we understand how the media tries to meet those needs, the better we will be able to reach and serve the teens. |
