This is the first part of the multiplex session on Media Messages Matter at the third Lausanne Congress in Cape Town, October 2010. The section on news and entertainment media as a global missiological challenge, with Margunn Dahle and myself, starts at around the 06:30 mark with Nick Pollard’s introduction, but watch Joseph Vijayam’s part first!

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These question are based on those in my book, Focus: The Art and Soul of Cinema. They are intended to help you organise your thinking as you watch a film. As well as helping you in your own thinking about movies, these questions also provide a useful framework for group discussions (in a Culturewatch Group, for example). You can download these questions as a pdf document, as well as the complete set of questions from the book.

First response

1.    How did the film make you feel? What aspects worked well, and which didn’t (think about writing, direction, cinematography, acting, editing and soundtrack)?

2.    To what extent did it fit with your expectations, or did it subvert them in some ways?

Structure

3.    What causes the major turning points in the narrative come?

4.    Does the world of the film work like the real world? If not, what are the differences?

5.    How does the film end? Is everything resolved? How? If not, why not?

Characters

6.    How would you describe the main characters? What are their goals? What problems do they face?

7.    What choices do the characters make? What motivates them? What are the consequences?

8.    What do the main characters learn about themselves, and how do they change?

Meaning

9.    Whose point of view does the camera represent?

10. How is our attention drawn to particular images? How are particular visual elements used as symbols or metaphors?

11. How does the film’s editing contribute to the meaning of the film?

12. How does the film handle the underlying themes (morality, politics, religion, sexuality, happiness, freedom, love, spirituality, identity, etc.)?

13. Are there are religious themes or connections? How is faith treated (if at all)?

Worldviews

14. What is the view of reality? Is there any place for God or other spiritual dimensions to life? Is impersonal fate used as a substitute for God?

15. What is the view of humanity? What does the film say about the nature of human beings? What does the film say about communities and families?

16. How is the image of God within human beings seen in this film? How is human rebellion against God expressed?

17. What is the view of knowledge? How do characters know what is true (experience, logic, intuition or revelation)? How do they make decisions? Where do they find wisdom?

18. What is the view of morality? What does goodness mean? How do characters make moral decisions? What are the characters’ values, and are these the same as the film’s values?

19. What do human beings most need in life? Does the film identify any universal problems confronting human beings? What do humans need in order to flourish? What does it see as the point of life? What substitutes for God are there in the film?

20. What good insights into life are there in the film? What does it get wrong? How might it affect viewers?

Twenty questions to consider when watching a film by Tony Watkins is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You may share and adapt this work for non-commercial use only, but you must attribute the work to Tony Watkins and share any adapted works under the same terms. For other uses, contact Tony Watkins for permission.

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It’s very good to see Lars Dahle joining the blogosphere. Lars is Principal of Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication in Kristiansand, Norway, where I am now an adjunct lecturer. He’s heading up the media and technology stream for Cape Town 2010 (3rd Lausanne Congress). A couple of his early posts have focused on the question of how we engage with the news. He proposes twelve questions to reflect on while watching the news:

We need to actively engage the news. If not, we don’t appreciate the demanding and significant work of the journalists. Nor do we become critically aware of the explicit angles and the underlying perspectives in the news.

I propose the following set of criticial questions when watching, reading or listening to global, regional, national and local news:

• To what extent did the various news stories engage you, interest you and captivate you? Why?
• What themes, issues and conflicts are represented in the selected news stories? Why do you think those have been chosen?
• Which of the stories are highlighted as major news? How and why?
• Which sources and interviewees have been selected in the major news stories, as far as we can tell from the published news? Why do you think those persons have been selected?
• Which perspectives and angles have been chosen in the editorial introductions, the actual interviews and in the graphic presentations? Why do you think these journalistic and editorial decisions have been made?
• Whom do you identify with in the major news stories (if any)? Why?
• Would you describe the major news stories as essential and important? Why? / Why not?
• What kind of essential areas, topics and perspectives are missing in these news stories (if any)? Why? To what extent may this be representative for the news industry?
• What kind of professional and personal values do you discover among the journalists in the major news stories? To what extent do you identify with these values? Why? /Why not?
• If the Christian faith, Christian organizations or Christian individuals are covered in the news stories, how are these portrayed? Why?
• To what extent did the news stories leave you with a sense of involvement, hope, excitement, indifference, despair – or maybe with a mixture of such feelings? Why?
• How do a classical Christian view of humanity and the world help us to understand the wider context of the major news stories?

It’s a very helpful framework, not just for watching television news, but for reading the newspaper or engaging the news in any other context.

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The final session with Southampton Deanery Chapter.

And the slides are here.

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The second of three sessions at the Southampton Deanery Chapter study day:

A more print-friendly version of the slides is here.

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Yesterday I led a study day on engaging with media culture for the Southampton Deanery Chapter. Here’s the first session:

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The second of my two workshops at Good Book Company’s ‘Growing Young Disciples training day on youth and children’s work. The audio may be available on the GBC website at some point. You can download the pdf by clicking on the menu button in the bottom-left corner of the Slideshare player.

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On Saturday (21 November 2009) I led two workshops at Good Book Company’s ‘Growing Young Disciples training day on youth and children’s work. The first was on Understanding Teen Culture. Forty minutes is a very short time to do anything other than scratch a tiny part of the vast surface which is youth culture. Anyway, here are the slides for those who were there. The audio may be available on the GBC website at some point. You can download the pdf by clicking on the menu button in the bottom-left corner of the Slideshare player.

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