Better use of TV by Church sought

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33058, 27 October 1972, Page 4

Better use of TV by Church sought

The Church has failed to come to grips with the means of giving its message to the people, says the South Island officer for the Churches Television Commission and director of Roman Catholic Broadcasting (the Rev. J. Coleman).

“If the Church has a message—and I think it has—then it should get it across as effectively as possible,” says Father Coleman, who believes that there is much to be said for the theory of the Canadian author, Marshall McLuhan, that “the medium is the message.” Father Coleman has spent 13 years in radio and has been with television since it was introduced to New Zealand. He attended a producer’s course in 1969 and was largely responsible for the “Scrutiny” television series of 1970. A committee might be set up to examine ways that the Church could more effectively use the mass media to put across its message. A suggestion along these lines was made at the Roman Catholic seminar on youth and drugs at St Bede’s College last week-end, Father Coleman said. The Church had failed to realise that television and the microphone were natural extensions of the pulpit, bringing the message to a far wider audience, said Father Coleman. The mass media were often

• criticised for what thev contained, but the Church was doing little to provide alternative sources of information which could be absorbed by the media. Much material was lost to the public because it never got beyond the four walls of a Church, he said. “CENTRE NEEDED” There was a need for a communications centre where the public could study the various forms of media, audio-visual aids, and techniques of media presentation, said Father Coleman. Father Coleman said that the N.Z.B.C. was still “tremendously dependent” on the Church for religious programme material, but if the Church failed to produce the material for television consumption, then it would have only itself to blame.

The first meeting of the advisory committee on religious programmes for television met last week. Father Coleman said that programmes produced for television would probably cover a wide range of topics appealing to young and old.