{"id":32008,"date":"2022-09-10T15:52:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-things-to-remember-when-you-consume-the-news\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:52:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:52:37","slug":"5-things-to-remember-when-you-consume-the-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-things-to-remember-when-you-consume-the-news\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things to Remember When You Consume the News"},"content":{"rendered":"
rawpixel photos – Pexels <\/p>\n

By Ryan Sanders<\/em><\/p>\n

Clergy abuse, cover-ups, gay marriage, abortion, religious violence.<\/p>\n

It seems that matters of religion and morality are making news at every turn lately. And it\u2019s not likely to stop. As America becomes more religiously diverse, the collision of various worldviews is bound to generate more headlines.<\/p>\n

In such an environment, it\u2019s important for church leaders and people of faith to be savvy news consumers. So here are five tips to better process what you read in the headlines and hear over the airwaves.<\/p>\n

1. Read. Don\u2019t watch. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s start with a controversial one: News is better consumed in print than in images.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s certainly a place for broadcast journalism (and lots of broadcast journalists would disagree with me on this point) there\u2019s also a high risk of misunderstanding with television news.<\/p>\n

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The images in a news story can convey meaning that the reporting itself does not intend. Plus, it\u2019s much easier to miss a phrase or be distracted by the visuals when consuming televised news.<\/p>\n

I once worked for a political pundit named Rob who appeared on a weekly debate show. People would stop him on the street and say, \u201cHey, I saw you on TV!\u201d Rob would say, \u201cOh yeah? Which episode? What was I talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

They wouldn\u2019t remember what he talked about, but they could explain\u2014down to the detail\u2014what he wore on air.<\/p>\n

Too often with broadcast media, the visuals overpower the journalism. If you really want to understand a story\u2014to catch its nuance, it\u2019s causes, and its implications\u2014then read about it.<\/p>\n

2. Read News As Genre.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Seminary professors teach students to treat different parts of Scripture differently, depending on genre. Poetry and epistles should be handled differently. Narrative isn\u2019t the same as wisdom literature. We do the same with modern texts. We may enjoy the latest superhero movie but we don\u2019t expect it to be an accurate depiction of real-life events.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s apply the same logic to the news. News is a genre, and it\u2019s important for news consumers to understand what kind of genre they\u2019re reading. Journalists are trying to get at the hidden truth of things.<\/p>\n

They want to tell people something true that they don\u2019t already know. Newspapers and magazines don\u2019t print stories that say the sun came up yesterday. That\u2019s not news. It literally happens every day. We know why it happens every day and we know there\u2019s no hidden agenda or corrupt politician behind the sunrise.<\/p>\n

The sunrise isn\u2019t news. Neither is your Bible study or your VBS or your denominational meeting that affirms the same positions it\u2019s affirmed for the past 100 years. Those are all wonderful things and worthy to be known. But they aren\u2019t news because there\u2019s no hidden truth to tell.<\/p>\n

People of faith will do well to adjust their expectations about what they\u2019ll find in the news media and how much of it will support their particular event, organization, or worldview.<\/p>\n

3. Pay For It.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Newspapers have struggled in recent years in large part because of the disruption caused by the rise of the internet and its proliferation of news sources, all of them offering free content. When that disruption arrived, everything online was free\u2014music, data, research, and yes, news.<\/p>\n

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But the internet has changed as we\u2019ve discovered that free content isn\u2019t always good content. We pay for more of the internet now\u2014streaming services, music libraries, and news sites. Though there are certainly reputable journalists whose work is available for free online, we\u2019re coming into an era when a simple axiom might apply: Free news is sometimes fake news.<\/p>\n

The alternative is simple: Subscribe. I suggest two subscriptions for everyone: one to your local newspaper and one to a national magazine that interests you. If you\u2019d prefer not to kill trees, they all offer digital-only options.<\/p>\n

4. Read Carefully.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s certainly acceptable to scan headlines and skip over stories that don\u2019t interest you. Here\u2019s a secret: No one actually reads every story in any publication; often not even the people who work at those publications.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t let headlines be the sum of your news intake. Choose one or two stories each day and read them thoroughly. Identify the story\u2019s sources and ask yourself what other sources you would have liked to hear from. Consider how you would write the story.<\/p>\n

And by all means, read the byline. It\u2019s important to know who you\u2019re reading. A novice news consumer says, \u201cI saw something in the newspaper…\u201d A savvy news consumer says, \u201cI was reading David Brooks\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t stop there. Comment on the story online. Consider contacting the writer if you have questions or something substantive to add. You might be surprised at how responsive journalists are.<\/p>\n

5. Read the Other Side.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve saved the hardest for last. If you really want to understand issues covered by journalists, including those related to faith, intentionally seek out news sources that promote viewpoints opposed to your own.<\/p>\n

Are you conservative? Swing by Mother Jones<\/em>. Are you progressive? Take a look at National Review<\/em>. But follow these three rules: Don\u2019t go there to argue, don\u2019t stay long, and don\u2019t go there at all if your blood boils as soon as the page loads. The best journalism is still the kind that at least tries to be fair and balanced, but understanding an issue means seeing it from all sides, even the side you\u2019re convinced is flat wrong.<\/p>\n

Good journalism should help readers make sense of the world. It should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It should expose the truth no matter how offensive that truth is. Aren\u2019t those exactly the things good ministry does as well? If we\u2019ll learn to be savvy news consumers, we\u2019ll be better equipped to engage and influence the culture around us.<\/p>\n

RYAN SANDERS (@theryansanders)<\/strong> is a pastor at Irving Bible Church in Irving, Texas, and writes regularly at TheRyanSanders.com and for the <\/em>Dallas Morning News<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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rawpixel photos – Pexels By Ryan Sanders Clergy abuse, cover-ups, gay marriage, abortion, religious violence. It seems that matters of religion and morality are making news at every turn lately. And it\u2019s not likely to stop. As America becomes more religiously diverse, the collision of various worldviews is bound to generate more headlines. In such an … Continue reading “5 Things to Remember When You Consume the News”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}