Media, Journalism, and Communication: A Student's Guide

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Schuchardt admirably integrates the history and philosophy of technology with a rich understanding of Christianity. With McLuhan and Postman in one hand and the Bible and Christian history in the other, he offers a thoughtful and challenging perspective on journalism and media today.

Douglas Groothuis, Professor of Philosophy, Denver Seminary; author, The Soul in Cyberspace

Read Schuchardt has been doing groundbreaking work in the new academic field of media ecology. Like his mentor, Neil Postman, he is asking us to think critically about the impact that new technology is having on everything from human development to political discourse to spiritual formation. This is an important book that is a must-read for serious Christians. I highly recommend it.

Terry L. Johnson, Senior Minister, Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah; author, The Family Worship Book; Worshipping with Calvin; and Serving with Calvin

Read Schuchardt’s progenitor is Marshall McLuhan, whose pithy style he so well channels. I once observed Read in the classroom as students both giggled and squirmed in their seats. They giggled because they were overjoyed that someone understood their world. They squirmed because he put his finger on what they had not yet perceived about the digital age. For the student of communication there is gold to be found in this hill of wise counsel.

Arthur W. Hunt III, Professor of Communications, The University of Tennessee, Martin

Read Schuchardt shaped the way I think about technology more than anyone else. With technology changing at an ever-increasing pace, Schuchardt is a sure guide to not only keeping your sanity but also your soul, whichever side of the Tiber you’re on.

Brantly Millegan, Founder and Editor in Chief, ChurchPOP

"Schuchardt’s Media, Journalism, and Communication is a publisher’s nightmare and a reader’s dream. It fits no pre-established publishing category, because it is entirely too insightful to do so; its wine will not fit those wineskins. If Marshall McLuhan had been intelligible, Neil Postman a Christian, and Jacques Ellul an American, this is the book they would have coauthored (with Wendell Berry as their editor), though they would have taken ten times as many pages to have done so."

T. David Gordon, Professor of Religion and Greek, Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania

Not only has Schuchardt made the case for why the communication arts are essential to the liberal arts, he convincingly explains how they can make us better humans. This is one of the most superb short books ever written on the role and effect of media, and a must-read for every Christian college student.

Joe Carter, Editor, The Gospel Coalition; contributor, NIV Lifehacks Bible

Read Schuchardt is in the business of telling fish about the water they swim in. We ‘fish’ instinctively breathe, eat, and drink media in all forms, all the time. We hardly notice. Schuchardt helps us notice both the fascinating and alarming. Schuchardt says some crazy things about media that just happen to be true, while pointing to truths in the gospel that may strike us as crazy. It’s why he is such a good person to discuss the media water we swim in.

Mark Galli, Editor in Chief, Christianity Today

RECLAIMING THE CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION

David S. Dockery, series editor

CONSULTING EDITORS

Hunter Baker

Timothy George

Neil Nielson

Philip G. Ryken

Michael J. Wilkins

John D. Woodbridge

OTHER RCIT VOLUMES:

Art and Music, Paul Munson and Joshua Farris Drake

Christian Worldview, Philip G. Ryken

Ethics and Moral Reasoning, C. Ben Mitchell

The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking, David S. Dockery and Timothy George

History, Nathan A. Finn

The Liberal Arts, Gene C. Fant Jr.

Literature, Louis Markos

The Natural Sciences, John A. Bloom

Philosophy, David K. Naugle

Political Thought, Hunter Baker

Psychology, Stanton L. Jones

MEDIA, JOURNALISM, AND COMMUNICATION

A STUDENT’S GUIDE

Read Mercer Schuchardt

Media, Journalism, and Communication: A Student’s Guide

Copyright © 2018 by Read Mercer Schuchardt

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jon McGrath, Simplicated Studio

First printing 2018

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture references marked NLV are from The New Life Bible, copyright © 1969 by Christian Literature International.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-3514-7

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3517-8

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-3515-4

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-3516-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Name: Schuchardt, Read Mercer, author.

Title: Media, journalism, and communication: a student’s guide / Read Mercer Schuchardt.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, [2018] | Series: Reclaiming the Christian intellectual tradition | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017031568 (print) | LCCN 2017046808 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433535154 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433535161 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433535178 (epub) | ISBN 9781433535147 (tp) | ISBN 9781433535178 (ePub) | ISBN 9781433535161 (Mobipocket)

Subjects: LCSH: Communication—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Mass media—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Communication—Study and teaching (Higher) | Mass media—Study and teaching (Higher) | Learning and scholarship—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Education, Higher—Religious aspects—Christianity.

Classification: LCC P94 (ebook) | LCC P94 .S38 2018 (print) | DDC 302.23071/1–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031568

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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To my students

CONTENTS

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Series Preface

Introduction: On Pedagogical Elegance

1   Why Media Matters More Now Than Ever Before

2   Social Media in the Age of Global Information Warfare

3   Christian Identity as the Antidote to Digital Identity

4   You Are Being Lied To. What Is the Nature of the Lie?

Questions for Reflection

Glossary

Resources for Further Study

General Index

Scripture Index

Back Cover

SERIES PREFACE

RECLAIMING THE CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION

The Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition series is designed to provide an overview of the distinctive way the church has read the Bible, formulated doctrine, provided education, and engaged the culture. The contributors to this series all agree that personal faith and genuine Christian piety are essential for the life of Christ followers and for the church. These contributors also believe that helping others recognize the importance of serious thinking about God, Scripture, and the world needs a renewed emphasis at this time in order that the truth claims of the Christian faith can be passed along from one generation to the next. The study guides in this series will enable believers to see afresh how the Christian faith shapes how we live, how we think, how we write books, how we govern society, and how we relate to one another in our churches and social structures. The richness of the Christian intellectual tradition provides guidance for the complex challenges that believers face in this world.

This series is particularly designed for Christian students and others associated with college and university campuses, including faculty, staff, trustees, and other various constituents. The contributors to the series will explore how the Bible has been interpreted in the history of the church, as well as how theology has been formulated. They will ask: How does the Christian faith influence our understanding of culture, literature, philosophy, government, beauty, art, or work? How does the Christian intellectual tradition help us understand truth? How does the Christian intellectual tradition shape our approach to education? We believe that this series is not only timely but that it meets an important need, because the secular culture in which we now find ourselves is, at best, indifferent to the Christian faith, and the Christian world—at least in its more popular forms—tends to be confused about the beliefs, heritage, and tradition associated with the Christian faith.

At the heart of this work is the challenge to prepare a generation of Christians to think Christianly, to engage the academy and the culture, and to serve church and society. We believe that both the breadth and the depth of the Christian intellectual tradition need to be reclaimed, revitalized, renewed, and revived for us to carry this work forward. These study guides will seek to provide a framework to help introduce students to the great tradition of Christian thinking, seeking to highlight its importance for understanding the world, its significance for serving both church and society, and its application for Christian thinking and learning. The series is a starting point for exploring important ideas and issues such as truth, meaning, beauty, and justice.

We trust that the series will help introduce readers to the apostles, church fathers, Reformers, philosophers, theologians, historians, and a wide variety of other significant thinkers. In addition to well-known leaders such as Clement, Origen, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and Jonathan Edwards, readers will be pointed to William Wilberforce, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers, C. S. Lewis, Johann Sebastian Bach, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, George Washington Carver, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Michael Polanyi, Henry Luke Orombi, and many others. In doing so, we hope to introduce those who throughout history have demonstrated that it is indeed possible to be serious about the life of the mind while simultaneously being deeply committed Christians.

These efforts to strengthen serious Christian thinking and scholarship will not be limited to the study of theology, scriptural interpretation, or philosophy, even though these areas provide the framework for understanding the Christian faith for all other areas of exploration. In order for us to reclaim and advance the Christian intellectual tradition, we must have some understanding of the tradition itself. The volumes in this series seek to explore this tradition and its application for our twenty-first-century world. Each volume contains a glossary, study questions, and a list of resources for further study, which we trust will provide helpful guidance for our readers.

I am deeply grateful to the series editorial committee: Timothy George, John Woodbridge, Michael Wilkins, Niel Nielson, Philip Ryken, and Hunter Baker. Each of these colleagues joins me in thanking our various contributors for their fine work. We all express our appreciation to Justin Taylor, Jill Carter, Allan Fisher, Lane Dennis, and the Crossway team for their enthusiastic support for the project. We offer the project with the hope that students will