Page 134 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

Reception of religion and media 123

The Johnsons tell us a lot about the nature of family life in the media age.
They have clear and laudable aspirations for their children and for the kind of
parenting they want to deliver and their children to receive. They perceive the
media – both Internet and television – as implicated in this process. They actu-
ally don’t want to recognize the extent to which Don and Carson are already
media-involved. Their experience, though, illustrates several things about the
media in family life that are important. First, the media today need to be seen
as a package, not as discrete services or experiences. The boys’ online activities
are articulated into many of the same programs they watch on television.
Second, as we saw earlier with Brenna and Jill, the media sphere is
nearly inescapable, even for boys as young as Carson. It is ubiquitous, and
is constructive in important ways. Blue’s clues, for example, one of the
websites/programs the boys are familiar with, is an educational program,
as is Wishbone. The PBS and Discovery shows they watch presumably
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are probably more helpful than hurtful, too.
Third, this whole landscape is something that exists at a level of social
articulation into life that is subtle, tacit, and yet salient in important ways.
Neither the parents nor the boys are really clear on which programs are
viewed and which websites are visited. At least there is no sense of an
actual cataloging or monitoring of these practices. There are clear attrac-
tions to these activities, but these media are consumed in a way that is
different from the way these parents conceive of education being
“consumed.” They assume the latter to involve a measure of rational and
intentional action. They seem to think about consuming the former as
though rationality and intentionality are not really involved.
Finally, there is an extent to which the salience of media drives its
consumption, even for parents as seemingly intentional and careful as Dale
and Bonnie. In discussing their film-viewing habits, they talk about movies
that they will or will not watch with their children. Noting that the boys
like war movies, they draw a line between films they consider to be inap-
propriate, like Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, and GI Jane, and films that
are appropriate, such as “John Wayne movies,” the Star Wars cycle, and
“just old things” like Top Gun. And, it comes out, the one program they
do watch with their children regularly is ER. 14
At a later point in the interview, Bonnie reflects on how the attractions
of a specific program came into conflict with her faith, and she describes
herself as drawing a line.

Bonnie: I don’t like anything that has to deal with, you know, Satan stuff.
I don’t like that. Umm... and I used to love – and I’ve only seen
South Park once or twice –
Dale: (laughs)
Bonnie: And they made a comment about God, so I refuse to watch
that anymore.