Back in the Fall I attended the National Youth Worker’s Convention hosted by Youth Specialties in San Diego. Great event as always with multitudes of worship, resources, and speakers. Every year before I leave I buy 5 or 6 cds from sessions that I did not have the chance to attend for one reason or another. Guided by the recommendation of a friend, I grabbed a presentation by Shane Hipps on the power of electronic culture. 
I was leery at first (because haven’t we heard the anti-media message from Christians before), but eventually submitted to peer pressure and proceeded towards the checkout.
I listened to it on the short 2 and half hour drive home from San Diego and then again the following week in the office. I was ecstatic to find a different message relating to media that made incredible sense.
After another 3 or 4 months, I broke down and bought the book. 17 days later, the book was finished. Now 2 months upon completion, I am finally writing a review. Proceed if you dare.
Shane Hipps is a pastor in Phoenix. He looks like a pastor, entitles books like a pastor, and probably even smells like a pastor (I have no evidence or source for the last statement). The only problem here is that he doesn’t write or speak like a pastor. He sounds like an expert on media theory and doesn’t build his premises with theology as the sole foundation. This all makes sense when you learn that before communicating the gospel his main goal in life was communicating the awesomeness of Porsche’s cars as strategic planner for an advertising firm.
In his attempt to explain the powers that media possesses, he has a few simple statements that seem to guide us through this maze of information. Concepts like “the message is the medium” and “instead of asking ‘what does this do?’ we would be better served to ask ‘what does this mean?’” are revisited often. He also frequently references Marshall McLuhan and relies heavily upon his set of questions dubbed the Laws of Media:
- What does the medium extend?
- What does the medium make obsolete?
- What does the medium reverse into?
- What does the medium retrieve?
He does a terrific job explaining the complexities of media and communication theories. One section I found particularly interesting was his comparing and contrasting of the communication forms of the printed word and images and their connection to shift from post-modernity into this realm in which we are going. I really appreciated the time he took to explain the impact of different media types on culture and the church. For me, it really helps me gain a better understanding of the big picture. (I can’t stand it when authors assert a point and give no reason assuming you know it…if I knew it, I would NOT be reading what you wrote!)
Another area that piqued my interest is where he writes about not being mastered by mediums of media. In our media saturated lives sometimes we lose perspective of what we are actually doing and become enslaved to various mediums in our behaviors without giving much thought as to what simple task is being accomplished by the said medium. Hipps suggests that our understanding of the impacts of the media we use is vital to our relationship with Christ as our focus remains fixed on the cross and not on specific mediums (ie. projection screen, sound systems, videos, bulletins, etc.)
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in understanding the impacts of media both subconsciously and the greater cultural climate. It’s well-written and relatively easy to follow considering the content. For me this book really helped me to identify the implications of different media forms that are present in my life. Good read. Definitely worth 17 days of your reading time.
