Are you joining us in Leeds today? I’ll be kicking off the day with:
Real relationships in a virtual space #NMTrain
View more presentations from Bex Lewis.
#CfP Abstract Submission: Encouraging Faith Voices in Digital Spaces
February 15, 2012 Leave a Comment
Media, Religion, Culture Conference 2012
http://mrc.anadolu.edu.tr/
Format: Presentation, leading to discussion.
I was alerted to this conference at the weekend, and had about 24 hours to pull together a conference proposal. We’ll see if this ticks any of the right boxes…
We live in a ‘digital age’, in a world that is increasingly defined and shaped by the digital. When we talk about ‘unplugging’, we are giving the impression that the effects of digital culture on our life are optional. This paper asserts that the digital is a ‘space’ or ‘culture’, and that there is no such thing as ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ worlds: only online and offline space/cultures. It uses the Christian context as an example of how cultural change is being encouraged through engagement in the digital spaces.
For many in the Christian church, the rise of the digital age, in particular social media, has been seen as something to be feared, if not ignored as an irrelevance. David Wilkinson (CODEC) emphasises that God is a communicating God, a God who is extravagant in communication, not a silent God who has to be tempted into communicating with people. Importantly, however, God looks to communicate in the right context, something that Christians often get wrong, and preach into the wrong context.
Sharon Watkins, head of a Christian order, said “God never told the world to go to church; but God did tell the church to go to the world.” Accommodation theory calls for us to accommodate to the world in which we live, to be part of the conversations, rather than trying to protect ourselves in the bubble of our own faith.Technology is not the problem, not the answer, but it is the reality for most in our world, and therefore those of faith need to engage with it.
The Centre for Christian Communication in a Digital Age (CODEC) undertook a Biblical Literacy Survey in 2009, which demonstrated that although 75% of people have access to a Bible, only 18% read their Bible daily. The Big Bible Project emerged through a desire to get people reading the Bible, making use of the widest range of social media tools, already used by millions every day. What questions do people have, and how do we make our faith, and our religious texts, more accessible through online tools?
Religions need to stop blaming the media for poor representations of their faith, and get involved. We all have something to contribute to the digital space: a digitally enabled laity is powerful. In a world where hierarchies are collapsing, we can draw on a range of voices, rather than adding this to the ‘to-do list’ for the leadership team. Elizabeth Dresher identified three characteristics, creative improvisation, participation & distributed authority that have made broadcast media unsuitable for many mainstream Christian churches, that are assets in a social media world, offering space for questioning.
The Big Bible Project has engaged over sixty ‘digital disciples’, those who seek to live out their Christian faith in the digital spaces, in conversation. We would like to open some of the topics of debate that they have raised with conference delegates, including questions of authenticity, appropriate behaviours, mobile device etiquette, the power of images and words, and whether these are similar concerns across other faiths. What does it mean for faith voices in the digital space?
Dr Bex Lewis, Blended Learning Project Manager, The Big Bible Project, CODEC, University of Durham. Bex.Lewis@durham.ac.uk
Tweet Impact for @biblesummary #biblefresh
August 14, 2010 8 Comments
In July, I started working for CODEC (University of Durham, although thankfully I only have to commute to Premier Radio in London!). My brief is to work with the text “Matthew for Everyone” by Tom Wright (former Bishop of Durham), to produce “blended learning” material (i.e. online/offline) to work with this text, with the potential for future texts.
The Vision
Over Lent 2010, “The Big Read” was carried out in Durham, and it was so successful, there was a clear need to make this national, and the project for 2011 ties in with Biblefresh: “Our vision is to make 2011 a year of the Bible to help individuals and the whole church gain greater skill in handling the scriptures and a greater passion for hearing and obeying the Bible.” Biblefresh was partly inspired by the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, the first time that the Bible was translated into English (rather than Latin). I have spent the first month talking to various people about ideas for the project, and we’re planning on doing a crowd-sourcing project… as a Twitter addict, one of my first ideas was to do “something with Twitter” (we have an account: @bigbible)… and then this week decided that one idea was already going to happen much better (although of course there’s potential for more than one person to do this, people will have different interpretations)…
@biblesummary
Seven days ago, Chris Juby sent out his first tweet via @biblesummary:
I was alerted to the project through a Tweet from @pmphillips (director of CODEC!), and immediately followed (one of the first 80!) & Tweeted about it, as well as posting comments on the website, suggesting that Chris use, e.g. ‘&’ rather than ‘and’, but apparently he’s a ‘glutton for punishment’. Wonder if I have any part to play in the success story… I got quite a few retweets from various tweets sent throughout the week… but really, the project is genius in its simplicity and stands on its own feet:
A Success Story
A lot of which I reckon is down to good old fashioned press coverage… and of course plenty of Tweets:
- Northern Echo
- Guardian
- Daily Mail
- Telegraph
- and as Chris Juby says (and can be seen by a Google search, stories all over the world)
The biggest coup, however, is getting @Mashable to talk about it, the most influential man on Twitter: “One Man will Try to Tweet the Bible over Three Years“.
When I started this article 25 minutes ago, he had 999 followers, he now has 1084 followers (9:52am), and I expect his numbers to shoot sky high. A real success story – congratulations!!
How can I get involved?
Follow @biblesummary on Twitter, a stream which is PURELY for Tweeting the Bible – to comment & interact go to the website.
Reaching Out in the Digital Age #cnm10 #refract
August 10, 2010 1 Comment
Since 2007, Premier have hosted the Christian Blog Awards, this year renamed the Christian New Media Awards – submissions are being encouraged. To complement the awards (which are by invitation only), a conference entitled “Reaching Out in the Digital Age” is being hosted on Saturday 16th October.
What am I doing for it?
I am presenting the post-lunch keynote with Maggi Dawn, which has been entitled “Case Studies” in one piece of publicity, and we will address those, but in another piece, we’re much more excitingly titled “”What’s Up and Why? The very latest media with a theological twist”, with a thought-provoking way to get the information across! I am also doing ‘Getting the most out of Facebook and Twitter’, potentially with someone from Premier…
Tweeting the Conference
The hasthtags #cnm10 (not to be confused with #cmn10!) for the whole event, and #refract for the theological strand, are already in use, so please start tweeting with them.
Who’s This For?
If you are a Church Leader, a keen enthusiast of the digital world, or a theologian/academic… or you enjoyed seeing information coming from #digisymp #cmn10 or #medialit, you are likely to enjoy it.
More Info?
Book Here. Download the #conference leaflet (1MB) and the #refract poster (287KB) in PDF format. (Visit Adobe if you need a PDF reader)
Theological Refraction of the Internet 16th Oct 2010#refract
July 27, 2010 4 Comments
Read more about the Christian New Media Conference on October 16th in central London. We’re going to be looking at how the internet affects us as human beings – what are the theological implications of the internet? How can the church and the academy get involved?
The event (#refract) is part of the Christian New Media Conference which will include workshops on the how church leaders, members and techies (interesting list that!) might engage with social media. Workshops include looking at New Media; website and the law; creating podcasts; making viral videos; fundraising online; use of social media in the churches. Read more.
Twitter Names
- Maggi Dawn
- Ian Aspin
- Pete Phillips
- Bex Lewis
- Is Heidi Campbell on there?
- Expect to see a few more names here as confirmed….
Blogging with WordPress #medialit
June 24, 2010 Leave a Comment
#MediaLit @ CODEC
June 21, 2010 2 Comments
If I go quiet this week, I’m blogging on my personal account – it’s about media literacy, but a lot of it is about theology, so I have chosen to use that account: http://drbexl.co.uk/tag/medialit/.
See the Tweet History, and the organising body: CODEC with Church and Media Network.
CODEC, The Big Read, #CNM10, #CMN10, #CMN11
June 18, 2010 3 Comments
Lots of feedback from a post by ‘The Church Mouse’ in regards to #cmn10 indicating that there was little on new media at the conference… I missed the original post as I was busy talking to another group who are working with others who need some persuasion in using ‘new media’ – those in Higher Education! There was a fair bit of “New Media” (whatever that may be these days), it just wasn’t central stage, but believe me, after giving this talk, I have never been so in demand to be spoken to s0 the interest is definitely there. I also pushed hard getting Twitter into the conference, using pre-advertising of the hashtag #cmn10, and from last year, when we had around 6 people tweeting, this year we had around 40, including at least 10 who were trying for the first time! Here’s my summary of the conference… and I am looking forward to preparing for MediaLit which is all next week – and then onto The Big Read!
Here is Pete Phillips reply to the Church Mouse:
“But I wasn’t there and nor was Mouse. I have to say that I was able to pick up a new media vibe from the Conference through receiving lots of tweets about what was happening (several saying that CODEC seemed to get a good few mentions during the Conference). If you’re interested, Bex Lewis kept a record of the tweets made with the #cmn10 hashtag here: http://export.twapperkeeper.com/cmn10-4c1365ca31c75.tar. Don’t you just love the name ‘twapperkeeper’?
Although CODEC wasn’t officially there, Andrew Graystone, CMN Chair, is a good friend of CODEC and is on our Steering Group. Andrew is working with us next week on our Media training event for clergy and Christian professionals (Medialit). And the indefatigable Bex Lewis (a polymath, no less) was there and fielding some questions about CODEC and the work we are doing – more on Bex below.
Having said all that, certainly, we’d be more than happy to talk with CMN about #cmn11 and increase our involvement in this important conference. It is important to push into new areas of thinking (and yes, I think there is a difference between traditional media and new media) – cloud networking, the implications of new technology and the age of distraction, the instantaneous nature of contemporary news media, and the democratization of reporting are key factors of how the media engages with the contemporary world. I heard of the West Cumbria shootings on Twitter long before the BBC had picked it up.
And talking of the news, Mouse says I can plug some of what CODEC are doing at the moment – so briefly…
Bex Lewis and the Big Read
While I’m posting, Bex Lewis is starting work with us from July 1st for 2.5 days a week based at Premier Christian Media in Pimlico, London. Bex is going to working with a number of agencies (Premier, SPCK, Biblefresh, Methodist Church, and others) to develop a national version of The Big Read – an initiative launched by Bishop Tom Wright in the NE of England last year. Watch this space for lots more in preparation for Lent 2011.”
There’s lots more exciting things on, so keep an eye on Pete’s blog too!
Recent Comments