Satan is always quick to exploit the negative power of new inventions, to spoil and degrade and to neutralize any effect for good. Make sure that the choices you make in the use of new media are choices that expand your mind, increase your opportunities, and feed your soul.
A couple of months ago, NBC Television came to Salt Lake for an interview with me as part of a piece they were producing on the Church. Reporter Ron Allen and I spent an hour together in the chapel in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We discussed the Church at length. A few days later the story appeared, and in the four minute-segment that aired, there was one short quote of about six seconds from my one-hour interview. That was just enough time for me to testify of our faith in Jesus Christ as the center of all we believe. I repeat, just six seconds were used from a sixty-minute interview. And those six seconds are quite typical, actually, for the traditional TV media, who think and air in sound bites. The big difference from the old days to today is that the reporter also ran 15 minutes of our interview on the NBC Nightly News website. And those 15 minutes are still there. What we say is no longer on and off the screen in a flash, but remains as part of a permanent archive and can appear on other sites that re-use the content. People using Internet search engines to hunt for topics about the Church will come across that interview and many others.
There is perhaps no other time in its history when the Church has received more attention from the news media and on the Internet than right now. Obviously, that is being driven by the fact that one of our faith, Mitt Romney, is seeking the office of President of the United States. It’s as if a national conversation is going on about the Church. While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time. May I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration. Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true. You can download videos from Church and other appropriate sites, including Newsroom at LDS.org, and send them to your friends. You can write to media sites on the Internet that report on the Church, and voice your views as to the accuracy of the reports. Your outreach can be international. As you participate in this conversation and utilize the tools of New Media, remember who you are--Latter-day Saints!!!
~Elder M. Russell Ballard, Quorum of the Twelve, presented December 15 at BYU-Hawaii
A couple of months ago, NBC Television came to Salt Lake for an interview with me as part of a piece they were producing on the Church. Reporter Ron Allen and I spent an hour together in the chapel in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We discussed the Church at length. A few days later the story appeared, and in the four minute-segment that aired, there was one short quote of about six seconds from my one-hour interview. That was just enough time for me to testify of our faith in Jesus Christ as the center of all we believe. I repeat, just six seconds were used from a sixty-minute interview. And those six seconds are quite typical, actually, for the traditional TV media, who think and air in sound bites. The big difference from the old days to today is that the reporter also ran 15 minutes of our interview on the NBC Nightly News website. And those 15 minutes are still there. What we say is no longer on and off the screen in a flash, but remains as part of a permanent archive and can appear on other sites that re-use the content. People using Internet search engines to hunt for topics about the Church will come across that interview and many others.
There is perhaps no other time in its history when the Church has received more attention from the news media and on the Internet than right now. Obviously, that is being driven by the fact that one of our faith, Mitt Romney, is seeking the office of President of the United States. It’s as if a national conversation is going on about the Church. While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time. May I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration. Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true. You can download videos from Church and other appropriate sites, including Newsroom at LDS.org, and send them to your friends. You can write to media sites on the Internet that report on the Church, and voice your views as to the accuracy of the reports. Your outreach can be international. As you participate in this conversation and utilize the tools of New Media, remember who you are--Latter-day Saints!!!
~Elder M. Russell Ballard, Quorum of the Twelve, presented December 15 at BYU-Hawaii
2 comments:
Good one Carrie! I'm glad to see that you remembered your password so you could update your blog.
Thanks for picking just the right spiritual message that I needed to read right now! Keep it up, I'll be a loyal subscriber to your blog!
Post a Comment