The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) annual convention was held this week in Nashville, and the buzz out of the event, according to ASSIST News, is that it was dominated this year by "grey-haired white males from the ranks of senior management" who were "sober and pensive" about the future of religious broadcasting.
Phil Cooke was on-hand again to share some of the tough love from his book The Last TV Evangelist: Why the Next Generation Couldn't Care Less About Media and Why It Matters. As Cooke has written, "Religious media has alienated a generation. Perhaps even more important is how the style of religious broadcasting has turned off the next generation. TV evangelists with fake hair and gold furniture, tasteless programming, and hard core fundraising techniques have reached embarrassing levels, and young people today want nothing to do with it."
The younger generation that did show up at this year's NRBfest were sharing their thoughts via Twitter. (To be fair, Billy Graham's 85-year-old sidekick Cliff Barrows was tweeting from NRB also!)
With the wrap-up of NRB and the impending switch to digital television (which 500+ stations are still planning to do next week), my thoughts were turned to "the future of television," and I was reminded of what happened less than a month ago: the inauguration of Barack Obama, which was broadcast live on TV and the Internet.
At the time, Liz Gannes of NewTeeVee.com wrote, "I found the best experience was offered by CNN Live with Facebook Connect integrated, making the livestream experience social in a relevant way. And I really think it points toward the future of TV. ... I loved feeling like I was in a room of friends watching the events. And not a room of friends who necessarily know each other—people from all different parts of my life were streaming into a feed of comments customized for me. ... This is TV getting interactive in a massive way."
Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb called this "one of the most brilliant examples of the real-time web in action," adding, "If there was any doubt of the power this platform provides, we've just witnessed an incredible—if not historic—example of what it can do."
Ian Kennedy at Everwas wrote, "We’ve reached a tipping point. In my mind the lines between social media and other types of media are so blurred that it’s not even useful to distinguish the two, just drop the “social” because all media is now social."
By all measurements, the CNN + Facebook mashup was a huge success. This is the kind of innovation and creativity that needs to go into generating the next generation of religious broadcasting.
If you've been thinking about taking your church services and putting them on TV, you might want to think again. Using videostreaming and social networking sites to create innovative mashups (like CNN+Facebook) is more the direction I think you need to be thinking. Where will you take it?
—Steve Knight, Kingdom Journalist and International Communication Coordinator for SIM (Serving In Mission)
(Top photo: ryanwynia / Bottom photo: Steve Garfield)
Very good assessment of the NRB Conference and the impact digital media is having on traditional media. There's no question influence is being lost on television as droves of people have left TV as their "first screen."
Posted by: Phil Cooke | February 17, 2009 at 05:06 PM