For any of you involved in a ministry, I am sure you are aware of the growing difficulties of communicating with people on a very real level. Yes, you can tweet them or comment on their Facebook status updates, but when it comes time to have what I like to call a little ‘heart to heart’ discussion, it’s getting more and more challenging to promote your message in a relevant and competitive way.
And that’s the REAL issue – staying competitive in your approach considering the vast amount of media intake the average person consumes on a daily basis. Here are a few statistics from a recent study at Ball State University:
- About 30 percent of the observed waking day was spent with media as the sole activity versus 20.8 percent for work activity, while an additional 39 percent of the day was spent with media while involved in some other activity.
- While television is still by far the dominant medium in terms of the time average Americans spend daily with media at 240.9 minutes, the computer has emerged as the second most significant media device at about 120 minutes.
- About 30 percent of all media time is spent exposed to more than one medium at a time
- Use of the Web, e-mail and phones is substantially higher on Fridays than any other day of the week.
Your audience of teens, young adults, and (yes even parents) are inundated daily by media. Television, the Internet, and cell phones dictate the schedules, experiences, and thought processes of the people of God. Look at the statistics! 69 percent of the day is spent involved in some type of media and at least 2 hours a day is spent on the Internet. Whether or not we like to admit it, it is essential to “live in the world, but not of it.” As of 2010, this means learning how to talk to your audience through mediums that they’re using 70 percent of the time.
Here at New Media Ministry, our goal is to shed some light on the ever-growing and ever-changing world of digital media and how it can be utilized to spread the Gospel and teachings of the Church. We will be breaking open Social Media networking, the use of web applications like WordPress, and the need for good design aesthetics in order to promote ministry and new opportunities.
We look forward to getting to know you and we are excited to share in the journey of NewMediaMinistry.com. Come back soon!
