Television Tsunami

Image: technitodo

Within the last two years we've crossed an invisible line in the United States.  According to Nielsen Media Research, there are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and only 2.55 people.  Thus, there are more tvs than humans!  (Just like in California where there are more licensed realtors than houses sold.)

Nielson, the most sophisticated TV research organization in existence, just released their newest data reflecting the proliferation of television in the US.  You can read their report here.  They note that flat-screen TVs now make it easy to put sets where they've never been before.  With television now on buses, in stores, airports and schools, its ubiquity as an appliance is responsible for as much of its popularity as is its conscious consumption.  

Additional data concludes half of American homes have three or more TVs, and only 19% have just one.  To give you a little perspective, in 1975, 57% of homes had only a single set and only 11% had three or more.

In the average home a television set is turned on for more than a third of the day (the same amount of time recommended for sleep - one third of our lives) — eight hours, 14 minutes, Nielsen reports. That's an hour more than it was a decade ago.  And most of that extra TV viewing is coming outside of prime time, where TVs are on only four minutes more than they were 10 years ago. 

The average American television viewing time continues to increase in spite of growing competition from new media platforms and devices, such as video iPods, cell phones and streaming video.  In total, the average person in America watches 4 ½ hours of television each day.  (Bloggers exempt.)

The questions that arise in analyzing media-related data with implications for the Church include the concepts of postmodernism, decentralization and media-steeped constituencies.  Although the Gospel message does not change, the presentation of the message is influenced by cultural relativism and social trends become significant in their implications in both the lives of leaders/innovators as well as in the lives of those our message hopes to reach.

The omnipresence of broadcast media is really a kind of first wave, creating conditions which will push all social institutions into the next historical era.  And traditional broadcasting will continue to evolve into narrowcasting, and additionally microcasting.  Because the economic and technological conditions of our age have given rise to an increasingly decentralized, media-dominated society, Church must redefine how we can best reach and serve individuals.

Identifying both trends and their ministry implications helps the Church reach, influence and equip people. Analyzing entertainment preferences, family patterns and activity, moral views and behavior and faith practices are all part of reading the culture can empower the Church to have a relevant voice with an alternate message.