MEDIA ISSUES CONCERNING ORAL COMMUNICATORS

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MEDIA ISSUES CONCERNING ORAL COMMUNICATORS
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Media make use of symbols to convey meaning
expressed as facts, intention, emotion
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Media are perceived by the physical senses

• vision ? hearing
• hearing ? vision
• touch
• taste
• smell

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Oral Communicators Primarily Make Use of Three
Media

• Oral Media
• Visual Media
• Touch Media

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Oral Media

• Stereotyped DescriptionsHes meaner than a wart
  hog!
• Fixed ExpressionsIts fixin to rain cats and
  dogs!
• Proverbs (stories condensed to a statement)A
  stitch in time saves nine.
• Narrated storiesWell sir, it happened like
  this

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Oral Media continued

• Songs (ballads)
• Poetic Rhythmic Chanting
• Drama (which also combines elements of visual
  literacy)
• Sound Effects (vocalized sounds, created physical
  sounds)

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The Conventions of Media

• Oral Conventions jokes, anecdotes, gossip,
  entertainment stories, heritage stories
• Visual Conventions color, perspective, social
  convention decorum, relationship and position,
  contextualization
• Touch Conventions use of hands feet, touching
  the head or body, embrace, kiss

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Visual Media are entertaining in that they
attract and hold attention while communicating
meaning
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Visual Media

• Facial Expressions
• Physical gestures (use of hand gestures, other
  body and foot positions movement)
• Metaphors as implied visual media (concrete
  images)
• Simple Drawings (stick figures)
• Flat Pictures (line drawings, shaded drawings,
  color)

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Visual Media continued

• Models and Dioramas (tent of meeting model or
  diaroma of tabernacle compound)
• Drama
• Dance

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Touch Media

• Holding the listener while speaking
• Touching for emphasis
• Touching for effect as in ritual
• Striking in anger or punishment

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Combined Media

• Storytelling Gestures
• In South Louisiana if you cut off a Cajuns hands
  he cant talk!
• Even among many semi-literate Chinese they will
  draw the Chinese character in the palm of their
  hand to be sure the listener knows which tonal
  character is being used

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Combined Media continued

• Use of objects, referral to real or imagined
  symbolic scenes and objects in discourse
• Bread cup in Last SupperParable of the
  SowerThe Bread come down from heaven
• Drink of living water
• Referral to widow casting her mites in treasury

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Combined Media continued

• Use of objects, referral to real or imagined
  symbolic scenes and objects in discourse
• Tear down this temple and I will build it again
  in three days
• As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert
• As Jonah was in the belly of the fish three
  days
• As it was in the days of Noah

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Combined Media continued

• Jesus writing on the ground
• Jesus use of touch
• mud in healing, touching the leper, taking
  Jairus daughter by the hand
• Jesus use of demonstrative actioncleansing the
  temple with whip and overturning tables
• Other ritual used by oral communicators healing
  (herbalists, witch doctors), exorcism, symbolic
  rituals (rites of passage)

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Considerations of Media Use in Support of
Storying Among Oral Communicators
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Advantages

• Engages more than one sense hearing sight,
  sight hearing, hearing touch
• Illustrates unknown concepts (pictures of unknown
  objects, rituals and scenes)
• Punctuates the told story, adding interest and
  expression

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Advantages (continued)

• Qualifies otherwise unqualified communicators
• Attract hold attention of audience (especially
  culturally appropriate media)

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Disadvantages

• Circumstances may limit use of specific media
• May introduce unwanted concepts or socially
  inappropriate image or idea
• Cost and supply of teaching media like pictures

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Disadvantages (continued)

• May distract audience or provide confusing or
  conflicting message
• Difficulty of maintaining performance of folk
  media

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Media Consideration Summarized

• Appropriate (socially, culturally, spiritually)
• Reproducible (cost, skill, availability)
• Constructive, supportive not detracting

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Teaching Pictures

• Advantages
• Attract attention and hold it
• Illustrate unfamiliar objects and scenes
• Show sequence of events, existing condition,
  elements of plot and outcome, depict characters
• Help to guide listeners to see the same scene
  and discourage substituting their own scene
• Useful in review of stories
• Help to qualify otherwise unqualified storyers

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Teaching Pictures

• Disadvantages
• Availability and cost if used in large number
• Poor technique in use
• Need to replace damaged or lost pictures
• Lack of certain needed pictures
• Lack of a sequence of pictures
• Wrong aspect or portrayal of a scene
• Culturally or socially unsuitable
• Creates dependence on pictures when telling

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Audio Cassettes

• Advantages
• Once recorded can be widely reproduced and
  distributed at relatively low cost
• Provide a quality or at least adequate telling of
  stories
• Provide stories in dialects or mother tongue
  languages storyer is unskilled in speaking
• Always tells the story the same way!
• Can be left with listeners for continued listening

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Audio Cassettes

• Disadvantages
• Cassette players may be needed adding to cost or
  distribution difficulties
• Cassettes are easily damaged or destroyed by
  careless users, or erased
• Cassettes may fall into wrong hands or be
  outlawed
• Storytellers dialect may not be a universal or
  widely acceptable language
• Cost or recovery of cost in large distributions

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Video Media

• Advantages
• Very attractive form of presentation with color,
  sound and drama
• Powerful emotional impact possible
• Recorded media like VCD and DVDs are very
  compact and easily carried or concealed
• Possibility of multiple sound tracks on same
  video
• Can be distributed so locals can use without a
  storyer present
• Cant be erased unless videocassette

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Video Media

• Disadvantages
• Initial cost of production or translation dubbing
• Used alone does not provide the community
  discussion and response
• Requires expensive and delicate equipment
• Visualizing some scenes may involve social or
  cultural issues
• For some viewers provides too much story at one
  viewing unless broken into episodes
• May not be available in needed languages

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Film

• Advantages
• Viewing by large audience possible
• Already an established media in many places
• Can be used alone or in support of live
  storytelling
• Existing films are powerful and proven in use
• Some commercial religious films are also useful
  if available in needed languages

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Film

• Disadvantages
• Cost of film media and projection equipment
• Film events often need police permits
• Film shows are dependent upon available power
• Improper use of film may stem from stopping the
  film, sole use of film without live intro and
  closure
• Film is difficult to disguise in closed countries

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Radio

• Advantages
• Can reach a potentially large audience
  simultaneously
• Can reach into places inaccessible to storyers
• Provides distancing where hostility is a
  problem
• Radio is still a very popular medium
• Recorded stories and lessons can also e
  circulated as audiocassettes
• Makes use of music and quality recording and
  professional storytellers
• Can be used to get response from those desiring a
  local storying session

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Radio

• Disadvantages
• Production and airtime cost
• Lack of face to face contact requires special
  consideration of format especially for processing
  of story
• Listeners may not be consistent, missing key
  stories or portions of story by distractions
• Program time limit must be considered
• Scheduling of language blocks needed

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Folk Media

• Culturally appropriate and affordable
• Generally endlessly reproducible
• May make stories acceptable even by hostile
  audiences
• Likely to spread far and wide within a people
  group
• Must be generated from within the culture
• May be viewed by some believers are pagan or
  belonging to the old way

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Media Recap

• Heighten storytelling experience
• Clarify unfamiliar scenes or items in stories
• Provide for repetition
• Provide quality presentation
• Reach inaccessible peoples
• Qualify otherwise unqualified storyers
• Provide a useful tool for local evangelists

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But in the long run nothing really replaces a
living storyteller who knows the stories and can
energize them in his or her telling and
interaction with listeners. Jesus said YOU
shall be my witnesses