Channel 4 head calls Christians to engage more with media

The head of Channel 4, Andy Duncan, has said that Christians need to engage more with the media and keep up-to-date with new media technologies in order to further promote their cause.

Duncan, who attends a Baptist church in Croydon, also said that TV programmes about religion often did not have high audiences, reports Baptist Times.

Speaking at a seminar at the recent Baptist Assembly entitled “God and the media - an unholy alliance”, Duncan used the example of the recent Channel 4 series History of Christianity, which had around one million viewers per episode.

He said while that was a significant number of people, given that the programme was aired in a peak time slot it could have easily had a lot more viewers, had it been a different programme.

According to Duncan, Christians were not “engaging” as much with the media as people from other faiths. He claimed that following the conflict in Gaza both Jews and Muslims were keen to put forward their side of the story in a way that Christians seem reluctant to do.

He said, “It's interesting that we have a relatively low engagement from the Christian community.

“On occasions we get a lot more contact from other faith groups, who stress their side of the debate pretty heavily … Are Christians engaging enough? I think it's an interesting question.”

Duncan said that Channel 4 aimed to make programmes covering views and beliefs which do not often make it into the mainstream media, and that as a result most religious TV programmes were on Channel 4 or on the BBC, which is required to make religious programmes as a public service broadcaster.

However profit driven TV stations like ITV and Five were much less likely to make programmes on religion as there is less money in it.

Duncan was quoted by the Baptist Times as saying, “There are fewer programmes on religion than there used to be … There are far less money and resources.

“If we carry on the current trajectory, there will be even less about religion, including Christianity, which I think will be a real shame.”

He also said that churches needed to do more to become aware of changing media technology and the effect it has on younger people.

He said, "The media world is changing very fast for the younger generation.

“The first thing my 14-year-old daughter will do when she comes home from school is go to the computer, ahead of the television.

“It's really important for churches to be media savvy, to understand the importance of things like social websites for the younger generation.”

Despite the various shortcomings of the media, Duncan said that he was “absolutely convinced” that media could be “a force for good”.