Nathan Campbell – Page 101

It’s (not) Friday, but this is clever

A little jumpy. A little bit like the kind of video you don’t show epileptics. A little bit good.

Sent to me by my friend Matt on Facebook. But between then and now it’s gone a bit viral.

June 11, 2011

Talk-back radio evangelism

Tired of hearing the Christian message mangled in the media, or not hearing Christian voices speak out on some issues? Well. Kel Richards makes a point in the latest Social Issues Executive that you can be the change you want to see in the media world by calling talk back radio programs. He includes some practical tips for calling talk-back (or open line) radio on an issue.

Listen (for a little while at least) to the program you want to get on to.
Think about your message – have a clear reason for calling.
Don’t write out a script of what you want to say.
Do jot down a few bullet points to help you remember what you want
to say.
Can you summarise your message in a slogan? If you can, jot it down –
repeat it several times during your call.
Be gracious to the producer – and explain what you want to say briefly
and clearly.
Be gracious to the presenter – and get straight to the point

Brilliant. And in a day and age where we can’t expect our self-appointed Christian voice on issues to talk about Jesus (realistically or otherwise), it’s a chance to get the gospel on the airwaves. If more of us did this, and people understood the gospel better, it wouldn’t be such a problem that a Christian lobby group doesn’t talk about morality. Because that’s part of establishing the framework that anything Christians say about morality comes from. Great stuff from Kel and Andrew Cameron.

It’s something I’ve previously described as “Guerilla Evangelism” (it’s also a good PR strategy if you have a relevant special interest or business).

June 10, 2011

How to be awesome like MacGyver

Ever wondered how you can turn the resources at your disposal into a quick fix solution for escaping the deadly situation you find yourself in? No?

Well. You’re not MacGyver then. But if you fancy a little bit of MacGyvering you should bookmark this page of MacGyver recipes.

June 8, 2011

X-Things: popular icons from my childhood in the theme of X-Men

X-Muppets and X-Mario. How cool would those franchises be if their characters had mutant super powers.

Muppets first.

And Mario.

That one is part of a series.

June 8, 2011

A visualisation of relationships in the Guy Ritchie classic “Snatch”

Remember when Guy Ritchie made entertaining caper movies. He did. Snatch is one of my favourite movies of all time. Partly because I watched it the day I finished high school, so it is permanently associated with a pretty terrific day.

There were times when it was difficult to remember who knew who, and who was partcipating in which narrative arc. If you had that problem then this one is for you. Otherwise it’s just an interesting way to map out a movie plot.

Via Visual News

June 8, 2011

Google set to eat itself, but not yet

A group of performance artists/social commentators/internet anarchists are trying to give Google back to the people. Setting up advertising and using the money to buy google shares.

“We generate money by serving Google text advertisments on a network of hidden Websites. With this money we automatically buy Google shares. We buy Google via their own advertisment! Google eats itself – but in the end “we” own it!”

On current modelling this date is some time off.

202345117 Years until GWEI fully owns Google

“By establishing this autocannibalistic model we deconstruct the new global advertisment mechanisms by rendering them into a surreal click-based economic model.”

A while ago I considered starting up a webpage where people could punish bad companies by clicking on their ads. Turns out this is against Google’s click fraud policies so that couldn’t have worked. This too is against such policies, but these guys have hidden their links around the Internet. They’ve managed to purchase $400,000 worth of shares. The catch is that this money hasn’t come from google, but from the pockets of its advertisers. It’s a reverse-reverse Robin Hood scheme. They’re robbing the poor, through the rich, to buy the rich, to give to the poor.

June 8, 2011

How to make strike anywhere matches

My inner-pyromaniac could not resist reposting this video.

Via 22 Words

June 8, 2011

Introducing the Cinemagraph: Like GIFs, but classy

These are great. I’d never thought about the artistic possibility of the GIF. I just thought they were for people hurting themselves in humourous ways. But no. They can do so much more.

Here’s a guide to making your own Cinemagraphs. Pretty clever.

June 8, 2011

Shoe nightlight: so you can catch people sneaking around

These are just a little bit cool. The laces are the power cords.

Via Kick-Fiend.

June 8, 2011

Ninjas in the Bible

Image Credit: Flickr

Two of the passages I’ve been preparing for exams this semester have made me ponder a theology of ninjas. Some might say it’s anachronistic to read ninjas back into the pages of the Bible. But Ninjas are everywhere. Check out this passage from Isaiah 49…

“He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.”

Ninja. Right. And let us not forget Ehud. The Left Handed Ninja Assassin.

No convinced? How about this… ninjas were also out to get Jesus. Luke 20:20-21.

“Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”

Which doesn’t look like much at face value, but in the Greek it reads:

“So they watched him and sent those hired to lie in wait who acted/pretended to be sincere…”

The word acted/pretended is the word we derive hypocrite from. But these guys were hired to lie in wait, blending into their surroundings, before striking. Ninjas.

June 8, 2011

Thunderstruck: a timelapse video of storm clouds a brewin’

I like clouds. I like timelapse. So it stands to reason that I’d like a timelapse video of clouds and would spend ten minutes of productive essay writing time watching this video. This gets all heavy and scary at about the eight minute mark.

Hector Thunderstorm Project from Murray Fredericks on Vimeo.

June 7, 2011

The many faces and emotions of Keanu Reeves

Sad Keanu is sad. But Keanu is an actor capable of such dynamism and range.

Here’s a guide to acting like Keanu.

Via Philip McGann.

Let this not be understood as a criticism of the third or fourth most awesome person in Hollywood.

June 6, 2011

Magical “cut chair” not just a chip off the old block

I would like six of these please.

Pretty clever. Here’s how it works (sorry to spoil the illusion).

From designer Peter Bristol.

June 6, 2011

Music to study to: Jinja Safari

So, on Saturday night, despite having been kicked about a thousand times in a game of soccer on Saturday we went to see Boy and Bear play the last show of their sold out Australian tour. They were good. But probably the real highlight was seeing support act Jinja Safari. Who brought so much energy to the stage. It was amazing. Very jungle drumesque. Shades of Vampire Weekend’s global fusion style replete with incredibly fast lyrics. I love a band with a drummer and a percussionist. Actually, I think I described them (to the chagrin of one of the guys there with us who doesn’t believe in comparing bands) as Architecture in Helsinki meets Vampire Weekend.

Fun.

Oh. And they had a sitar.

June 6, 2011

A plea for the Australian Christian Lobby to get “on message”

In my time as a PR hack for a regional lobby group one of the golden rules I learned for lobbying via the media (or for trying to change opinion via the media) is to stay on message. Over and over again. Make sure you get your point across. Make sure the questions you get asked become opportunities to give the answers you want to give. Done well, this is brilliant. A good message (or platform) is important.

We all hate the way modern politicians seem to simply repackage the same sound bite over and over again in broadcast interviews. When they do it, and get caught out, they look dumb. But most of the time they don’t get caught out. Because journalists, in reality, are after an eight second sound bite. And you’re much better off making sure that eight seconds is going to cover the message you want them to cover, not the message they want to cover. Being mindlessly on message is better than talking about things without being on message.

The best way to be on message is to know how your message, or more correctly, your platform, relates to the issue at hand. For a politician that doesn’t mean banging on about “creating jobs” or “stopping boats” it means giving reasons that the policy decision has been reached in a way that is attractive to a voter. A good way to do this is to involve real people. People like stories about people. But integrating one’s party platform with one’s media statement in a way that is catchy and repeatable is one step towards using the media effectively.

It can be hard being on message in the middle of a broadcast interview, and especially hard if it’s in the form of a debate, which has been the case in many of Wendy Francis’ recent TV appearances. But it is incredibly easy to be on message in a media release, and if a media release isn’t on message it shouldn’t be released, because anything you say that is not on message is a distraction from your real message. Let me repeat that in bold.

If a media release isn’t on message it shouldn’t be released, because anything you say that is not on message is a distraction from your real message.

Unless you have some sort of key performance indicator that involves distributing a certain number of releases per month, or some sort of contractual obligation, you should only put out releases that have a point. If you do have such KPIs or obligations you should seriously consider changing them. Nothing is more damaging than a brand than irrelevant and confusing messaging. Because when you have something valuable to say you’re either less credible, or a story will make reference to your previous position on an unrelated issue, or people just won’t listen to you because you’ve become the proverbial boy crying wolf.

Which brings me to the Australian Christian Lobby. And my big problem with how they do PR and how they’re almost never “on message”. Well, they’re not on “gospel” message anyway. A simple yardstick for being on message for a Christian Lobby would be talking about Jesus, wouldn’t it? Given that Jesus puts the Christ in Christian and is the leader of our political party, and that all our interactions with culture should be framed by the relationship we have with him by grace, and his Lordship over the world… I’d say Jesus is pretty foundational to Christian belief, and thus, Christian lobbying.

But not according to the Australian Christian Lobby. Now. A lot of the releases they put out in the Month of May are about good stuff. Serious issues. Issues where a Christian voice is valuable and necessary. And they get copious media coverage. They are nominally the spokespeople for the Christian cause in Australia. They keep getting wheeled out in front of cameras and recorders and notepads. And they keep straying off message. It’s foundational stuff.

Here’s a wordle of their media releases from May. I’ve removed the names of spokespeople quoted because they were a dominant feature.*

Now. You may think it’s unfair to take a sample of media releases about issues where they are on message about a response to an issue which may over cloud mentions of Jesus, word cloud wise. Which would be fair enough. But none of these releases actually mentioned Jesus. There is no flavouring of the gospel involved. Defenders of the ACL in recent days have mentioned that we’re called to be salt and light. Fair enough. But this isn’t even salty stuff. And, lest you think that just picking the word “Jesus” isn’t fair, I conducted the same exercise with the words gospel, God, and Bible. And got no results. Search results on their website reveal that most mentions of Jesus come in mentions of the Jesus: All About Life campaign, which they support.

A media messaging strategy for a Christian organisation of any flavour, but particularly a public voice of Christianity claiming to speak for all of us (they’re not called the Politically conservative Christians from Australia Lobby are they…), should fundamentally involve the issue that Christians of all flavours agree on. The Lordship of Jesus. Further, they should be motivated to see other people acknowledge that Lordship. While addressing injustice is a fundamental Christian activity, doing it in a manner so removed from our motivation is an off message distraction. This is why I think Christians who are interested in moral issues should form some sort of family/morality lobby (maybe stop the charade that Family First is a political party and turn them into a lobby group) and the Christian Lobby should get on with being a Christian voice (a role they try to claim for themselves on their about us page without actually mentioning Jesus, or the gospel, again). They claim a Christian “worldview” and yet don’t articulate it. A Christian worldview must start at the foot of the cross and work outwards, not start with morality and work inwards. The cross makes morality make sense.

Here’s what I think a Christian media strategy should look like, from 1 Peter 3:

¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

At the moment the ACL is failing on most counts, but still copping the slander. Why not do the first bit well, at least then you’re being slandered for a reason. And you’re not distracting people from the work of the gospel.

Interestingly, one of the few pages on the ACL site that mentions Jesus (that’s not a daily summary of news from around the traps) is an article they’ve posted from Sydney Anglicans where Michael Jensen talks about Jesus and the gospel alongside gay marriage. He integrates his key message with a response to an issue.

Deviations from the message of Jesus are a distraction from the gospel. But the message of Jesus has relevance to all areas and issues of society. The ACL, at this stage, aren’t doing a great job of integrating these two concepts.

*Data Source: Australian Christian Lobby National Media Releases from the Month of May: