Buhl- Free blog 3

Mediated by Thomas de Zengotita (2005)

In this book there are four main points but only two out of the four apply to this class. The last two he mentions in his book are “the blob” and also the “real verses the mediated.”  The blob is a visual metaphor for the audience to understand and offer an image to capture and describe the historical process of how media takes over reality and grows "fakeness." The fakeness describes how things become just mere shadows of what they were. Through our mediated world our perception is transformed into seeing and understanding a mediated world, and not the true reality of our society. Mediated culture has seeped into our religious culture as well as our everyday life. Mediation is structuring religious experiences. For example the local church Water’s Edge; the pastor only attends one out of five churches each Sunday and then broadcasts to the other churches over a projector screen. The pastor isn’t really at the other four locations; he is a holographic image that people are responding to. Technology is standing in for an actual person; the experience of this religious experience is being mediated by the use of technology. The use of technology is affecting the religious message that is being communicated to the congregation of this mega church. Language is not an empty vehicle in which we communicate with one other, the way we choose to communicate or which ever medium we choose to use affect the message that is being produced. This is what is happening in this church. The technology is getting in the way of the actual religious message.