<\/p>\n
A communications expert who specializes in Generation Z and Christian communications is warning that there\u2019s an informational battle unfolding that believers must pay attention to \u2014 and that fears of new technologies must be tempered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew media is something we shouldn\u2019t be afraid of,\u201d Bethany Miller, communications director for National Religious Broadcasters, told CBN News, explaining that people both young and old are relying on social media for information and news gathering. \u201cWe need to stay ahead of the curve and realize new media is the way. Social media is how we get our headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Miller knows the pitfalls that can come from getting news from Reels and short videos, discussing how younger people are even more tuned in to social media for these purposes.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s Gen Z\u2019s \u2026 and \u2026 teenagers \u2026 are growing up without any form of separation between the digital and the physical,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so information is being consumed \u2026 and then the tricky part is now we\u2019re having the question of: \u2018What is real and what is not real?’\u201d<\/p>\n This complicates how people process information around war and major news events, and with artificial intelligence emerging it only adds to the chaos and confusion. As a result, there\u2019s an \u201cinformation warfare\u201d of sorts taking form.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re having a type of access that\u2019s misinformation and we\u2019re getting headlines that are not accurate,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting everyone\u2019s opinion and \u2026 we don\u2019t need everyone\u2019s opinion because now we\u2019re having both truth and untruth and now Gen Z has a barrage \u2014 the American public as a whole has a barrage \u2014 of headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller continued, \u201cAnd now you have to do the discernment of what is true, what is not true, and my concern is that Gen Z has not grown up with that distance between what is reality and what is not reality.\u201d<\/p>\n The assumption that random videos and AI-generated content are true is creating a plethora of confusion, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cGen Z doesn\u2019t have that type of discernment that they need to realize whether or not something is true, whether something is biblical, whether something is true, good and beautiful,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n Despite this dynamic, she described being encouraged by how Christians are stepping into social media, film, TV, and other forms of entertainment, offering quality content. For a long time, Christian entertainment was criticized for a lack of excellence, but Miller believes those tides are changing.<\/p>\n \u201cChristian media is paving the way, but we still have quite a lot more work to do,\u201d she said, noting it\u2019s important for Christians to get a better grip on the audience. \u201cI think we\u2019re starting to see that, but we still have a long way to go. We need to make sure that we know our audience. We know that 30 seconds is what performs well on Instagram. We need to know that we need to format.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller added, \u201cWe know that Christian media has the answer, we have truth, we are the only ones that are providing the way to eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of engaging, she said, is understanding that we\u2019re in a spiritual war that requires engagement. She cited examples of persecution in Nigeria not getting much coverage \u2014 and of Israel being maligned after Hamas\u2019 deadly October 7 terror attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mission field is different today,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWhen we talk about the Great Commission, that doesn\u2019t just mean going over across seas to Africa; it also means getting online because the mission field is also media. It is also digital.\u201d<\/p>\n And that digital world, much like the physical, demands that Christians take action.<\/p>\n \u201cThe digital world is a spiritual world as well and Christians need to be there combating, and we need to be there leading the front lines, and we need to be there getting the truth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Please sign up for\u00a0Faithwire\u2019s daily newsletter\u00a0and download the\u00a0CBN News app\u00a0to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A communications expert who specializes in Generation Z and Christian communications is warning that there\u2019s an informational battle unfolding that believers must pay attention to \u2014 and that fears of new technologies must be tempered. \u201cNew media is something we shouldn\u2019t be afraid of,\u201d Bethany Miller, communications director for National Religious Broadcasters, told CBN News,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[119,1138,1236,1858],"class_list":["post-32193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-christians","tag-information","tag-prepare","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}