New web survey to find out how we get Christian News
www.martinjohnsoncommunications.com.au/survey
A web survey
launched this week is designed to find out how Australian Christians know what’s
happening in the Christian world.
“We read the newspaper, listen to the
radio and watch television and the web to find out what’s happening in the
secular world, but these outlets report little of what happens in the Christian
scene in Australia or the world,” said survey author, Martin Johnson. “Anything
these media report about Christianity is usually bad news or on the quirky
side,” he said.
The web based survey asks respondents to nominate how
they currently get their Christian news and then asks if this is their preferred
method.
“Whether its through a church bulletin, a denominational
magazine, a web site or a Christian radio station, most Christians hear news in
some way – the problem is that this can vary widely and be quite disjointed,”
Martin said. “This makes it difficult for Christian organizations to know how
best to communicate their message,” he said.
“One of the reasons for
this survey is because of my involvement with the Lausanne Communications
Working Group planning the Capetown 2010 Conference,” Martin said.
“The
Capetown 2010 organisers have a range of articles and stories about the
conference that they want to disseminate around the world. In the US, it’s
possible to use one or two outlets to get the message out, but with such a
diversity of magazines, newsletters, web sites and denominational newspapers in
Australia, it’s very hard to find one or two outlets that reach the majority of
the population,” he said.
“I expect the results to show that Australian
Christians get their Christian news from a wide range of sources – but the only
way to confirm this is ask people to complete the survey,” said Martin.
As an incentive, everyone who completes the survey and provides their
e-mail address will receive a summary of the survey results a few weeks after
the survey closes. For over seventeen years, Martin compiled a weekly Christian
news bulletin for Gordon Moyes’ Sunday Night Live’ radio program on 2GB and now
runs his own Communications Consultancy.
The survey is on-line at: www.martinjohnsoncommunications.com.au/survey