My daughter is friends with a local radio host. So Ryk invited me to be interview on ABC Local FM at 5:35am on Monday. It was good fun experience and a great opportunity to talk in a bit more depth about my Christian faith and ministry with him.
Here's the write-up profile that appeared online a few days later.
I've been in various media a few times now, and it is always slightly weird watching an interview you engaged in get re-framed by the journalist – the article title, the quotes that are used, the summary paragraphs, and the relative emphasis. I know that's the reality of things, but it's still weird.
In this case a couple of observations:
- Although I only spent 1-2 minutes on my conversion right at the end of the interview, the whole thing is re-framed into a teen-rebellion-convert narrative.
- My mentioned of 'not bible [sic] bashing' is menitoned twice and also chosen for the pull quote – but my explanation of the gospel message was left out entirely.
- I spoke of it being more likely for ARTS students to believe science disproved God, than for science students. But this is appears as an issue that SCIENCE students faced.
- I described being reluctantly persuaded of the gospel by intelligent and thoughtful Christians – and this becomes: “it was Christianity he felt most comfortable with”.
- The article seems to imply that our ministry is predominatley with international students – a topic that only came up because the interviewer asked.
I guess this is a mix of misunderstanding, and accidentally hearing things within pre-existing narrative grids. Still it was a good opportunity and a good experience.
