ABSTRACT
Social media platforms like Facebook offer timelines of user behavior and algorithmically driven “memories” that pop up with apparent spontaneity in one's News Feed. Prophetic media critique is based, in large part, on Walter Brueggemann's idea of the “prophetic imagination,” which avoids the dual extremes of naive idealism and dystopian fear. Prophetic critique stands in contrast to the priestly propaganda of mainstream media. As a major source of popular mythologies, media function like ecclesiological structures, or religious institutions. Popular, priestly media tell stories to maintain old and gain new audiences, or converts, to their messages and products. The shift from a broadcast era to cable news and social media has, paradoxically, created new opportunities for prophetic critique even as it amplifies priestly, tribal rhetoric. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
