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The powerful media of film, video, television, compact
discs, and all that constitute the new media are excellent
tools to inform, educate and entertain. Television,
the miracle machine of this age is powerful in the world
of today. It can enrich individuals, families and communities.
At the same time, it can harm them. In India, film and
television provide an escapist fare, that make the teeming
millions who live under poverty line, to escape into
a mirage of unreal hope.
Cinema is the medium of the masses in India. India is the largest producer of full-length feature films. Over 900 titles of three-hour duration are produced every year. They are exhibited through 13000 theaters and touring cinemas that draw a crowd of over 15 million people everyday. The video invasion forced cinema theaters to close down elsewhere in the world in the 1980s India added more of them every year. The viewership of these films has increased. VCDs and DVDs now carry these films to the privacy of homes. Nearly one hundred television channels and hundreds of cable-operators depend on films and film-related software in their programming
Yet, there is some awareness in recent years to use
visual-media as an excellent pre-evangelism tool. There
is a need to lead our people from this stage of awareness
to the other progressive stages of comprehension, on
to conviction and finally for dynamic action. Possibilities
of a multi-media approach to evangelism with visual-media
playing a vital role are to be explored and employed
for plentiful harvest.
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