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How do we respond to the constant bombardment of news, advertising, and entertainment? Discourse talks to communications expert Gordon Pennington.

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Gordon Pennington (Photo by Stephen McGee)

What is the best response Christians can have to a 24/7 news and entertainment media cycle?

How can we safeguard our children from substituting too much fantasy from computers and video games from reality at an early age?

Gordon Pennington uses his experiences as a communications and public relations consultant to examine questions like these. In this conversation, we take a look at what Pennington calls our “choice anxiety.”

According to Pennington, we each struggle to extract the good from the bad in the overwhelming amount of information we absorb each day—far more than prior generations had to do.

Pennington knows first hand how effective advertising and mass communications campaigns work, having served as director of marketing for Tommy Hilfiger. Now, as managing director of Burning Media Group in New York City, he counsels major corporate clients like Coca Cola, IBM, MTV, and Sony, along with more religious-oriented organizations like the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.

Pennington is becoming well-known on the Christian lecture circuit, particularly since he was a featured commentator in The Truth Project.  He has also spoken at Socrates in the City in New York City and speaks on culture and media influence to screenwriters in Hollywood.

A trustee of the Universal Literacy Project, Pennington is an advocate for stressing literacy
as a fundamental civil right.

Take a listen to Pennington’s behind-the-scenes understanding of Madison Avenue and how we can best understand our 21st century news and entertainment culture, discerning its good and potentially harmful effects on our souls.

“Discourse,” an occasional podcast on BreakPoint, applies a Christian worldview lens to a broad range of issues related to contemporary culture. Stephen Reed, a Centurion in the class of 2008, is a former talk radio host and serves as Web content editor for the Colson Center. If you see any cultural issues out there you would like to see us address in a future podcast, e-mail Stephen at: stephen_reed@pfm.org.