Skip watching

“I too have been tempted to simply skip watching.”

I’ve exchanged emails and Facebook posts with a USA based minister friend about his experience with online church. He has been very careful with his online COVID19 Sunday service as he is aware that media is not neutral. He is afraid that he is Netflixing his congregants.

The notion that the media is not neutral – that people do not adequately distinguish that they are watching church when on the same device they view a Batman movie – is a genuine threat. It was recognised by a media ecologist Neil Postman in a credible book “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. Postman predicted that television would be so persuasive that other presentation forms would gravitate towards television formats.

Postman would not have predicted that a Sydney Anglican Senior Minister Netflixed himself to the point where he was tempted to find an alternative to his own service (per the quote above, an email to parishioners: "Church COVID19 Update", 17 July 2020).

Which brings me to examine some statistics of a single church’s experience of viewer count over the COVID-19 period. LCM Churches on Sydney’s leafy North Shore established a Youtube channel and have published weekly online service offerings. The feed commences on 22 March 2020 with a Youtube recording of a livestream service and runs continuously to the Sunday prior to my writing of this post. The services are currently scheduled to continue as online services.

LCM Churches Youtube channel banner

Here is a table of Youtube views in reverse order:

And, then in graphical form through to most current date:

Now, I’ve applied a few tricks of the statistical trade in producing that table. So, 29 March and 5 April were offered as two services and I’ve added the view count of the two services together. For 12 April, which was Easter Sunday, I’ve taken Good Friday’s count which was slightly higher than Easter Sunday.

I thought of applying a factor to the view count. So, for instance, one could assume that in some households five persons (mum, dad and three children) were gathered together to watch. The problem with applying such a factor is that there needs to be allowance for multiple views and for those who click and do not watch the whole show. So, the Youtube count is probably indicative even though it is not true.

What the statistics say is this….while there has been a decline from the highpoint of 29 March [on 22 March people were watching live and their views are not counted so 29 March is the best indication of initial audience] the decline has stabilised by July 2020. Approximately 70% have abandoned their viewing.

In the first instance I’m not disturbed by the decline in viewing. I think that the decline in viewing is a secondary issue to the problem of Netflixing people and completely changing their expectation of church. Such people will return to physical attendance church with a changed view of church.

And, they are likely to be disappointed.

As Postman recognised each new media has changed consumption demands; telegraph>newspaper, newspaper>radio, radio>television, television>internet streaming. A church that does not change with its people will genuinely feel the effects of decline as people drift either away from church or to more engaging church offerings.

Shalom,
Ozhamada

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