I'm Warren Smith and today you'll be listening in on my conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Bill

Bro.

The author of a provocative new book called Reading the Times, a literary and theological

inquiry into the news.

The church has historically made some big claims on our attention through worship and

through regular gatherings together and shared meals.

But if we replace those with media consumption then our sense of belonging shifts from

the church to our however we imagine our tribe of fellow news junkies.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that we live in a media saturated culture.

I need to look no further than this very podcast to identify new media that didn't even

exist a generation ago.

And that proliferation of new media with all of its promise of benefits has also brought

new problems, distraction, anxiety, noise, information overload.

We're in the paradoxical state of having more information than ever and simultaneously

more confusion, more knowledge but less wisdom, more outrage at the problems we see

but fewer solutions and less clarity about which of the solutions is the right one.

If you're listening in regular you know that these questions, these concerns are not

new ones for me.

When world news groups editor-in-chief Marvin Alaska and I revised his classic book Prodigal

Press in 2013 we devoted a new chapter to new media and the challenges that it presents.

I have many guests on this program in fact who have discussed this very topic.

So I'm not easily impressed when I encounter a new book about news, media and the digital

...