A DIFFERENT CASTING CALL: The Circuit of Culture of Evangelization in The 700 Club Asia
Gueco, K.M.H. (2016). A different casting call: The circuit of culture of evangelization in The 700 Club Asia. Unpublished undergraduate thesis. University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication
There are television shows that simply make people laugh, cry, feel elated or entertained. But there are television shows that claim to change lives, and that is what The 700 Club Asia does – or at least claims to be. Being a carrier of the gospel, The 700 Club Asia is a Christian televangelist program that just would not stop talking about Jesus. The researcher took interest on this and analyzed how Circuit of Culture of evangelization operates in the case of the said program. It wants to unveil the elements – representation, identity, production, consumption, regulation – which surround this specific circuit and understand how the gospel is represented. Performed using interview with a key informant, life histories, personal observation and fantasy theme analysis, this study aims to provide an overview of the evangelistic process within The 700 Club Asia.
The findings reveal that various elements are at work in the process and that each of them play a key role in the evangelization process through the program. Moreover, it is a give-and-take procedure between viewers and producers to be able to successfully televangelize. Further studies on specific elements of production such as its time slot, geographic boundaries, and other emerging media forms that are utilized for evangelization are recommended.
Keywords: The 700 Club Asia, Circuit of Culture, evangelism, fantasy themes, gospel>