Focus on the Family: The Medium

Focus on the Family has a clear message: anything outside the heteronormative standard is immoral, today's culture is a destructive force that must be combated, there is only one logical choice when it comes to religion, and that abortion is a destruction of life. It is normal to want to place an inordinate amount of attention on the message when it has the tendency to scathe so many. When looking at the viewpoints of Focus on the Family, analyzing the emotional medium seems like a more apt approach to pursue. What emotional drives propel an organization of this sort to lobby against the issues it does? And furthermore, a look into the emotional medium of the message may allow a clearer glimpse into Focus on the family's motivation as well as the effects of its pursuits. There are very valid reasons behind disregarding the message while paying closer attention to its medium.

When we examine the emotional medium of a message we are better able to discern the factors that supersede the message in magnitude of importance. From Media as Media (2008) by Strate, “The medium is the message because content cannot exist without a medium.” (p. 5) Without emotional context as incentive to drive a message there would be no message. People rely upon their feelings to motivate them to action, and without this motivation Focus on the Family would have no message to convey.

As well the emotional medium behind the message determines the nature of the message.

From Media as Media (2008) by Strate:

And the different forms that they take determine what their meaning and impact will be. The words we think to ourselves seem different when we utter them out loud. The words we write down take on a permanence, distance, and impersonal quality in comparison to speech. (p. 5). Emotions drive a message in a manner similar to how a medium affects the nature of a message. The nature of the emotional medium used by Focus on the Family determines how it is interpreted, experienced, expressed. The emotional medium is works in a way very similar to how the physical medium carries the nature of the message.

Examining the emotional medium of the message gives us two important insights into Focus on the Family.

Tracy, Amy. "Collateral Damage? Children With a Gay Parent Speak Out - Focus on the Family." Focus on the Family: Helping Families Thrive. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. <http://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/facing_crisis/my_spouse_struggles_

with_homosexuality/collateral_damage_children_with_a_gay_parent_speak_out.aspx>.

Strate, Lance. "Media as Media." 2008. Web.