We're thrilled with the response from our Auburn Media Download and can't wait to keep in touch!
While December finds many of you busy with seasonal responsibilities, a great way to keep up the work we started together at Auburn Media Training is to use the current news cycle as a hook.
When you lean into a current news or pop culture moment, you are meeting people at the water cooler and helping them make sense of what everyone's talking about. It's what you do in the classroom and from the pulpit all the time - connect with people where they are. So do it in the media too and help thousands make the shift from the mundane to the meaningful. 

Holiday greetings,
Macky Alston
Senior Director
Auburn Media & Communications

What's News 

The current news cycle is timely and compelling content for your weekly message, blog or sermon. You can enter the space that's on your community's hearts and minds and go deeper into your religious tradition by exploring what's news.
For example, as Occupy Wall Street continues to bring economic justice to the fore, watch how these two faith leaders (and fellow Auburn Media Trainees) utilize the Occupy moment to talk about their religious values.
Click here to watch Bishop Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show in November. "Part of what a bishop does is look for God. Look for God at work in the world. And I think I saw God at work in Zuccotti Park [at Occupy Wall Street]."
Click here to listen to Jon Walton, Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New York City, in his November church message and sermon podcast, "A Different Kind of Occupation." Addressing the start of the Advent season, Rev. Walton links the Occupy Wall Street movement to the prophet Isaiah. "Isaiah is calling for a little 'occupying' movement on God's part himself; call for God to come down and make things right and bring justice and take up the plight of a broken and suffering people."
And if you're interested in the big media picture of the Occupy Wall Street movement, click here to read about how the genius behind Occupy is a progressive ad agency in Canada.
Want to add podcasting to your pastoral outreach? Podcasting offers a simple, yet powerful way to make your weekly sermons available to anyone who couldn't make it in person. Click here to learn more about getting started with Apple's iTunes, the most popular platform for podcasts. 

Pop Culture

Tablets are coming to our places of worship, and we don't mean the Ten Commandments. 
Did you read about mega-Church maverick Joel Osteen's new reality show? 
Plus, Sesame Street is taking on poverty and hunger with its newest Muppet.

December Religious Calendar: Hannukah (12/20-28), Christmas (12/25), Kwanzaa (12/26-1/1),
December Secular Calendar: Winter Solstice (12/22), New Year's Day (1/1)

Media & Social Action Campaigns: Fighting the Politics of Fear

When news broke that more than 20 advertisers were pulling commercials from the TLC's reality show All-American Muslim in response to conservative religious boycotts, Sikh activist and Auburn Media Training alum Valarie Kaur went into organizing mode.
As the Director of Groundswell, the movement building initiative at Auburn, she launched an overnight social action campaign for voices of faith to sign a petition to call upon advertisers who pulled their commercials from future episodes of All-American Muslim to reverse those decisions.
"Around the 10th anniversary of 9/11 we led a campaign building a "Groundswell of Community" to speak against anti-Muslim bias, so this was just the next step," says Kaur.
And then Valarie turned to the medium she trusts the most to spread the word: the media. Valarie's friend Melissa Harris-Perry, who was substituting on MSNBC for Rachel Maddow, planned a segment around the All-American Muslim controversy and invited Valarie to be on the show. "Television and social media are the new public square. It's the place to give voice to a groundswell of people across the country - calling for an end to the politics of fear," says Valarie.
Click here to watch Valarie on The Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC this week.

Book Your Auburn Media Training Workshop
How can your ministry, organization or faith leader use media more effectively? To book your full-day or half-day Auburn Media Training, please email me.Plus, introduce Auburn Media Training to your friends, networks and favorite social justice organizations to invest in bold leaders who use media to trouble the waters and heal the world.

Rev. Kellie Anderson-Picallo
Director of Media and Education
Auburn Seminary