I understand my major in Visual Communication to be an intensive training in communication problem solving. How do we design the best solutions to communicate to the desired target audience? The challenge is then to know the audience and the message very well.
This is the ultimate challenge for any communication student: to design ways of communicating messages from a generally stigmatized community, i.e. Christians.
My task is to objectively treat all Christians as a client. How would and could I assist them in effectively communicating their messages? What are these messages and what constitutes effectively communicating them i.e. what are the desired outcomes of communicating these messages?
My caution and concern would be to ensure I do not portray Christians as a victimized community.
This should not be a pity-party, nor will it be a “lashing back at the world because you don’t like me” angst-ridden endeavor. Rather it should be an opportunity to look at what when wrong and why. Why do people find Christians and Christianity offensive? And what can be done to clear up the misunderstandings, not in a defensive manner, but in a genuine, sincere, humbled attempt to reflect upon and correct certain methods and manners of communicating Christian messages which offend and/or are turnoffs.
It is an extremely sensitive and vulnerable topic for me to pursue because I am a Christian myself.
However it is also an exploration into my identity as a Christian English-educated Chinese young woman living in Southeast Asia. My focus will be on fellow Christian Asians living in this part of the world. There will be times where post-colonialism, dying Asian traditions, the “generation gap”, westernized media, post-modernism and even the rise of technology will come into play.
My take is that it’s just like a sales pitch; the target market can choose to accept or not, to buy or not. My job is not to force them into buying, but rather to present in the best manner I possibly can. The rest is up to the potential buyer.
I do not have a fixed title yet for my FYP; titles are very important to me and I don’t feel I have sufficient grasp on the topic to give it a title yet. However, I can say my areas of research revolve around studying Christians and Christianity as if they were clients. This research will culminate in the profiling of the young (JC, university, and yuppie) Singaporean English-speaking Christian (very much like myself). It will also ultimately be to study this niche community which actually is very well connected and to discover what they think of themselves as Asian Christians and Christian Asians living in Singapore.
