Mattingly, a syndicated journalist, spoke in several communications classes, met with student newspaper staff and addressed the JBU community in a chapel service.
During chapel, Mattingly described some limitations of the Christian entertainment industry saying, "[It] is often viewed as not real…. How did we end up making music that isn’t real?"
Music is not the only industry where Christians need to make a splash, according to Mattingly. He also encouraged students to be involved in secular film, television, art and journalism arenas. He asked the penetrating question, "Why do we only want to work for Christian journals?"
JBU’s communications chair, Arnie Mayer, said that student reactions to Mattingly’s visit were overwhelmingly positive. Many hope Mattingly will return to campus to continue the dialog.
"His chapel lecture was very relevant to the students and it [generated] more discussion at our student forum with [Mattingly] just after the chapel talk," Mayer said. "His lecture in our media writing class was very appropriate for today’s converging world of media."
In the open forum held during a communications class, Mattingly spoke to a variety of students interested in pursuing media careers after graduating. Mattingly encouraged students to be the best in their fields and look to Christians who have gone before them in their prospective careers.
Mattingly’s visit was made possible by a Fieldstead & Company grant that funds visits by a wide variety of journalists to campuses with strong journalism programs. For more information regarding Fieldstead & Company’s sponsorship of journalism-related lectures on CCCU campuses or the Summer Institute of Journalism, contact Richard Potts at rpotts@cccu.org.
Author Note :
Laura Gray, Sports Editor at JBU’s weekly newspaper, contributed to this release.