1. Spencer W. Kimball, as quoted in Russell C. Rasmussen, “Computers and the Internet in the Church,” in Out of Obscurity: The LDS Church in the Twentieth Century (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 277.

2. Gordon B. Hinckley, as quoted in Rasmussen, “Computers and the Internet,” 278.

3. Richard O. Cowan, “The Latter-day Saint Century,” in Out of Obscurity, 19.

4. Jay M. Todd, “An Overview of Church Magazines in the Twentieth Century: With Appendixes A, B, C,” paper presented at the Twenty-Ninth Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, September 9, 2000, 6, videocassette.

5. A Relief Society lesson addresses “the power of the media.” “The Powerful Influence of the Media,” Come unto Me: Relief Society Personal Study Guide (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1991), 194–99. Soap opera and other daytime viewing is discouraged in an article appearing in the Ensign. Kelly Strong Thacker, “TV Free: Giving Up the Daytime Habit,” Ensign 21 (July 1991): 29–31. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has devoted entire conference talks to the potentially harmful effects of television on Mormon audiences and to encouraging the production of positive media and mitigating negative media effects on families and Mormon audiences in general. M. Russell Ballard, “The Effects of Television,” Ensign 19 (May 1989): 78–81; and M. Russell Ballard, “Let Our Voices Be Heard,” Ensign 33 (November 2003): 16–19.

6. Gordon B. Hinckley points out a number of benefits of magazines, movies, and television programs: “Let there be good magazines about the house, those which are produced by the Church and by others, which will stimulate their thoughts to ennobling concepts. Let them read a good family newspaper that they may know what is going on in the world. . . . When there is a good show in town, go to the theater as a family. Your patronage will give encouragement to those who wish to produce this type of entertainment. And use that most remarkable of all tools of communication, television, to enrich their lives.” Gordon B. Hinckley, “Opposing Evil,” Ensign 5 (November 1975): 39.

7. David J. Whittaker, “The Web of Print: Toward a History of the Book in Early Mormon Culture,” Journal of Mormon History 23, no. 1 (1997): 1.

8. Whittaker, “The Web of Print,” 5.

9. Whittaker, “The Web of Print,” 37.

10. Harold D. Lasswell, “The Structure and Function of Communication in Society,” in Mass Communications, ed. Wilbur Schramm (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1960), 117.

11. Wilbur Schramm, Men, Women, Messages, and Media: Understanding Human Communication (New York: Harper and Row, 1982); Joseph Straubhaar and Robert LaRose, Communications Media in the Information Society (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2000), 7, 12, 15.

Daniel Stout

BYU Studies Publications