John Durham Peters is one of America’s leading thinkers in the subject of communications. He has been called “a master wordsmith and a wonderful brain” and his work has been described as “witty, irreverent and intellectually daring.” Peters is currently the A. Craig Baird Professor in communication studies at the University of Iowa. He is the author of two books: Speaking Into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication and Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition. For a growing bibliography of Peters’s works directly relating to Mormonism, see here.

Peters joined me through Skype from his home in Iowa for this two-part episode on Mormonism and Communication. Media technology can be understood as issuing a call to action in the world, and Peters discusses the some of the ethical questions media can raise. We talk about the role media has played thus far in the restoration of the Church, through print, radio, and television. Peters also brings a unique perspective to the possibilities and problems of witnesses.

*By way of correction, in part one of this interview I mentioned Wilford Woodruff’s testimony as having been recorded in 1898. The correct date is March 19th 1897.

Runtime:

53:36

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