Papal and Church communications:
How effective are they?
by Salvatore Izzo
VATICAN CITY, Nov. 16 (Translated from AGI) - "Those engaged in religious information and communications must have a solid cultural background
[not to mention some solid preparation for covering the beat]", says Don Giuseppe Costa, director of the Vatican publishing house LEV and professor of journalism at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome, in the new book
Editoria, media e religione(Publishing, media and religion) on the great publishing success registered by Pope Benedict XVI, without ignoring the media difficulties that have been encountered by his Pontificate.
Thirty international editions with more than 3 million copies sold to date of the Pope's JESUS OF NAZARTH (Vol. 1) would appear to show that the public does not share the secular media's under-estimation of the Pope's communicative abilities, Fr. Costa says.
The new book, published by LEV, contains essays by a dozen communications specialists who describe, explain and analyze the relationship between mass communications today and 'the religious fact'.
Among the essayists is Angelo Paoluzi, former editor of
Avvenire and the news agency Fides, who explains the role and task of Vatican correspondents. He recalls with nostalgia
Corriere della Sera's correspondent Silvio Negro, who distinguished himself by great balance in reporting the news and resisting the temptation to indulge in 'behind-the-scenes' speculation, and was guided only by "public interest in the life of the Church as an institution".
Sr. Maria Trigilia, a Salesian media expert, confirms the renewed public interest in the Church, in a report on the boom in
Catholic web sites and following.
Since June 1997, more than 500,000 Catholic web pages are now consulted every month in Italy alone, where there are 2391 parish pages, followed by associations (2067), religious orders and missionary institutes (1222).
There are now 627 institutional sites (CEI, dioceses and diocesan pastoral work), 589 blogs, 403 sites linked to cultural centers and universities, and 353 media sites for print information. All these sites for Catholic information have registered a 25% increase yearly in the past two years.
Even faster however is the growth in sites dedicated to Christian music *33.6%), Catholic TV and radio sites (32.8%), and sacred art (31.5%).
"The Internet," says Sr. Trigilia, "does not just meet the 'spiritual' demands of the cyberfaithful, but also the demands of a growing market with increasingly greater customer turnout and specialized interests. For instance, one can now study sacred texts online, along with the necessary philological and theological references. There are now numerous sites offering resources for such study of the Bible, the Koran, Buddhist and Hindu texts".
She also points out the presence of 'church locator' sites which can enable anyone to locate the nearest church or place of worship for his/her needs. There are even Christian 'churches' that only operate online, so-called 'Internet churches', that one can attend by the mere click of the mouse.
The LEV book also has an essay about the Innernet (www.innernet.it) - a non-profit initiative devoted to "disseminating profound and useful knowledge for all those who are engaged in researching a richer interior life".
The site, which gets millions of hits, now has 418 ongoing active topics with some 19,000 presentations, quite apart from users' comments (845,460 so far). The presentations consist of articles, essays, interviews and book reviews on topics ranging from techniques of meditation and interior exploration, to teachings by 'consciousness masters', to the relationship between psychology and the spirit, passing through discussions on conscience and its conscious application to social and political issues (human rights, peace, ecology, etc).
['Innernet'? I'll pass. Thank God I do not have to search out or visit any site other than those that I need to consult immediately (and for the least time possible) for basic information, fact check or images. So far, I've only had to seek out specialized information on medical topics on which I need to draft specific lectures - and oh yes, on Joseph Ratzinger. I don't expect to have the time nor the inclination to do more than that.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/11/2009 21:25]