Promote Truth, not Trash

A RECENT STUDY released in the United States tracked the habits of American schoolchildren. It revealed that they spend, on average, some six hours per day using the internet, playing video games and watching television (which itself accounted for approximately four hours). Figures may differ in other countries, but the conclusion would be the same: we are a media culture.

Papal oversight?

The rapid development of technology in the area of media is surely one of the signs of progress in today's society, begins an upbeat papal letter on that media culture, signed last January 24.
The letter, addressed to those responsible for communications, and itself entitled Rapid Development, looks at the media world as a challenge for evangelisation. It presents an oddly one-sided analysis - there is no mention, for example, of pornography in the letter, despite the fact that the internet has unleashed an unprecedented wave of pornography into offices, universities, schools and homes. With over 4 million pornographic sites (some 12 percent of the total) on the web, and millions of search requests every day for pornography, the oversight in the papal letter can only be the result of a determined decision to accentuate the positive, even if it provides a too-rosy picture of the contemporary media scene.
The Church is not only called upon to use the mass media to spread the Gospel but, today more than ever, to integrate the message of salvation into the 'new culture' that these powerful means of communication create and amplify, the letter begins.
Rapid Development sees the media culture as a new culture which needs its own proper forms of evangelisation, much like missionaries in previous ages had to adapt themselves to the cultures to which they were sent. It is more than just a decision to use new techniques to deliver the same message - it is about adapting to a cultural situation that itself has been changed by the means of communication.
The communications media have acquired such importance as to be the principal means of guidance and inspiration for many people in their personal, familial, and social behaviour, writes John Paul II. We are dealing with a complex problem, because the culture itself, prescinding from its content, arises from the very existence of new ways to communicate with hitherto unknown techniques and vocabulary.

Enormous influence

That language is a little opaque (odd for a letter on communication!), but the point is well-known by any parent or teacher. Young people (but not only young people) look to the media as a model for behaviour. That's why it is possible to find kids in India wearing Michael Jordan T-shirts, even if they don't play basketball. But examples are not always trivial. Parents attempting to teach their daughters, for example, about modesty and chastity, have to compete with the influence of say, a Britney Spears, who, through CDs, music videos, downloadable images, digital music players, mobile phone ring tones and internet chat groups, may occupy a dominant place in a young girl's life.
Yet it is not only what influences the young girl gets from the media culture, it's how the media culture shapes how she lives. It is quite possible today for a family to be at home together, yet without anyone in communication with each other. Dad could be on the phone, Mom is watching television in the family room, two boys are downstairs - one watching a DVD movie on his computer, while his brother plays a video game - and their sister is chatting online with her schoolmates. Plenty of communication, none of it necessarily bad, but in such circumstances it is quite easy for family life to dissipate into mere living together - with attention focused elsewhere.
The modern technologies increase to a remarkable extent the speed, quantity and accessibility of communication, but they above all do not favour that delicate exchange which takes place between mind and mind, between heart and heart, and which should characterize any communication at the service of solidarity and love, the papal letter says.
That deeper level of communication is supposed to be served by the new technologies, rather than be retarded by it. It is true, for example, that e-mail means that young couples can communicate much more easily and frequently, thereby building up the bonds of unity and love. But is the quality of those communications conducive to deepening the relationship between the two? Dashing off a two-line email is something altogether different from writing a two-page letter. The latter almost demands a move beyond the superficial. But to know that requires good formation.

Formation needed
 
In the first place, a vast work of formation is needed to assure that the mass media be known and used intelligently and appropriately, argues Rapid Development. The new vocabulary they introduce into society modifies both learning processes and the quality of human relations, so that, without proper formation, these media run the risk of manipulating and heavily conditioning, rather than serving people. This is especially true for young people, who show a natural propensity towards technological innovations, and as such are in even greater need of education in the responsible and critical use of the media.
A cautionary note is thus sounded about abandoning 'older' forms of communication - even if in this case 'older' might mean only a century or two. Speaking specifically about the Church's own use of the media, the Holy Father writes that alongside the Internet, other new means of communication, as well as the traditional ones, should be used.
Contemporary catechists know that all too well. The ease of producing lectures - or even books - on audio CD has led to an explosion of catechetical and spiritual materials being made available. Such is the case that teachers sometimes complain that nobody wants to read anything. There is no substitution for reading though, so innovative ways have to be found to keep the old alongside the new.
The Holy Father also underscores that our use of communications is part of the moral life - acts that we will have to answer for. And, as an increasing part of our day is spent using media, the proper use of it will constitute an increasing part of daily Christian living: Jesus teaches that communication is a moral act, 'A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil. I tell you, on the Day of Judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.' (Mt 12: 35-37)
The principal word that needs to be spoken through all media, whether new or old, is that of the Word Himself. And so, despite whatever problems arise, the rapid development of new technologies, the Holy Father concludes, rank among the marvellous things which God has placed at our disposal to discover, to use and to make known the truth, also the truth about our dignity and about our destiny as his children, heirs of his eternal Kingdom.