Social communication – its role
It was Pope Benedict XVI who said in 2008 that “In view of their meteoric technological evolution, the media have acquired extraordinary potential, while raising new and hitherto unimaginable questions and problems.” He also acknowledged the contribution that mass media make in the modern world, noting their role in the diffusion of news and information. Thanks to modern forms of communication, literacy and socialization have spread, and democracy and dialogue among peoples have developed.
Today we live in a world with all sorts of information, provided for us by mass media. Economic and intellectual progress have resulted in the rapid development of technology in mass media, which have gone farther than print, radio and television with the powerful addition of the internet – Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and chats. Indeed these revolutionary changes in communication technology have truly made the world into one global village, where one gets to know what is happening everywhere in the world almost instantaneously.
Media have a significant role in influencing the actions of individuals, organizations, and institutions. They are a powerful force for shaping attitudes, behavior, even values. Advertising, for example, has emerged as one such behavioral tool that is sometimes seen as having either an edifying or corrupting role in society as when it is aggressively used for the marketing of consumer products, particularly being targeted at the young.
It might even be said that among the disturbing trends in the use of mass media is that they risk being transformed into systems that subject the people to agendas that are dictated by the dominant interests of the day. Media, taken overall, are not only vehicles for spreading ideas, but they should be instruments at the service of a world for greater justice and solidarity. Instead, Benedict XVI has noted that they have presented and supported models of development which serve to increase rather than reduce the technical divide between rich and poor countries.
The media of social communication can contribute to human unity, or it can promote misunderstandings and discord. Communication today, the Pope observed, seems increasingly to claim not simply to represent reality, but to determine it, owing the power and force of suggestion it possesses... for example, in certain situations “the media are used, not for the proper purpose of disseminating information, but to ‘create’ events.”
He added that “Precisely because we are dealing with realities that have a profound effect on all those dimensions of human life – moral, intellectual, religious, relational, affective, cultural – in which the good of the person is at stake, we mist stress that not everything that is technically possible is also ethically permissible.”
Indeed, media can be the “watchdog” of political and economic life, exposing corruption and championing accountability in business and government. They can be a force for influencing public opinion, promoting what is good in the attitudes, behaviour and mores of our current generation and eschewing those which cheapen life and the dignity of the human person. Thus it is essential that social communications should assiduously defend the person, and fully respect human dignity.
Let me share an excerpt from a beautiful canticle in praise of media in today’s world, which should inspire us to consider communication as a gift that can be used to serve mankind, greatly contributing to man’s search for knowledge that he may make of himself all that he is capable of being, and contribute his share in promoting a more just and humane society.
“We thank you Lord God For the unending Pentecost Of your creative Holy Spirit Which enables your sons
and daughters To catch fire from your Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.” merci.suleik@gmail.com