Undergraduate Projects/Long Essays
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Item Mass Media and Its Use in The Church According to The Catholic Teaching(Tangaza University College, 2004) Njiru, Angelus NjagiThere is a rich variety of Church documents for Christian communicators in the world. "The means of social communication have become so important as to be for many the chief means of information and education, of guidance and inspiration in their behavior as individuals, families and within society at large"a Hence "The Church would feel guilty before the Lord if she did not utilize these powerful means" to proclaim "from the housetops the message of which she is depository."b The above quotes from Church documents are the raison d'etre of this research paper. The question we will try to answer in this paper is this: How can the media help us in making the gospel known to the whole world? When Jesus commissioned his disciples to "teach all the nations", mass media as we know them today had obviously not been discovered. However, Christians today recognize the media as the most appropriate means to reach the greatest number of people with the good news of salvation. This paper offers insights into how the mass media can be used to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. What is said here about communication in the Church is certainly not the final word on the topic. Rather, we propose them for discussion and implementation by particular Churches in their different situations in different dioceses and countries. The challenge is to be bold in using the media with all their potential. This paper is divided into four chapters. The first chapter examines the meaning of some important concepts we will be mentioning in this paper: The Church, Evangelization and Mass Media. It then gives an overview of the history of mass media in the Church before the second Vatican council and how the Church responded to the emerging communication technologies. This chapter will end with the challenge(s) mass media poses to the Church today. The second chapter is dedicated to the thinking of the official Catholic Church in post Vatican II era about how the media can be used in evangelization and promotion of the human person. We will examine a few selected documents and trace the vision the Church has for the media in the Church. We will also explore the views of mass media experts on how the media works and their role in and effects on the society. This I hope will help us appreciate the fact that mass media is a great force to be reckoned with in the world today. In the third chapter we will take a close look at the mass media in Kenya. We will go back to the history of mass media in Kenya when freedom of expression was very restricted, and access to public media limited for four decades after independence. We now have a newly found freedom, thanks to the Kibaki government. We will see how the Church media in Kenya is faring by examining the work being done by some media houses. We will note the important role played by the Catholic bishops in their forceful documents on moral, social, economic and political issues which were relayed to the public through the public media during those hard times of the Moi regime. This chapter helps us to appreciate what is being done on the ground about communication in the Church with regard to evangelization. The fourth and last chapter will give a summary of what we have done in this research paper and come up with suggestions and recommendations for a better, efficient use of the media in Kenya to serve the mission of the Church to evangelize all the nations. This we hope will be a small contribution to the Church media in its march forward to greater heights. Before concluding we would like to observe that the present media explosion is an o pportunity for the Church to utilize the modern media power. It is a challenge to be faced. Armed with the insightful documents of the Church, we can master and use the media to spread the gospel message. This research is limited in scope. The paper limits itself to the Catholic teaching about the mass media and its use in the Catholic Church. This is mainly a library research except for the Internet sources and the few interviews I have conducted with some media houses. So much has been written about communication in the Church and a lot more is being done out there in the field. We cannot deal with it all in a short research paper and within the time span given for this study. Hence mine was to give an aerial view of the Catholic Church and her teaching about the use of the media for evangelization. I hope and pray other researchers will explore in detail the use of a specific mass medium in Kenya or a specific document and its application to a particular situation in Kenya.Item The Contribution of Montfort Missionaries for the Development of Women through Mass Media in Malawi(2001-04) Harry Robert Chagoma, Henry"We can understand the meaning of development etymologically by looking at its counter part. The Old French [mediaeval stem] puts the word 'to envelop' as a related word In this sense it means to wrap-up something or somebody. A very good example is of a letter put in an envelope. The letter is hidden by an envelope. Develop is referred to the opposite way and it means uncovering, this is the process of showing what was hidden. Therefore we should understand development as a movement towards positive direction despite the prefix [de] de - velopment. Development focuses on human beings for human growth. It is through human development that one can promote other developments because it involves human beings. Whether we speak of development in psychological, economic or political contents, it must sustain life. In life sustenance people are able to get basic needylike food, shelter and protection just to mention a few. Development touches the idea of respect and recognition. It promotes self-esteem of human beings, whether poor or rich, since respect and recognition as human beings allow them to be responsible and not be used as a tool. Media play a big position either in negating people or promoting people to develop. Some women are viewed as subordinates or objects in the media in this situation the media under develop women. In such situation women can not be developed. Again, the other value of development should be the freedom of being able to choose. Development can't take place where people are silenced and can not decide. By undermining those we call subordinates, we are limiting development because we do not want the subordinates, for example, the women or the poor to know what is revealed [refer to the first paragraph of development]. The idea of having freedom to decide or to express needs promotes development. The present modern world of technology is encouraging women to use the same media, which dehumanises them. Therefore traditional African values of communication should complement the modern mass media to promote women's development.