Mass Media and Its Use in The Church According to The Catholic Teaching
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Date
2004
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
There 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.
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Keywords
Mass Media, Catholic Teaching, Mass Media Use in The Church