When my boss, who’s not a native English speaker, asked me if I could tell him exactly what a troll was, I wondered why he had suddenly become interested in folklore. As I explained to him what “troll” meant to me, I was even more surprised to hear him say, “I am talking about social media.” Fortunately, he then handed me an article on trolling, which I hurriedly devoured to recover from my gaffe or regain my composure.
Oblivious of trolling – the digital immigrant
Thus, I was not surprised when, at a World Media Congress held last October 10-12, 2016 in Tagaytay City, I learned that millennials considered us, digital immigrants, to be dinosaurs. When it comes to technology, to them we sound like we’re coming from another planet.
I therefore resolved to gain better information about social media, to know how they are related to traditional media, and how we can make them our ally in facing the global challenges that we, as digital natives, and they, as digital immigrants alike, have before us.
Last year’s World Media Congress, organized by the Institute of Spirituality in Asia and the New City Press, tried to tackle an ambitious theme: “Synergy in Media: Empowering People in Facing Global Challenges”. Not bad, I thought. Right away I realized that the first synergy to consider was that between traditional and digital media technology… Or even better, how to transition smoothly from one media to the other without jeopardizing every value existing in the world of media, like artistic expression, the veracity of reports, the sense of responsibility of the authors, and the moral order from which the media world is not exempt.
The traditional media had its gatekeepers. Editors, publishers, even censors were there to safeguard the accuracy and veracity, the neutrality and decency of articles, reports and books, intended for publishing or broadcasting.
Now with the ease of posting anything and everything online, media has lost its gatekeepers. It is impossible to know what is real or virtual, truth or outright lies on the web, not to mention the decorum we need to observe. Pope Francis talked about “a responsibility to our neighbor whom we do not see but who is nonetheless real and has a dignity which must be respected.” Whereas people used to say that journalists have the power to put people up or down, now anyone who posts has acquired that power.
Even Facebook, YouTube and Google, I learned, have also expressed concern over this state of affairs.
Modern Gatekeepers
Gate-keeping now depends on the conscience of whoever provides any kind of information or even reflections on social media. Of course, this implies a great responsibility on the part of parents, teachers, educators of all sorts, other adults, and even peers and friends, but also religious and civil institutions that influence the process of “conscience formation” in a person.
Nevertheless, first of all, we must educate ourselves so as to be able to educate others.Then let us form a community that will be the new gatekeeper, for it is as a community that we can agree upon social media protocols.
Much of the input stored in the gigabytes used to contain all sorts of information are unfortunately characterized by superficiality. Messages are written and read in a hurry. Therefore it is impossible for them to acquire depth. Even downloaded information is not given the attention it deserves. Our digital natives are used to processing a large amount of information, but to prevent an overload they simply skim through all the information they get.
There is no longer time to process, analyze and understand facts, much less deepen one’s knowledge. How often we ourselves are guilty of zapping or flicking from one TV channel to another and even from one gadget to another!
In the end, we end up with … nothing. All those images and sounds are transformed into headache and noise. No message communicated. No feelings touched. No inner determination to make a difference encouraged.
I remember those song broadcasts over the radio that made me resolve to become a better person. Or those TV programs that made me and my friends want to go work for the missions in Bolivia. And the Bible stories or the lives of saints that touched our spirits and made them ready to soar high up towards the infinite, the absolute, for which they are made, whether we like it or not.
How can there be synergy between media and spirituality? Let media build bridges, connect people and help us build community, where communication happens between us and real people, our families, friends and acquaintances. Then let us become authentic witnesses of our faith and of our faith community. This is the foundation of our personal spirituality. If we are authentic, we can inspire. And then let us share true stories of people who lived their spirituality in concrete situations, inspiring people and bearing witness to a personal experience of the Divine.
That is why the Church needs to e present in social media. It has alternatives to offer. It has good news to announce, good and true stories to tell, and inspiring insights to share. Familiar with the human spirit she knows where it will find rest.
Dialogic Journalism
Well, we have not been stripped of our identity, and having worked in the field of migration for decades, my attention was caught by a project that wants to tell the story of migration properly in media reports. I wondered why they called it “Dialogic Journalism”.
The project is taking the form of seminars for media operators held in countries where the migration crisis is concretely happening, and opposing and conflicting visions of the phenomenon are difficult to put together. The first two seminars took place in Hungary and in Greece.
![selfie youth](https://www.newcityph.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Considerations-of-a-digital-immigrant-2.jpg)
The media professionals met with politicians, academics, philosophers, and theologians, as well as with experts on intercultural dialogue and civil society representatives so that they not only got firsthand information about the situation, but were also fully immersed in its social, political and cultural dimensions, in a “dialogue of life” with all those who were experiencing a divide of some kind in this context. As Giampiero Valenza, a Brazilian journalist committed to the refugee cause, stated: “In journalism related to the world of migrations you must start with an axiom: information is the basis of social inclusion.
There is a social responsibility of the media professional who can, and should, be an intercultural mediator and a social actor with a leading role: one who supports networks of relationships to avoid prejudices and stereotypes”.
“Dialogic Journalism” is a project of NetOne, a space for media professionals so that media can develop its great potential for creating universal brotherhood. Founded by Chiara Lubich, it proposes a “new communication” that considers media instrumental in making humanity aware that it (humanity) is first of all a global family.
Pope Francis in his message for the World Communications Day 2016 during the Jubilee Year of Mercy clarified: “It is not technology which determines whether or not communication is authentic, but rather the human heart and our capacity to use wisely the means at our disposal… I pray that this Jubilee Year, lived in mercy, ‘may open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know one another better; and that it may eliminate every form of violence and discrimination’ (Misericordiae Vultus, 23)”.
Nilda M. Castro