The challenges of Mass
Media today
If we
observe ourselves as human beings, we realize that physically we are so limited
instead of so much sophisticated machines that can mobilize us thousands times
faster than never before; I am thinking of the speediest aeroplanes as well as
rockets. At the same time, we discover in our psychic dimension of human
reality we are faster than our physical one, just us our thinking, imagination
and feelings. Our thinking and imaginations are so fast and wide that our whole
historical gap of life cannot even cope with. However, the fruits of our
psychic reality are coined whatever artificial transformation of the nature
have happened like technology and the view of life or cosmovision. A great deal
of this reality like cyber-technology through which, today, we are able to make
this planet a small village. In the deep level, our conscious gazing helps us
to go beyond of the time and space; it is a turn back to the home being one
with whole reality itself.
God was
the first who has overcome the human cultural and religious exile, the exile
that separated between human reality and God, thus the misleading cosmovision
has been corrected by the Good News of integral communion with God in the
Gospels. However, this turning back to the original Paradise (cf. Jn 20:15.19-22)
was deformed because of the Greco-Roman philosophical shaping to the Gospel’s
messages, especially ones the Neo-Platonism and Aristotelinism became as the
background of the theological reflection. Once again, Christian mentally
divided our world view, which we called dualism: earth-heaven, soul-body,
good-bad, etc. Nevertheless, as ever till now, the Gospel continually reminding
us: “Abba loves so much the world and he has sent his beloved son” (cf. Jn
3:16). “Physically I am limited, psychically you can continue trying to
manipulate me (Mk 3:20-21; Jn 20:17), that is why I have to go to the most deep
side of the reality, to be completely united with whole creation as always We
were” (cf. Jn 13:32).
Any
science and technology is the fruit of human transformative creativity that is
God’s Spirit presence in every creature. Humans we are co-creators with God,
but in spite of this wonderful gift, we are also able to misuse our creativity
against ourselves and against nature. This paradoxical human reality we are
called to face consciously from our very heart.
Pope
Francis has prophetically denounced the hegemonic power of techno-cracy as
undifferentiated and one-dimensional paradigm (LS 106) held in the economic
power, but he also recognized the goodness of the widespread new technology and
he enhances us to use properly to announce the joy of the Gospel with. So, he
tells us: “when media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence
can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love
generously” (LS 47). A synoptic sketch comes as follow:
Mass
media gift and challenge
|
|
Challenges
|
Risks
|
To live wisely: True wisdom,
as the fruit of self-examination, dialogue and generous encounter between
persons [and nature].
|
Either forgetting our great sages of
the past run or going unheard.
Becoming blind towards wisdom in the
nature.
|
To think deeply: To help these
media become sources of new cultural progress for humanity and not a threat
to our deepest riches.
|
To become the noise and distractions
of an information overload.
A mere accumulation of data, which
eventually leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental
pollution.
|
To love generously: Today’s media do
enable us to communicate and to share our knowledge and affections.
|
It shield us from direct contact with
the pain, the fears and the joys of others and the complexity of their
personal experiences
Internet communication, which enables
us to choose or eliminate relationships at whim, … it has more to do with
devices and displays than with other people and with nature.
|
Sources: own elaboration
based in LS 47
For this
reason, we should be concerned that, alongside the exciting possibilities
offered by these media, a deep and melancholic dissatisfaction with
interpersonal relations, or a harmful sense of isolation, can also arise, said
Francis.
The
three-logical approach to the media, invites us to understand critically and to
use properly making it as gifted means to grow as persons and globally
interrelated and creational community.
Consecrated
Life as liminal side of the human reality (cf. O’Murchu 2005: 161) and
prophetic identity (cf. Schneiders 2000: 123-126) into and outside of the
Christian Church is called to grasp the goodness, challenges and doubtfulness
of the media, so that it may be able to share the Joy of the Good News through
this new and wonderful postmodern instrument.
The last
XXV General Chapter (2015) of our Claretian Congregation has discerned and
placed as ones of the most important challenges for the mission today (MS 17):
1) Technology
has radically transformed the world of communications, to the extent that we
can now speak of a new digital continent populated by millions of Internet
users.
2) The
possibilities of access to information and the instantaneous exchange of
messages increase day by day. The world is becoming more and more a global
village, although many peoples and individuals remain unjustly disconnected.
3) Ways of
manipulation and control are also multiplied.
4) The Church
invites us to be present in this “new continent” and also warns us of its
illusions and traps (MS 17).
And it
stressed our missionary commitment (MS 18):
1) As
servants of the Word, we feel called to search for the signs of God in the
digital world, to share our experience of the Gospel in new communication codes
and to combat the viruses of manipulation, superficiality and
depersonalization.
2) What a
revolution Claret would have encouraged if he had the possibilities offered
today by these new technologies! (cf. MFL 2j).
Claret’s
missionary passion was to reach the whole world announcing the Good News of the
Gospel through all possible means (Aut 494). We imagine how would be his mental
and cybernetic itinerancy, the creative conversion of the structures in
evangelization, conversion of the hierarchy, being a full citizen of the
digital continent.
Bibliography.
Pope
Francis (2015). Laudato Si (Encyclical). Colombo: Claretian
Publication.
Claret,
Anthony (1862 Manuscript written). Autobiography. Publiched in
Buenos Aires (2008), Publicaciones Claretianas.
Sons of
Immaculate Heart of Mary (2015). Witnesses and Messengers of the Joy of
the Gospel (Declaration of XXV General Chapter), Rome.
O’Murchu,
Diarmuid (2005). Consecrated Life: the changing paradigm. Quezon
City: Claretian Publication.
Schneiders,
Sandra (2000). Finding the treasure: locating catholic religious life
in new ecclesiastical and cultural context. New Jersey: Pauline
Publication.
By - Rev.
Fr. Efrain Vasquez Mamani, CMF
076 9463398
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