Every year, the Pope gives a message to the world of media. Even as a routine, this annual address can only show the continuing interest and effort on the part of Holy Father to evangelize this very crucial field of our life.
Other areas are also given similar messages. Thus, there are specific papal messages for the yearly world day of peace, of the sick, the youth, the family, vocations, etc. That they come from the Pope is reason enough to receive them in faith and obedience.
But further scrutiny reveals a greater reason for their importance. They are attempts, precious, well-studied and orchestrated, to monitor and read the signs of the times as we go along. As such they are worthy of being taken seriously.
For this year, for example, Pope Benedict’s message for the World Communications Day, set for May 4, has the theme: “The media: At the crossroads between self-promotion and service. Searching for the truth in order to share it with others.”
That, to me, captures the crux of the problem now besetting the media industry in its relation to society. It’s not for us to point fingers on personalities and outfits. But the signs of this problem are all over.
More than the message, the agents are highlighted. More than a dispassionate search for truth and justice, self-interest is pursued. The cover to hide the driving force of greed and lust for power is thinning out.
As a kid, I was told that we are like envelopes that contain letters. Once these letters are sent, received and read, the envelopes often are just thrown away, but the letters kept.
Nowadays, it would seem the envelopes are more important than the letters. The worse part of it is that no one seems to notice, since hardly any complaint is heard.
To achieve this funny state of affairs, all sorts of media tricks, gimmicks and games are used. Engaging war among media outfits is no problem if that is what it takes to establish one’s domination over others.
Thus, gossips are played out, personalities not issues are spotlit, looks not substance are brought into focus. Political opinions are rendered in dogmatic tones while basic truths are ignored, sex and violence are used to rivet audience’s attention.
Talents are inhumanly used at the dictate of the market, hiring and discarding them depending on the ratings. The successful ones are packaged like objects. Creativity and imagination are hijacked to cater to lower human tastes and desires.
In the heat of the excitement and the passions involved, the voice of conscience gets muted, the objective ethical assessment of the moves is sidelined and shelved. We are being hollowed of our true dignity as children of God. We are scaled down to mere consumers.
Everyone speaking this language is slowly made smaller and is lulled to degenerate. We are left with a society reduced in dignity yet overflowing with self-confidence and arrogance. A most painful predicament indeed!
The papal message is meant to invite everyone in media to do some soul-searching to see the real score of how he is performing in his task. This is in fact a continuing need for all of us. It suggests developing a kind of “info-ethics.”
Fine distinctions have to be made, since the ideal and practical demands, the spiritual and material requirements of the profession have to be met in their proper order.
Obviously, the material and temporal aspects of this field have to be respected. But they should be thoroughly infused and directed by higher spiritual values proper to us as persons and as children of God.
The problem we often have is that we easily miss these distinctions. We get distracted, living out that Gospel reproach of straining out the gnat while swallowing the camel. We prefer to be pragmatic only.
There’s a crying need to correct this handicap. It’s good that we first recognize that we have such handicap, and from there proceed to taking the appropriate measures.
We have to at least refashion our template so we can have the relevant education and proper supervision of everyone concerned.
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Email: roycimagala@hotmail.com