Benedict to media: Be good

Communications media have tremendous power to influence public opinion, form beliefs and cause social changes. So Pope Benedict, like his predecessor, is keenly interested in how we’re doing our job. Especially as “the new media” by leaps with no bounds.

The growth in new media, especially electronic media like radio, TV and internet, is happening against the backdrop of their increasing concentration in the hands of a few multinational conglomerates. For this reason, the Pope has called for special care to be given to education and safeguarding “the common good, to uphold the truth, to protect individual human dignity and promote respect for the needs of the family” since media’s influence can be “destructive.”

Benedict has consistently watched international media operations and encouraged them to use their power ethically and wisely.

The mass media is a “great round table” for a dialogue of humanity, therefore it should also be “responsible”, “a protagonist of the truth and promoter of the peace and accord from which it is derived”; this does not happen when “the media industry becomes wholly self-serving or solely profit-driven” and when it offers, above all to the young, a “monoculture” which “marginalizes spiritual values”, offering instead “degrading or false expressions of love which ridicule human dignity as gifted by God to each individual, thus threatening the best interests of the family”.

That’s how media have been. This is how Benedict calls them to be, a profession in which…

an accurate recounting of events must always be guaranteed, a complete explanation of the topics which interest the general public, an honest presentation of  all points of view”.  To this ends the (Pope’s) message emphasizes one theme above all others “the necessity to support and sustain married life and the family”, because “they are the foundation on which each culture and society is built”…

Formation in the responsible and critical use of the media- writes Benedict XVI -  helps people to use them intelligently and appropriately. The profound impact upon the mind of new vocabulary and of images, which the electronic media in particular so easily introduce into society, cannot be overestimated. Precisely because contemporary media shape popular culture, they themselves must overcome any temptation to manipulate, especially the young, and instead pursue the desire to form and serve. In this way they protect rather than erode the fabric of a civil society worthy of the human person.”

Help the media out. Tell them what you expect of them.