“Offer burning words”, that is, not obvious, capable of surprising. To do this, journalists must learn to “slow down to communicate”.
We can summarize in these two passages – the first of the Archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini, the second of Mario Calabresi, journalist and writer, president of Chora Media – the intense morning of last Saturday who hosted, in a crowded manzoni classroom of the Catholic University, the conference “Leaving the bubble: communication and church, beyond stereotypes”. May 10 was the date on which the diocesan Jubilee of the communicators was also celebrated, with a moment of final prayer in Sant’Ambrogio, as well as the conclusion of the course for pastoral operators on the theme “The parish communicates” started last February. In addition to Delpini and the former press director and Repubblica, Don Stefano Stimamiglio director of the Cristiana, Donatella Negri, Rai journalist and Maria Grazia Fanchi, director of the ALMED (high school in medium communication and entertainment) intervened.
In a short but dense intervention – after the introductory greeting of Stefano Femminis, head of the office of social communications of the diocese – the rector Elena Beccalli, strongly underlines the connection between the quality of information and democratic coexistence. «Journalists have to choose words carefully, keeping in mind the personal repercussions and on the social fabric. A hostile language can generate prejudices, intolerance and spread fear. It is therefore essential to promote journalism that makes use of terms that stimulate critical thinking, rather than feeding hatred or division ».
In the same wake, Professor Fanchi, who remarks the crucial question of the responsibility of media operators in a communicative context marked by social and Fakes News. The scholar denounces the contradictions of the current media system, an industry that moves billions of euros and involves billions of people, albeit with remarkable differences (“68% of the global population has access to the network and in northern Europe 100% are touched, in Eastern Africa descends to 30”. The data speak, with their cold eloquence: “In a single minute of life of the network, there are 251 mln. Shipped, 139 mln of posted videos, 19 million messages »added Fanchi. “Thinking about communicating as an act of love and networks as reality that must be treated and repaired every day”.
The scenario traced by the expert as stimulating the three -way dialogue that followed, led by the journalist of Tgr Rai Donatella Negri, is so interesting. The references to the particular current moment, between the death of Pope Francis, the conclave and the election of Leone XIV. Calabresi surprises those present with a very acute lunge: «The fact that we saw the new pontiff with sheets in hand indicates an attention to language with the word, repeated 9 times: peace, unarmed and disarming peace. At that moment there was a very strong communication message. ” For his part, Don Stimamiglio underlines how “5300 journalists in Rome accredited, with an enormous economic investment for editorial offices, tell us how the events of the Church are a great opportunity to transmit a message. In 18 days the church managed to manage an extremely human situation: from mourning to its elaboration, from waiting to the choice of the successor. People need symbols and a Catholic communicator must try to decrypt them. I believe that the Pope has done exactly this in his first to look out and with his words ».
Calabresi asks for a change of cultural attitude to journalists. «I am increasingly convinced that slowing down is important to communicate. Each of us must recover the freedom of not having to say his regard to anything, claiming time to form an opinion. The complexity needs times, ways and space. The relevance is not given by the multiplication of the contents: one is more relevant if we speak less and if you do it with a view “. In turn, Monsignor Delpini thin: “The journalist does a good service when he knows how to elaborate a language relevant to the event, proportionate to the object that is communicated. Sometimes the way of communicating the Church cannot avoid gray words, the grayness of the discounted that communicates nothing ».
Hence the urgency of the formation, on which the diocese has also been working for some time. Bishop Mario concludes with words of gratitude “for all those who work in ecclesial communication” (he talks about that his letter to communication operators, entitled As a grown -up I would like to be a journalisteita from the Ambrosian center). «There is a profound reason and a responsibility in communicating about the Church. These are the hope and responsibility of the communication. Indicating people to be desperate is serious: journalism is a mission ».
And of journalism as a form of service to the truth – that many, men and women, have paid with life – deals with the exhibition “Communicating hope. Another information is possible”, promoted by the San Paolo company and Paoline nuns, with the patronage of communication dicasteries and new evangelization. An exhibition, conceived and curated by writes and by Francesco Antonioi with the support of MediaCor, that the participants in the meeting were able to visit and appreciate, especially in his effort to show the attempts in place (from Solution Journalism to constructive journalism) for more balanced information, capable of stimulating the participation of citizens in public affairs, looking forward, in the open possibilities and not only to the thousand reasons of pessimism that everyday.
