Digitization of the mega issue of our time. It has far-reaching consequences for all areas of society. Author Ute Stenert think about the people with the nature of media communication.
Digitization is the mega issue of our time: payment in Restaurants as eye-scanning and self-driving cars; robot, the care used to be, and people with dementia, a talking plush toy in Hand, make you not feel alone. These are just some of the digital opportunities, which are already used in everyday life. And all of this is just the beginning. The digitisation has far-reaching consequences for all areas of society: politics, the economy, health system, education and of course communication.
And the latter is for the Christian Faith elementary. There is something of a mystery, a secret of the contact, the relationship. Because in the encounter successful is happening, theologically speaking, healing, and salvation. The Catholic Church cares about the quality, and therefore the people with the nature of media communication in all its technical Developments and opportunities.
The Dignity of the people in the protection of its data store
The media is a font of Journalistic Commission of the German bishops ‘ conference “media education and participation, justice”1 from the year 2016 of up-to-date. The keywords Big Data, industry 4.0, and robotics, and “machine responsibility” play a role here. The bishops assess the digital transformation according to the basic principles of Catholic social teaching. Their Central claim is: The Dignity, the personality and the self-determination of the people must be preserved by the protection of his data. The goal must bring: to get the personality and sociality of man as the image of God-consciously, to develop and to defend if necessary.
Human dignity and freedom are in danger, if the man can not determine his data. The media has written since then has been fundamental to the Bishop’s plea for a new sensitivity to the value of personal data. A contemporary youth media protection is also important. Hatred and brutalization of the communication in the network require alert attention. In the analog world, applicable legal, ethical, moral, and cultural Standards should also apply to the digital world.
The use of media is changing rapidly, which is also a request to the Church is, preached the gospel in the media.
The Catholic Church is not only a constructively critical observer of the communication developments. Of course, she is also a Communicator. It is your job to preach, especially through the media, the message of Jesus. But the Church has the tremendous upheavals still a noticeable voice? What must you do to reach the people in your life world? Or is it so that Religion today has lost fundamentally important?
The order to proclaim the message of Christ, remains
No, Religion has not disappeared. Religion remains important in social and political level as at the level of the individual search for meaning. But one thing is clear: the attention given to religious content changes. Increasing individualization and selectivity are the basic. And there is an increasing competition of the “Sense of party”. The more difficult the perception of the voice of the Church. So discoverability is a major challenge for the Church’s media work. Further, the rapid pace of media change: technological innovations, are driving this. There is a fragmentation of user markets. New distribution channels emerge. The media has changed consumer behavior, has long been established, the time-independent and location-independent use. Users are not only Consumers, but also a program designer and content producer.
This change has far-reaching consequences for the social fabric of our society. He has an influence on the reporting and, ultimately, on the Christian message, the media is transported. If the Church does not deal with the rapidly advancing developments, it loses language ability and presence in the Public and in the people. The leaders of the Church aware of this need, especially in the last years and months a Lot has happened in the case of the diocesan and überdiözesanen media work. Many media departments have been provided with more resources available, since the Invest has been detected in this as important for the spread of the good news.
Spite of all these changes: anxious must look to the Church neither as a society, a political actor even as a separate Communicator in the future. The crucial point remains, that it remains committed to a successful communication culture. To promote or not to create, where they exist, is their priority. And ultimately of all Christians.
1 “media education and participation, justice. Pulses of the Editorial Commission of the German bishops ‘ conference to the challenges of digitization“, in Bonn in 2016.
Dr. Ute Stenert is radio officer of the German bishops ‘ conference and Executive Director of the Catholic radio, – working in Bonn. For over 20 years as a freelance writer for different media.