Social communication and development

In his encyclical letter Love In truth - Caritas In Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI addresses the challenges facing the Church and humanity in a world that is becoming progressively globalised.

Acknowledging that the challenge of development today is closely linked to technological progress, in his new social document the Holy Father emphasises that technology is a profoundly human reality, linked to the autonomy and freedom of man. He adds that technology enables humans to exercise dominion over matter, to reduce risks, to save labour, to improve their conditions of life. It touches the heart of the vocation of human labour: in technology, seen as the product of his genius, man recognises himself and forges his own humanity.

Linked to technological development, Benedict sees what he describes as the increasingly pervasive presence of the means of social communications. He writes: "It is almost impossible today to imagine the life of the human family without them. For better or for worse, they are so integral a part of life today that it seems quite absurd to maintain that they are neutral - and, hence, unaffected by any moral considerations concerning people".

Rapid technological change and progress continue to make the communication media all the more powerful. Not even those who perhaps try to shun the media can manage to avoid contact with others who are deeply influenced by them. Of course, the impact the media have on people depends very much on what use people make of the media. Indeed, the influence of the media can either help people grow in sympathy and compassion or become isolated in what a Catholic Church document describes as a "self-referential world of stimuli with near-narcotic effects".

The Catholic Church rightly sees the instruments of social communication to be not only products of human genius but also great gifts of God and true signs of the times. The Church desires to support those who are professionally involved in communication by setting out positive principles to assist them in their work while fostering dialogue in which all interested parties can participate. So it is not surprising that, in his document on human integral development, Pope Benedict pulls into the discussion the great reality of the means of social communication.

The Holy Father's reflections about the means of social communication vis-vis-vis the way that needs to be followed to ensure an integral human development in charity and truth offers much food for thought.

Views stressing the strictly technical nature of the media, effectively support their subordination to economic interests intent on dominating the market and, not least, to attempts to impose cultural models that serve ideological and political agendas.

Given the media's fundamental importance in engineering changes in attitude towards reality and the human person, we must reflect carefully on their influence, especially in regard to the ethical-cultural dimension of globalisation and the development of peoples in solidarity.

Mirroring what is required for an ethical approach to globalisation and development, so too the meaning and purpose of the media must be sought within an anthropological perspective. This means that they can have a civilising effect not only when, thanks to technological development, they increase the possibilities of communicating information but, above all, when they are geared towards a vision of the person and the common good that reflects truly universal values.

Just because social communications increase the possibilities of interconnection and the dissemination of ideas, it does not follow that they promote freedom or internationalise development and democracy for all. To achieve goals of this kind, they need to focus on promoting the dignity of persons and peoples, they need to be clearly inspired by charity and placed at the service of truth, of the good, and of natural and supernatural fraternity. In fact, human freedom is intrinsically linked with these higher values.

The media can make an important contribution towards the growth in communion of the human family and the ethos of society when they are used to promote universal participation in the common search for what is just.