Experts discuss the Church's digital communication challenges
Originally published on the website From faith.
By participating in the workshop “Digital tools for evangelization and catechesis“Victor Rene Rodriguez Gomez, President of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Communication, said that digital communication in the Church is a reality, and there is no turning back.
The bishop of Valle de Chalco also explained that until a few months ago the Catholic Church performed its work smoothly, but due to the health contingency for the pandemic of COVID-19, it was necessary to start using digital media for the celebration of the sacraments, the experiences of religiosity and popular piety and the organization of pastoral activities.
In such a way, he said, that for the Church the digital platforms have become a means that, although “they limit us to meet and share time for reflection, dialogue and organization, they also make it easier to meet in a short time and keep the pastoral work coordinated“.
He assured that the Church has to continue being a sign of hope and not lose its missionary vocation. “This we cannot lose sight of, but we have to look for the means so that this can continue to be done (...) and social networks have been a very important tool to be able to fulfill our mission (...) situations change, but the mission does not change.
An unavoidable reality
Javier Rodríguez Labastida, Director of Communications of the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico, He referred to the importance of the Church being present in this digital reality and gave as an example the absence of Catholic portals that give answers to some of the basic questions that Internet users ask through Google, such as: What is faith, who is God, what is the Apocalypse, is the Apocalypse near, is the Apocalypse near? Questions that have become more frequent with the pandemic.
The also president of the Editorial Board of the magazine Desde la fe listed the challenges of the Church to face this new digital reality, among them, the professionalization of the work processes, the constant training of the communication areas, sharing learning and correcting mistakes together, incorporating digital communication professionals and constantly evaluating the objectives.
Rodríguez Labastida shared some job profiles that should be considered in the communication areas of Mexican dioceses, such as social media analyst, community manager, social media manager, digital marketing analyst, digital trafficker and SEO reporters.
Digital platforms for trainers and communicators
The workshop, which was part of the second day of activities of the Bishops' Formation Week, was also attended by Osvaldo Moreno Sotelo, Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Dimension of Digital Culture and Dissemination Manager of the Episcopal Conference for Digital Culture. Regnum Christi.
Moreno Sotelo assured that there is a constant argument that dioceses lack the budget to venture into the digital world; however, he said, it is important to start from the fact that many of the platforms are free of charge.
“There are many digital tools, easy to use and free of charge; the challenge for Catholic formators and communicators is “not to shoot blanks, but to define perfectly well who we are addressing, and without prejudice”.
Other challenges, he added, are to know the social network or platform where the target audience lives, and to create videos, images and texts that really impact the target audience.
Moreno Sotelo also referred to the social networks and communication platforms most used by the Church during the pandemic, and explained their advantages and disadvantages.
The workshop has been recorded and is available on the social networks of the Mexican Episcopal Conference so that the materials used by the speakers can be consulted, including a series of graphics that were presented by the priest Yair Ortega, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Communication, on the situation of the diocesan print media and the use of digital media in the dioceses during the pandemic.
