Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle called on mass-media workers to use social communication as a tool for building trust and hope rather than a vehicle for provoking distrust and conflict among individuals, communities and nations.
“Tempers flare up so easily. Through words, tweets and social-media messages, war is easily begun. Social communication has to restore trust and hope,” the cardinal said in a message to the trustees, judges of the different media categories, officers and staff of the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), who had an audience with him at the Archbishop’s Residence in Intramuros, Manila, on August 8.
It was the first time in three years that Tagle had been able to have an audience with the CMMA staff and officers. A yearly tradition, the audience was not held in 2015 and 2016 because of matters he had to attend to in the Vatican.
The long-awaited audience with the Cardinal, who is honorary chairman of the CMMA, was meant to give recognition to the almost 60 members of the different panels of judges who evaluate and select the winners of the yearly CMMA ceremonies.
Drawn from the clergy, academe, journalism, communication and other professions, the judges go through hundreds of entries as a “labor of love by the unsung heroes of the CMMA.”
Thus, they should be called “communication apostles,” said Fr. Hans D. Magdurulang, judges’ coordinator and who was one of the emcees during the meeting with the cardinal.
Leading the board of trustees were D. Edgard A Cabangon, chairman, and Fr. Rufino C. Sescon Jr., executive director.
“Thank you for your continuing mission in the age of communication,” Tagle told the judges.
Citing his recent experience in Indonesia, where he attended the Asian Youth Day conference, he said the young Indonesians said the letters OMG should be referred to as “online missionaries of the Gospel… And what you’re doing is truly worthwhile.”
He deplored the negative ways in which social media is often used to stir up anger and enmity “through the nasty and vulgar exchange of messages.”
He also expressed dismay that social media seems to have brought about “a separate world for users of digital communication…. They even have their own words that only they can understand among themselves. Social media seems to have become a world in itself.”
He urged mass-media workers and communication professionals to find ways to offset this trend so that “social media can be a vehicle to help people build and strengthen relationships.”
On a lighter note, he recalled Asian Youth Day conference, as “always an uplifting experience.”
Tagle expressed delight that this year’s CMMA theme, “Fear not, for I am with you (Isaiah 43:5): Communicating hope and trust in our time,” is echoed by the Asian Youth Day’s theme of “Finding communion, trust and hope in a multicultural, multireligious world.”
The CMMA is an awards-giving body established in 1978 by the late Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, then archbishop of Manila, as a means to honor “those who serve God through the mass media.”
It pays tribute to those who promote Christian values in the most outstanding way in the fields of print, radio, television, advertising, music, the Internet and cinema.
This year’s CMMA Night will be held on October 25 at Star Theater, CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City.
Image credits: Roy Domingo