Helping to think

Media professionals from Slovakia and abroad shared their views on the role of Catholic media in contemporary society. International conference with this theme took place at the premises of Catholic University of Ružomberok on 26 – 27 September. This year’s edition, organised by its Faculty of Arts and Letters – Cathedra of Journalism, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation and Forum for public issues in Slovakia, was preceded by two conferences of local character, in 2005 and 2009.Inspiration from abroad. Plenary part of the event was open by the founder and director of the polish Radio Maryja and TV Trwam, Tadeusz Rydzyk. In his speech he emphasized that “the cooperation of catholic media with ecclesial hierarchy is a must”, otherwise “we can find ourselves isolated from the Church, creating certain kind of sects”. He also admitted that “the number of the Church media, especially in the countries of Eastern and Middle Europe, is not sufficient and they have weak, sometimes even negligible position” on general media market. Experiences from France were presented by the chief editor of daily newspaper La Croix, Dominique Greiner. In his lecture he introduced style and form of presentation of this internationally paper, saying that “pluralism is the good, protecting us from being isolated exclusively in the Catholic world”, without having any wider perspective. According to his words, La Croix tries to be sort of “a discussion platform”: “We don’t try to persuade the readers about our truth, we are not a dogmatic newspaper. Our preference is to help them think and open discussion about significant events in society”. Mosaic of foreign lecturers was completed by two representatives of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Diego Contreras, concentrated on evangelisation possibilities and impossibilities of media. He reminded participants that journalism is “a profession with rules that need to be respected” under any circumstances. Professor Daniel Arasa‘s discourse was aimed at definition of the contribution of new media to the social communication of the Church. He also put stress on advantages of more intensive use of social nets in an ecclesial environment.Church unity. Afternoon programme of the conference was divided into several workshop sessions, regarding the situation and role of Catholic media in Slovakia. Participants discussed topics like religious broadcasting in statutory media, opinion formation of Catholic media, attractivity of Catholic media for children and youth, language of Catholic media and its ability to communicate Christian message. Special greeting to the event had been sent by the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Slovakia and president of its Council for Social Communications, Mons. Stanislav Zvolenský, suggesting that it “would be useful to reflect on possibilities of using Catholic media in Slovakia for building and strengthening of unity of the Church, mutual cooperation and above all – for evangelization of young and middle-aged members of our society”.Marketing of Catholic media. For the first time a special workshop was dedicated to the marketing strategies of Catholic media. Research in this regard was aimed at three main media in the country, representing press, radio and television: Katolícke noviny (Catholic newspaper) with more than 160 years of history, Christian Radio Lumen founded in 1993 and Catholic TV Lux – the youngest member of the selection with only 3 years of age. While the last one is still struggling to find its position on the market, Katolícke noviny continually keeps its position of the 6th most favourite weekly paper on the market of secular and religious press in Slovakia. Radio Lumen is currently number 8 with 3 % of listeners. These figures correspond with results of the research regarding the income from advertising, which is approximately ten times higher in Katolícke noviny and Rádio Lumen than in TV Lux. The speakers put stress on the fact that the advertising possibilities of Catholic media are limited comparing to secular media, as a result of application of more strict ethical codex in the area of marketing as well as in broadcasting programme structure. According to the director of Radio Lumen, Juraj Spuchlak, it’s natural that religion-based media are generally not self-sufficient regarding the finances and the necessity to have economical support from ecclesial hierarchy and recipients is understandable. “Neverthles, the mission of Catholic media – to evangelize and spread the Good news – should be an absolute priority, overpowering any other aspect of their functioning. Therefore it is necessary to find an accurate balance between an effort and professionality on the marketing and business level, and non-commercial mission of the media”, concluded Juraj Spuchlak.Young Catholic journalists. The conference took place at the Catholic University in Ruzomberok and its rector, prof. Tadeusz Zasepa, shared his opinion about its essential role in education and formation of young journalists with preference to work in Catholic media, in an interview to SIR correspondent for the countries of Eastern and Middle Europe, Danka Jaceckova: “In the first place it’s about formation concerning openness towards people in their complexity and all their problems – family, social, pedagogical etc. This is our main scope. And the most important part of this is to teach young people to be open to the truth. Catholic media try to cover all speres of human life – intellectual, moral, aesthetic and religious. Moral sphere involves social aspects, politics and culture, and thus there’s no space in which the Church couldn’t participate with its media. Immense space that needs to be covered and calls for journalists ambitious in a right way. And our mission as the only Catholic University in the country, is to give them anything necessary for a good start”.