The 2nd edition of the “Communication is Mission” course for students of the Pontifical Colleges linked to “Propaganda Fide”, organized by the Pontifical Missionary Union and Fides News Agency in collaboration with the Faculty of Institutional Communication of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, ended on 31 May 2021.
The initiative was born from the reflection that the Church sustains significant efforts and continuous refinements to promote a “Good Communication”. The Gospel is the Good News that the Church proclaims and testifies. Communicating always involves risks; communicating one’s own faith necessarily requires the courage to get involved entirely and to accept failure and restart, in order to be consistent and faithful witnesses.
The promotion of the course involved the Rectors of the three pontifical colleges in Rome: Fr. Carlos Del Valle, College of St. Peter the Apostle, Fr. Lisandro Rivas Duran, College of St. Paul the Apostle, and Sr. Jolanta Plominska, Mater Ecclesiae College. They have joined with promptness and availability and collaborated for the selection of the attendants. There were over 40 candidates, from which the Course Commission selected only 21 because of limited number for the course.
The course was hold in 32 meetings, each lasting 4 hours, from 17 October 2020 to 31 May 2021. Given the Covid-19 emergency, the lectures were offered until 7 March on the new online platform of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross “DISCERE”; from 17 April 2021 face-to-face, including the exams, which concerned the following topics:
1. Journalism, journalistic writing, language, characteristics, method, professionalism.
2. Language and audiovisual genres.
3. Radio journalism, live radio programs, recording and editing of a radio service.
4. Audio quality, mixing, sound, voice-over service.
5. Communication strategies for web, introduction to the web and site management.
6. Social media management, web journalism and SEO.
7. Introduction to image processing, image composition.
8. Introduction to video shooting and editing method.
9. Final paper: creation of a web page with a news article, an analysis article, a radio service, a video service.
10. Final exam took place in two sessions, on 29 May and 31 May 2021: “Presentation of the final paper” through a personal blog where the digital products discussed during the final exam were prepared.
The course pursued the following objectives: 1. To form a new communication mentality that responds to the needs of today’s man and woman and knows how to understand and help them to express themselves in a language that is current and understandable to all; 2. To become men and women capable of orienting themselves in a “liquid” society, and of moving on different fronts, dedicating themselves with care and flexibility to constant change; 3. To realize an authentic, free communication, result of trials, failures, efforts, expectations, research with the conviction that the Gospel message is clear, but our communication may not be so and may even reduce its effectiveness.
