21 Animation is described in SSCS no.87 as 'management...in educational processes' and as 'internal and external relations'. Animation occurs when there is a person to make it happen. The Delegate acting in the name of the Provincial, the teams who assist him, the local coordinators in communities, all share this task of 'promoting various communicational realities' (GC23, 259), and their accompaniment.
There are at least four essential animation areas with regard to social communication:
education
formation
information
production
22 The Province Delegate assists people and communities to draw up Media education curricula. This handbook is not about offering material for such curricula. For education of the young there is a need to seek out appropriate material to assist with education to media. Confreres, too, require education to and through media. This is taken up below in no.24. As a term, Media Education is direct and practical, and has a solid tradition behind it especially in the English-speaking world. It is education with media, to media and even for media. In the context of a province and its work in social communication we are looking at a new kind of figure – the person who is himself and is able to prepare others to be, a media educator, that is not just an educator, but a multimedia expert, someone who works with a critical attitude and is capable of encouraging others, especially the young, to be responsible collaborators in the field. Media education is placed squarely on the borders between education and communication, both sciences in their own right. The media educator is educator and communicator.
23 From media education to educommunication: ' Every community is called upon to improve institutional communication; to plan and bring about in the educative and pastoral communities education to communication and education through the media, educommunication, which includes education to the use of 'languages' and of the media; the use of the media for education and evangelisation in schools, parishes, oratories etc.; the promotion of dialogue with communicators, artists and publishers, especially if they are young; helping those afflicted by the new forms of poverty and those excluded by the new communication techniques; and improving the standard of media skills'. (Pascual Chávez, AGC 390, p 39). As a term, educommunication emphasizes a communal dimension, perhaps even a political one in that it ensures the formation of people who are creative and aware of the democratic value of media for the common good.
24 Curricula dealing with social communication, particularly for young people, need to be flexible since the young are born with computers and television as part of their make-up! Rather than complete curricula for young people, we need to think in terms of units for knowledge and formation, since in many cases today’s youngsters are already ahead of their counterparts and adults of earlier times. This way, useless repetition can be avoided; repetition could be off-putting.
25 Help for those working in communication to carry out their work as educators, through the means they are using, goes beyond the possibilities and efforts of a Salesian Delegate and his team. But at least to think about the idea is a sign of wanting to discover what can be done so that communities and people don’t just complain about the products or instruments of communication but know how to offer some useful ideas and even some possible changes of direction.
26 The Province Delegate for social communication is seen, in the overall organisation of the Province, as a formation person, in the sense that he has his own specific role to play in initial formation and ongoing formation of Salesians.
27 The Salesian curriculum outline for initial and ongoing formation, Formation to SC - Guidelines, is a resource and guide for the Delegate in his task regarding initial and ongoing formation.
28 The formation aspect of the PSCP represents a primary task for the Province Delegate and the Social Communication Commission. Refer to the checklist in SSCS, the appendix outlining the PSCP.
29 Animation which ignores the context is ineffective. Formation requires of formators that they be part of life’s context so they can develop according to a plan which enriches the person.
30 One possible formation activity: attention is drawn here to an initiative involving the whole Church: - World Social Communications Day. This is a propitious formation occasion. The Roman Dicastery prepares reflection and prayer material for the theme of the Day which can be used in communities. Episcopal Conferences and Diocesan offices prepare practical materials for carrying out the Day well.
31 Some notes on what is useful when using this material:
read the text of the papal message,
organise a community gathering on the theme chosen by the Pope, giving some depth to the discussion of theme and problems connected with it,
invite experts in the material presented by the message so they can offer a point of view and other perspectives to follow up,
find time for prayer together about social communication, recalling its importance, influence, its possibilities, its risks and challenges in our world,
suggest the possibility of a Communication Ministry for the reflection of the local Church . Given the many ecclesial statements, we could also move to action, recognising the service given by communication in the church. There is a long journey ahead. We can take the first steps!
The reference to celebration of the communication day does not mean we are limited to only an annual remembrance of our Salesian commitment in this sector.
Beginning with that day we can draw up other initiatives that bring attention to and promote an area that young people today live with such intensity.
32 Information is both internal to the Salesian Family and external. External information is represented by some activities which may also function internally such as the Salesian Bulletin and the Congregational or Province level web sites, but it also assumes activities and relationships which extend to the world at large. By internal information we mean what is done:
for the Salesian community SDB
for the Salesian Family.
Information internal to the community, then, concerns
the province,
the whole Congregation.
Here we cannot take into account all the information products available in different provinces, so we limit ourselves to some of a more general nature:
The Province Newsletter
The Salesian Bulletin
The Province website
other typical products
the correspondents’ network
33 A Province Newsletter project is a topic worth attentive analysis.
Herewith the essential reference points for a meaningful Newsletter project and an effective informational tool.
34 Project outline:
The Province Newsletter within the Province Social Communication Plan.
The nature of the Province Newsletter.
Who the Province Newsletter is for.
Editorial policy for the Province Newsletter.
Being in charge of and producing the Province Newsletter.
The Province Newsletter structure.
The Province Newsletter frequency.
The Province Newsletter language and style.
We should not forget that for many provinces the Newsletter is the only information tool they have, internally or externally, meaning that they lack other channels for the flow of information. It is important to be aware of this if we are asking questions about the visibility and meaningfulness of Salesian presence and action in a place and a culture.
35 The Province Newsletter within the Provincial Social Communication Plan.
The first thing to be considered is that if there is no communication plan, the Newsletter risks being shipwrecked in history rather than in what’s actually happening in a province. It will be subject to constant change depending on who has been asked to produce it, or its choices will not respond to the province’s real direction. The province communication plan offers the essential coordinates:
for the province’s history, which the Newsletter becomes the custodian and promoter of;
as part of the history of the Salesian charism: the Newsletter should help with a re-reading of the Salesian charism in the Province’s situation, without locking itself into simply telling about celebrations which have happened or will happen; it offers cooperation and vocational commitment (in broad terms) with lay people who share Don Bosco’s style.
36 Fr E. Viganò wrote:
“Without substantial information about the origins, the history and the current life of our Congregation and the Salesian Family, there is insufficient circulation of the vital sap in the organism. Lacking proper impulses for identity and a sense of belonging, it atrophies. Instead, with adequate information (circulation and communication of Salesian values), it grows in vitality, enriches awareness and enthusiasm for our vocation and gives rise to family joy”.
37 The nature of the Province Newsletter.
Not all province products serving internal communication use the title Province Newsletter. All provinces, however, have followed up the indications of the Special General Chapter in giving life to family news. SGC n. 516 puts it as follows:
“Communication in and beyond the Congregation.
…B) AT PROVINCIAL LEVEL promoting abundant information by means of Newsletters which are interested in linking communities and confreres concerning problems regarding the Province and encourage free initiative, chances to meet, seeking solutions to problems and giving occasion for facing up to and revising ideas, experiments, methods, guidelines.”
The Italics are part of the Capitular text. The result is as follows: The Province Newsletter is:
38 an instrument of communication.
This is the first item emphasised by the SGC text: abundant information.
An instrument, then, which allows information to circulate: should follow, as far as possible, the criteria typical of any information product.
Current news is a substantial and necessary aspect of information.
39 an instrument of communion.
Communion comes from awareness when this becomes a reason for interest, that is, affective and effective attraction, and relations created around common issues regarding confreres and communities.
The pathway to communion built around the Newsletter is different to that brought about by interpersonal relationships, or by prayer or by common opinion.
40 a stimulus to creative renewal.
The Newsletter is to be thought of and produced as something that tries to arouse creativity and renewal.
In some ways it is a place for checking out initiatives taking place, for experiments in new things or new ways of intervening, for pastoral creativity in response to needs of the time and place.
It is worth noting that the SGC aimed high where Province Newsletters are concerned.
The risk we can run is to make the Province Newsletter:
an unrelated collection of stories about events. In some ways substituting the House Chronicle;
a kind of review of printed items in the Houses and the Province. It can be useful in ensuring we don’t forget what has happened and how it was received in terms of Salesian events in the local and national press;
a kind of official collection of ecclesial and Salesian documents at different levels world, national, provincial, local. Certainly a few special numbers containing documentation can be useful if they would otherwise not get to the Confreres. But there should be just a few numbers of this kind, not as a regular style for putting the Newsletter together.
The list of risks could go on. Better to show that each risk has consequences for the practical planning of the Newsletter. The Province Delegate is asked to evaluate the Newsletter in the light of the positives and negatives listed above.
41The Province Newsletter: who it is for.
Choosing the public audience for an information product is important. It is essential to define the target, who to direct contents, language style, priorities to. Broadly speaking the confreres are the recipients of the Newsletter.
The Province Newsletter also goes to some outside the Salesian community. The Province Newsletter doesn’t only deal with life in the religious community.
It considers the mission and spirit of a Salesian community which has the Salesian Family, lay partners as part of its horizons and plays a responsible role in Salesian activity.
Guidelines given by GC24 need to be part of the understanding of the Province Newsletter. Animation, a typical service of the SDB community for the CEP also goes by way of a communication product like the Newsletter. The choice, however, should not just remain broad or tacit. It is expressed and defined at different provincial levels.
The expectations of Salesians living in a province should not be lost sight of. They take part in the life of the whole Congregation. The Province Newsletter should respond to these needs.
42 The Province Newsletter: editorial policy.
The Newsletter is:
an instrument of communication,
an instrument of communion,
a stimulus for creative renewal.
All this can’t be done in improvised fashion or be left to chance.
The Province Newsletter has something institutional about it at the Province level. It should be able to present the Province in its typical contexts of society, church, young people and education. This requires guidelines, criteria, reference points. or, in other words, an editorial policy.
43 The reality has different names in different regions: editorial policy, frame of reference etc.
What is important is that the choice is:
a conscious one, founded on the precise nature of the Newsletter. The Provincial and his Council are part of this together with the Province Delegate for social communication, and the editor of the Newsletter;
explicit, such that it is public and well known in the Province; and known especially by those at work today, and those who are asked to help to put the Newsletter together;
consistent with the communication system in place in the Province. An evaluation should be made of information and communication products in the Province to study the relationship and coordination between them;
constant over time. To be honest the editorial policy isn’t something rigid, invariable, but nor it should not change for every edition.
44 The Provincial’s letter to the Confreres in the Province.
Some reflection is in order regarding the best place for the Provincial’s letter, if it forms part of the Province Newsletter.
As the first item in the Province Newsletter it takes on the role of a fundamental article (generally, however, this is not the intention of the letter, even if it could occasionally be this): consequently it would need to be written from this point of view.
In the body of the Newsletter, it could refer to institutional tasks - objectives to be aimed at, taking into account information coming before it and community news. The letter would thus function as practical guidance.
If it comes at the conclusion of the Newsletter it could have the function of encouragement, stimulus, review, planning etc.
So – the location of the letter is not a matter of indifference.
Nor is the perspective of the writer an indifferent matter.
45 The Province Newsletter – its production.
The Provincial appoints the person who puts the Newsletter together, choosing from available and capable people in the Province.
Generally this is:
the Vice Provincial, or
the Provincial Secretary, or
The Province Delegate for Social Communication, or
The Editor of The Salesian Bulletin.
Each of these choices has its advantages and disadvantages.
Not to be overlooked:
the ability (already there or to be acquired beforehand) in working with information,
availability of time for the job.
The Province Delegate helps the one in charge to coordinate the work:
a confrere in each community responsible for sending in information,
other useful matters which ensure a functional and easy production.
a list of possible outside helpers.
46 The Province Newsletter – structure.
Organisational involves:
financial organisation: The financial side of the Province Newsletter is somewhat minor when compared to the finances of other products. Given that it is part of the Province institution, the Provincial Council should include accounting for the Newsletter in its overall financial planning.
editorial organisation: defining what makes up the Newsletter.
The different sectors of educative and pastoral activity in the Province should be referred to:
formation,
youth pastoral ministry
Salesian Family,
missions,
social communication
finance.
Other information relevant to the Salesian world has its place if it hasn’t already been mentioned in the above. Similarly for matters referring to communities and works in the Province;
organising distribution: finding out who the recipients are guides the kind of distribution. Consider possibilities for making the Newsletter known, other than to confreres, in the Salesian Family, local Church, people working in communication in the local area especially if it is the only institutional product in the Province.
organising graphics and layout: these are technical elements and it would be helpful to have advice from professionals in matters like layout, headings, readability of text, design, photos for enhancing text and so forth.
47 The Province Newsletter: frequency.
What has been outlined above can be applied to any type of information product.
If current news is a characteristic of the information, an infrequent Newsletter (say three of four editions a year) will not carry out its real function. It is preferable to have a Newsletter with fewer pages than a huge product only occasionally.
48 The growth of on-line Newsletters.
This is part of a new reality. Facility in using computers and internet has given us new possibilities for sending information to and beyond the Salesian world.
Just an observation: it is not enough to put the paper version of the Province Newsletter on the internet. This does not meet the requirements of that process.
The Internet has its own processes to be respected in producing information.
49 The Provincial Delegate for social communication in some provinces is also the editor of the Salesian Bulletin. In other provinces, they are not one and the same person. In this latter case the Province Delegate for social communication has some responsibility for animation, since he knows some information coming from the centre, following Council decisions.
What follows is of direct interest to the Province Delegate for social communication as well as, of course, the Salesian Bulletin editor.
The Salesian Bulletin is amongst our oldest and most institutional of Salesian information products.
Art. 41 of the Regulations outlines the broad purpose of the Bulletin.
“The Salesian Bulletin, founded by Don Bosco, spreads knowledge of Salesian spirit and activity, especially in its missionary and educational aspects. It is concerned with the problems of youth, encourages collaboration and tries to foster vocations. It is as well an instrument for formation and a bond of union between the different branches of the Salesian Family. It is edited in accordance with the directives of the Rector Major and his Council in various editions and languages.”
50 The Rector Major and his Council have over recent years undertaken a vast work of renewal and re-launching of the Salesian Bulletin. Following lengthy preparation by the Department, Fr Vecchi and his Council came to the following conclusions-decisions, which continue in force with minor adjustments as the years progress. A number of items then expressed as aims, have now been achieved in practice (e.g. The Congregation web site indicates online Salesian Bulletins):
Giving the Bulletin visibility to make its relevance recognisable.
All Bulletins should appear at least bi-monthly.
Making known and sharing to make people feel responsible.
Setting up a world commission:
Effective organisation. Each edition of the Salesian Bulletin should have:
An editorial group with its own tasks and functions
An Administrative body
A Constitution
On-line Salesian Bulletins:
The structure of the General Administration Internet site
The linchpin of any practical strategy: people.
Formation of SB editors
Constant evaluation of the relaunching process and development
51 The work carried out by the Department at world level was brought together in book form: The Salesian Bulletin in the world – World Meeting for the SB for the third millennium – Editrice SDB, extra-commercial edition, Rome, La Pisana 1999.
The proceedings and decisions of the most recent 2005 meeting of editors of the SB from around the world, held in Rome, is available in CD form in provinces where the SB is produced, or from the SC Department in Rome.
At regional level, meetings have taken place for formation of SB Directors and co-workers, to put into practice the General Council’s conclusions.
Salesian literature on the SB is extensive, a sign of the interest by the Congregation, beginning from Rectors Major, in the product.
Circulars, various reflections, timely interventions, research in the field, experiments and creativity have helped this publication to grow.
52 The Provincial Delegate for Social Communication and the SB.
Animation tasks regarding the SB by the Province Delegate could be as follows:
re-reading together with the SB director, conclusions and decisions of the General Council, listed above;
planning together how to carry out these decisions: preparing a calendar of interventions on each point, determining the persons responsible;
helping seek who could be appointed to the editorial board for the SB: remember to involve members from outside the Salesian community, choosing from amongst those qualified from the Salesian Family and other experts from the Friends of Don Bosco;
studying together how to achieve an administrative body in the area in which you are working: Steps to be carried out here should be planned in detailed fashion in agreement with the Provincial and Provincial Council;
trying out formation opportunities specific to the editing of the SB: through training in journalism, training in different aspects relevant to a communication product;
establishing together regular evaluation of products or of the programme;
seeing to the structure of features to appear in the SB, for better presentation of the image of the Province and the Congregation.
increasing the address list of those who receive the SB, studying together with the director ways to reach people, groups, church and civil organisations who could be interested in Salesian news.
53 Province websites have become a regular and important feature. They are more than a Province intranet and are accessible to the world at large. In addition to the Province websites, communities and their works have widely adopted the practice of setting up a website. There are a number of fundamental questions which need to be considered for the setting up of a website (quite apart from technical issues not tackled here):
Who will this site be for? (Salesians? Employees? Students? Young people? The whole world?) Accordingly words, graphics and content would have to be chosen.- What do we want to communicate to the target group? How can we present the information in a brief and appropriate manner? - How can we build a site for this group that downloads fast, and is useful and easily navigable?
Province sites should contain a link to the www.sdb.org Congregation site.
54 The http://www.sdb.org/ www.sdb.org website: – adequate communications concerning its use come from the Centre. The Province Delegate should learn from what has been sent out concerning the INTRANET/Reserved area, so he can help province delegates for other sectors, and communities, to use this to good purpose. But one particular issue of importance for the SC Delegate in this regard is to advise the Coordinator of www.sdb.org of changes to information, addresses already present on the site. It is almost impossible for the Coordinator to keep up to date with changes unless adequately informed.
55 Two explanations:
The reference here is not to all the possible products in a Province but to those which fit the category of ‘information’. Other products, will be at least partly considered in the third chapter dealing with Salesian business ventures.
The reference here is to parish, school youth group newsletters, or those of other groups inspired by Don Bosco, all part of public opinion tied to the Congregation.
There are, besides, the many weekly, monthly news sheets which are part of local daily life. Radio and Television contributions which make known activities and initiatives of the Salesian community are also considered here.
Obviously we cannot include absolutely everything, since there is so much of it;
The reference is from the point of view of the Province Delegate for social communication, not from the point of view of the editors of these products.
56 The Province Delegate’s role is:
to study the kind of coordination possible. This does not necessarily mean material cooperation, but rather the definition of concrete ways to make it happen;
to offer everyone, generally, some criteria for working in the best and most effective way, so that products have quality;
to help, when asked, in realising individual products.
The power of animation is no less than the possibility for decision!
The animation proposed regards aspects already dealt with relative to the Province Newsletter.
A small structure needs to be created which takes responsibility for the task of working with quality even in small things.
57 To ensure the functioning of Salesian information from the local end.
The Province Delegate should become the point of reference for the local communities.
One very useful item in a Province is a handbook or manual developed at local level and according to local needs – something along the lines of the handbook you currently have in hand, but more detailed in terms of communications needs and responses at community level. There is an excellent example of a handbook of this kind available in Spanish, entitled Manual de Comunicación para Ambientos Salesianos, by Jose Luis Calvo Torollo (SSE). Chapters 4-8 of the example cited contain useful practical material on: Salesian information, Communications deaprtment, types of communication, the house, protocol, equipment.
Above we indicated the need to have a reference person for information needed for the Province Newsletter.
If each community does this, there is the beginnings of a province network which will bring its own fruits of communion and mission between confreres and communities. At the province centre there will be arrangements to re-transmit information coming from houses and activities. An organisation of this kind produces current information. No need to wait for the Newsletter to be prepared to get news circulating.
58 The Newsletter takes on another role: reflection on daily happenings, re-launching initiatives in Salesian presence, discovering spirituality in life. Concerning external information, two other issues:
an information office on the life of the Salesian province,
more direct relationships with local media.
59To ensure the functioning of Salesian information from the 'centre'.
The same networking is demanded of the Congregation.
ANS is an international Salesian information agency in our project.
It should not be confused with products. It is the place where information is organised for Provinces to distribute. It is a clearing house as well as a collection centre. As a collection centre it needs help from all the Provinces: this is the specific help asked of Province Delegates for Social Communication.
The Delegate should see to:
following up Salesian activities in the Province from the point of view of
“constructing” news,
“writing up” the information,
“placing it” within the media at the interest level of the news being offered (local, if it is about local Salesian activities; national if it involves wider interests stemming from what has happened).
“informing” the Agency so it can continue the information process.
60 It is not enough just to send off news, but to see what effect the news can have locally and universally. The verbs “construct”, “draw up”, “place”, “inform” are technical terms in communication. Here we offer an outline that could help keep in touch with the theme we have been dealing with.
61 Information is supported by knowledge and with the help of many other efforts. For this to happen we need:
to create a network for gathering information about everything concerning the Salesian Family.
to make this a professional network such that the coverage guarantees maximum reception of relevant information.
to make the technical and professional means available which are needed to guarantee an adequate treatment and distribution of information.
Province and National Delegates, the most natural correspondents for the Agency, can refer to what follows to carry out a service according to the information requirements of the Congregation, and encourage other potential correspondents to do likewise.
62 Information sources for ANS
Salesian sources
General Administration: The Rector Major and General Council; departments and central services, General House in Rome.
Provinces: The Provincial, Provincial Council, Provincial Secretary, Provincial Services, Planning and Agenda, prominent Salesians.
Salesian Family, activities and initiatives from Lay Movements.
Publications: Salesian Bulletins, Province Newsletters, local publications.
Non-Salesian sources
The Holy See.
Episcopal Conferences, dioceses.
Conferences of Religious.
Organisations belonging to other Faiths.
International, national and regional organisations.
Cultural and pedagogical centres.
International, national and regional youth organisations.
Other world press agencies at national or international level.
63 The news: as it is and as it functions
Concept
News is text with a basic function: to explain the maximum information about a fact in the least time and space possible, and with greatest communicational effect. It should be able to arouse interest in the public.
News does not exist if a correspondent does not produce it. An event remains an event; to become news it needs the journalistic effort of the correspondent.
Editorial characteristics
News should be worked up through:
simple detached, concise and clear language
short sentences, one idea per sentence, and with plenty of active verbs and concrete nouns.
avoiding technical expressions that only a few can understand. Using the language of the common people.
Opinion and information should not be confused.
Sources need to be checked – facts and words.
There are several possible approaches to preparing news: two of those presented here are the ‘take’ and another less rigid approach which permits those in the ANS office to write up the points the correspondent offers. The reality is that many Salesian ‘correspondents’ are really volunteer stringers, in journalist terms, with many other tasks to do. They have neither the time nor, sometimes the journalistic training to do more than offer the basics for others to write up on their behalf.
Preparing a news ‘take’
For the Agency, news consists in writing one or more ‘takes’ or pieces of content.
A take is brief. Maximum length is usually 10 lines.
The first take must be self-sufficient, that is it should not require additions in order to be understood. Successive takes are to add information; but all elements of the news should appear in the first. Writing a news item in one or more takes depends on the importance of the news to be transmitted and on those who will be reading it.
The structure of a take.
The first take opens with a lead, that is to say with the most important part of the news item.
It remains the case that news is best written according to the classic five questions formula of, i.e.: who, what, where, when, and why. And useful, too, ‘how’.
Writing headlines
There should always be a headline heading the news item.
The aim of a headline is to identify, announce and summarise the information contained in the news item, as well as to convince and arouse interest.
A key or base word opens the headline (two words at most).
Example: DRUGS: SALESIAN THERAPY COMMUNITIES FROM ITALY MEET.
ANS headlines should be no more than 55 keystrokes.
Narrative text headlines are usually a sentence worth – possibly where the verb remains implicit. Topic texts normally have headlines without a verb.
Another approach to prepare news for transmission to ANS
| As a basis for putting your news points together, have no more than 3 central ideas and 7 details (regard these figures as maximums). |
| Indicate sources if possible |
| Indicate the province or circumscription of origin |
| Indicate the Salesian sector best represented by the news (YM, Formation etc) |
To this we can add: aim for a regular rhythm; experience has shown that monthly is a minimum rhythm that works, especially if a province has several persons who are prepared to work on that basis. It is not too demanding on individuals, yet enables a good flow of news to ANS if one considers 90 plus provinces working on that basis!
64 A table demonstrating a worksheet that could be used for a news item,
Table 2.1. BASIC NEWS FACTS
| 1. FACT | |
| 2. WHERE: precise location | |
| 3. WHEN: date, time | |
| 4. WHO: people, groups | |
| 5. HOW MANY: groups, participants | |
| 6. WHAT | |
| 7. WHY | |
| 8. HOW | |
| 9, IMPORTANT ASPECTS | |
| 10. OTHER THINGS OF INTEREST | |
| 11. PROBLEMS | |
| 12. POSSIBILITIES | |
| 13. COMMENTS | |
| 14. STATISTICS | |
| 15. DOCUMENTS: programmes, texts, speeches etc. | |
| 16. PHOTOS, VIDEO | |
| 17. SOUND RECORDING |
65 The link between correspondent and the ANS office
The correspondent’s work is not complete if the information does not arrive in the ANS office in good time.
Important or very relevant news should be consigned as soon as is possible.
Standard news items can be consigned together in a single mailing on the first day of each month.
Events for AS agenda, instead, should be consigned before the 20th of each month.
Material should arrive preferably through email, either to the ANS address or to individuals working there
66 Using the telephone
The telephone – cellular or otherwise – is one of the most useful tools used by journalists, particularly agencies. Information can be given and received by phone. The phone is useful when there is urgent need to check details or make immediate contact.
When a journalist makes contact for the fist time, he should identify himself, the news organisation for which he is working, and the reason for his call.
Brief statements by phone are possible, as well as brief interviews. To be really faithful, a tape of the call would serve proper journalistic purposes.
Seek other items of news that may come up in the conversation.
Questions should be brief and to the point, and aim at providing everything needed for writing a complete news item.
The phone call should then be transcribed and worked into a statement or interview format.
67 Using email
Email is the most common tool used for linking correspondents with the Agency.
Email should be checked daily at least once.
The correspondent should normally write and receive news items ‘off-line’, i.e. in an attached document – the email makes reference to the kind of document attached.
The attached document is best formatted as RTF (Rich Text Format) or in current versions of Word (i.e. avoid using versions before Word ’95).
The subject box indicates in a couple of words the nature of the item despatched. It is important to include this in the name of the document – it is not enough to receive a doucment like ‘Italian.doc’ or ‘captions.doc’, since one can’t distinguish one file from another like that.
Using ‘urgent’ or ‘very urgent’ mode, when necessary, saves time by speeding up distribution via the server.
68 photographs
When email does not permit the transmission of photo-quality images, more traditional methods - airmail post - need to be used.
Photos should be sent in landscape format rather than portrait, preferably 10 x15cm dimensions, in colour and always accompanied by captions which identify subject, date, place, topic or event etc.
Slides are also useful.
NB. Problems tied to photo transmission.
This concerns technical and practical problems relating to a photographic news service. Technical advice should be sought on these matters. The ANS office is always ready to respond to questions of this kind.
69 Information from outside the Salesian community should also be organised.
Consider the following :
relations with communications personnel in the local area
active participation in the local Church’s commitment to communication
setting up several provincial offices for social communication:
Salesian information office
Public relations office
office for promoting the Salesian image
Press review office
70 The aim is not to propose heavy and complicated structures. But to indicate some areas that are possible for a province. The distinction between the different areas does not mean that there need to be different persons responsible for each.
One person can cover many aspects. On the other hand, perhaps not all Provinces would be in a position to be immediately organising the services shown here.
The Province Delegate needs to think, however, of the wide area entrusted to him. It is important that he get responsible assistance from the Social Communication Commission.
71 Our starting conviction is as follows: There is need for a greater presence of our Salesian message in the media.
There is no lack of interesting experiences on the part of some confreres when it comes to being part of the media; but it does not appear that these experiences represent a coordinated or specific effort on the part of communities.
Getting the Salesian message 'out there' is part of the Province Delegate's task. This would be a realistic way for Salesians to meet the challenge of social communication: Social communication is also a way, an important way, to be in touch with the Salesian mission.
Statements alone are insufficient. We need the personnel!
72 Relations with structures and communications personnel in the local area.
A mutual understanding between those working in the same sector is the first step to be achieved for effective cooperation. A list of structures, people and media to keep in contact with can be drawn up.
For personal contact.
For work contact.
For contact between institutions.
These are the bridges of understanding over which information can pass beyond the community .
We have already said something about World Communications Day. The same idea is taken up again here, but not just for that Day.
Friendly relations encourage other encounters. These can be listed in the calendar of events. The Province Delegate should remember that he not only asks his colleagues for information but also offers them information useful to them.
We will return to this again when we speak of Salesian information offices. Here we see the urgency for coordination between province and national levels. The two structures should be of mutual support.
The relationship is not limited to people only. It should also be institutional, for example with the local Church structures tasked with organising along the lines of Aetatis Novae. The same can be said, especially in large cities, for civil and radio and TV journalism structures.
73 Participating in the local Church’s commitment to social communication.
The Pontifical Council for Social Communications, on 22nd February 1992, promulgated its pastoral instruction celebrating 20 years of Communio et Progressio. The final paragraph of the text carries this heading: The need for pastoral planning, and examines two points:
The responsibility of the Bishops
The need for a pastoral plan for social communication.
An integral part of the text is the appendix: Elements for a pastoral plan for social communications.
74 One of the first duties of the Province Delegate is to carefully read what is said in the pastoral instruction. The Bishops’ responsibilities are presented in number 20:
“Recognising the value and the urgency of the needs arising from media activity, the Bishops and those whose duty it is to decide how to allocate the Church’s limited human and material resources, should act to give it due priority, taking account of the particular situations in their own nation, region and diocese.
This need may be greater than ever today because of, at least in part, the great ‘Areopagus’ of contemporary media has been more or less overlooked by the Church up until now.
As the Holy Father has noted: “Generally preference has been given to other means of formation and evangelisation, while the mass media have been left to the initiative of individuals or small groups who take only a secondary place in pastoral planning."
This is a situation needing to be corrected.
75 Cooperation from the Salesian Province can occur in many ways:
through the presence and participation in what is being organised at diocesan level,
through taking initiative first if the diocese is not yet organised – proposing to help form communicators
through liturgical animation,
through youth groups,
through participation in local radio and TV broadcasts,
76 Internet
Two matters are chosen here concerning the internet. Both have different issues attached to them.
| The first: Use of the internet. |
| The second: The usefulness of the internet. |
77 The use of the internet.
This is not about details but only about what touches on the work of the Province Delegate for social communication, recalling the social dimension of the phenomenon.
The Delegate is interested in educating the navigators, adults or young people.
There is technical, moral and social education where the internet is concerned.
This is an educational area where the Province Delegate needs to be concerned about planning and coordinating. We need to learn how to use the internet to speak about the faith, to teach, pray, educate, inform. Once we have overcome the evil of uncontrolled navigation, it can become a real gift from God. Perhaps it is a goal to be aimed at. The primary factor is education.
As in every other sphere of life and activity the result is assured by timely planning, so here too with the internet – we should not fail this appointment offered to us by new technology.
78 The usefulness of the internet.
In making use of the internet for our own purposes we recall the importance of being professional. Help from professionals can make our on-line presence visible attractive and effective.
79 The Delegate’s role here clusters around three attitudes.
respect for business processes and the various competencies involved.
coordinating this aspect together with the rest of the province’s part in the communication’s field
guaranteeing the Salesian character of the enterprise.
80 Respect for business processes and competencies.
The Province Delegate becomes part of the business side of things taking into account three aspects:
the explicit delegation he receives from the Provincial in the service of animation of this aspect, so he is clear about where his competence lies in this area.
the typical organisation each enterprise has for its functioning, with its structures for decision-making and internal tasks;
its qualified and competent personnel (to avoid interventions that do not correspond to the management of the enterprise).
Respect for competence is a sign of recognising the autonomy of this area.
81 Coordination
The Delegate needs to see to this.
A business venture has human resources, structural capacity, a mindset open to reality and to the future.
The province's social communications organisation can take advantage of all this, not to distract the business from its task but to use it to help communities grow in their understanding of communication.
Maintaining personal relations with those working in the enterprise, following the development of initiatives and projects, knowing the annual planning for the enterprise, can help the provincial social communication project.
For the Delegate it is not a matter of coordinating the personnel, but coordinating the projects and approaches.
82 Guaranteeing the Salesian character of our business ventures.
This is the fundamental point. This is followed up firstly in discussion with the Provincial and his Council, not directly with those responsible for the venture. Again we recall:
| the promotional and educational dimension of business activity, |
| the planning dimension through the business’s drawing up of a statement of intent, |
| the formation dimension as regards employees, so as to achieve the aims of a Salesian enterprise. |
From all of this it is clear that there has to be support from the Provincial and his Council for the person who represents them in his role as Delegate.
One concrete form of support is to see that the Delegate is part of one of the Business management councils.
Some important issues for running a successful business venture
83 Some prejudices to be found in Salesian communities where business is concerned;
Relations to be established between the province and the venture.
84 Common prejudices.
Communities, generally speaking, are not in favour of social communication business ventures. A number of factors come into play here.
Some prejudices are practical and others theoretical.
85 Practical.
The following, amongst others:
lack of knowledge about the business sector: few Salesians have had work experience in business, so they see businesses as a distraction from the charism; there are also few Salesians with the special competence required for managing a complex business with its various business regulations.
Often this lack of knowledge gives rise to doubts and suspicion;
some financial concerns: The experience we have of social communications business ventures in some provinces has not been positive. In some cases the financial collapses have put provinces into serious difficulty.
Why unnecessarily run this risk?
the religious circumstances of confreres running business ventures: communities can be concerned about the religious life of those working in a business venture, especially considering aspects touching on religious poverty.
It seems to them that it is difficult to observe poverty when operating within projects, finances, purchases involving huge amounts, public relations expenses and so forth.
It seems to them that it is difficult to observe poverty when operating within projects, finances, purchases involving huge amounts, public relations expenses and so forth.
And there is occasional evidence of confreres living apart from community, in situations which are not a strong witness to the Salesian charism.
The first task of the Province Delegate is to help Salesian communities to know how to view the business side of communication objectively and sympathetically.
This is not something beyond the ambit of the Salesian charism.
This is not some new choice contrasting with tradition.
This is not an activity for some people, carried out as a personal ‘thing’, but a provincial and community activity, part of the project for Salesian presence in a Church or civil jurisdiction, and within the broader educative and pastoral project of the province.
If the above prejudices are not overcome it will be very difficult to foresee development and growth in this area.
We believe it is most important to be convincing about the Salesianity of communications work and of the work of a business venture in communications.
86 Theoretical:
Theoretical fears include:
the easy opposition that can be created between ‘business’ and ‘ministry’.
A business has power and money. Pastoral ministry is defined rather by service. There is some truth, no doubt, in what has been just pointed out. We cannot and must not, however, make them absolute terms almost as if one is good and the other is bad. There is also ‘powerful’ pastoral ministry. And there are business ventures which ‘serve’. Short circuits only serve to confuse.
If the reality was only in the simplistic terms above, how could we explain such a massive and active presence of the Church in communications and communication ventures?
How could we explain the no less nor secondary part that the experience played in Don Bosco’s life?
Today especially the Church is attentive to and concerned with the communications area and communications ventures. These have become vehicles for the Gospel! What has been said about the concerns should make those who work in this area be more attentive and not allow themselves to be taken up by aspects of power.
fear of losing personal contact with people and letting oneself be convinced by the audience (the public) in making editorial choices. The fear points to a typical Salesian sensitivity: seeking personal encounter with those we minister to.
It indicates also the desire to seek truth in the face of concerns about current fashions. This concern should not be under-estimated.
It concerns every Salesian of Don Bosco.
It all indicates that social communication and business ventures cannot be reduced to material things, instruments, structures.
A richness of structures and means does not represent the total commitment of Salesian communities working for the young, especially the most needy and for ordinary poor people.
Structures and means are part of a wider project that always puts the person of the one we work for, and our intention to save that person, at the centre of the Salesian work.
87 Relations between province and enterprise.
It is the province’s duty, through its offices responsible for daily life and activity, to organise communication and in particular communications business ventures;
each type of evasion by the province, that is by the Provincial and his Council, either at the level of ideas or in practice, cannot but cause problems and difficulties in the immediate future;
the provincial and his Council need proper help in their animation and government of the sector: which explains the function of the Province Delegate for social communication, assisted by a commission of experts in the field;
the province project should take into account all areas of life and activity, to coordinate, animate and govern the way forward for everyone and everything: structures, people, organisations and perspectives;
the organisation of business enterprises and ventures, with a definition of roles internal to the work and functions demanded of people, groups and councils, serves to respect each one’s competence and ensure the ordered development of the enterprise.
Don Bosco put himself in the vanguard of progress. The Salesians have the strength and possibility of continuing their Father's and Founder's choices.