By Emily Stimpson

'New Media' allow for greater engagement

Catholic blogs, podcasts and online forums need quality, creativity in order to reach people, conference speakers say

Remember Jack, the nursery rhyme character who made a name for himself jumping over candlesticks?

Well, according to presenters at the conference "Faith and Media: Engaging the Culture," the Catholic media needs to make like Jack if it wants to survive and thrive in the 21st century.

In other words, it needs to be nimble, and it needs to be quick.

The conference, held April 4-5, at Franciscan University of Steubenville, brought together Catholic professionals specializing in radio, video, print and Internet communications to explore the opportunities, demands and challenges for the Church in the age of "new media" -- Internet, podcasts, blogs and other rapidly developing communications technologies.

Means of outreach

When it comes to opportunities, Father Roderick Vonhsgen believes the Church has never had more means at its disposal to engage the culture.

The podcasting Dutch priest and founder of the Star Quest Production Network pointed out that it takes less time and money to produce podcasts, blogs, websites and online forums than to produce television and radio programs or print publications. Which makes it all the easier for cash-strapped dioceses, apostolates and even individual Catholics to broadcast the Gospel far and wide.

"We all can be media makers now," Father Vonhsgen said.

The very nature of the new media, he continued, with its emphasis on interaction, feedback and community, makes it conducive to the work of evangelization.

"Theological books are for those already converted or looking to be so," he told conference participants. "If we want to reach new people, we have to make friends. And that's what so many of these people searching the Internet are craving."

Quality still counts

Those opportunities, however, come with some big demands.

The sheer amount of information available in an age when everyone is a "media maker" means that only the highest quality products will capture people's attention. And in many areas, conference presenters conceded that the Catholic media isn't matching the quality of its packaging to the importance of its content.

"What the Church is sorely lacking is good artists," said Michael Kreidler, a senior partner with Catholic Media Partners. "Praise God that we have Catholic programming on the air and on the Internet, but at best, a lot of what we're producing is only a C+ effort."

"We have the most important message in the world," added Father Vonhsgen, "so why do we allow the people selling us Pepsi to best us in communicating that message? If the Food Network can make a compelling show about mushrooms, why can't we do the same about confession or Mass?"

Catholics actually have a lot to learn from the Food Network, not to mention HGTV, said keynote speaker Jennifer Willits.

Willits, who along with her husband, Greg, co-founded the Rosary Army and hosts the popular video podcast "That Catholic Show," spent hours studying the programs on those two networks before they began filming their own show.

"We wanted to figure out what was so engaging about their programs. How do they keep us glued to our seats?" Willits said.

What they found, she continued, were productions geared toward audiences with a short attention span: quick cuts, unusual camera angles, humor and surprising shots.

The Willitses believe those same principles -- brevity, motion, levity and surprise -- need to be incorporated into Catholic communications, whether audio, visual or print, if Catholics want to capture and hold the culture's attention.

"The faith is alive," she said. "Let's represent it that way."

Finding synergy

Conference presenters also stressed that Catholic media need to follow the lead of the secular media in another way: Integrating new media technologies into old media mediums.

Pointing to television shows such as "Lost" and "Heroes," whose producers have launched websites, podcasts and online forums to complement their television programming, and to major newspapers who have reporters blogging and podcasting while bloggers and podcasters write columns for their print editions, Father Vonhsgen stressed "cross-pollination" as the key to survival for old media in the new media age.

"Too often we posit false dichotomies," added Stephen Gajdosik, president of the Catholic Radio Association. "We think it's got to be television or radio, newspapers or the Internet, radio or podcasting. But the key is to get all these mediums working synergistically, working together."

But even if the Church rises to the challenge of embracing new media and does so in an engaging, high quality way, new media comes with a new set of problems.

Potential pitfalls

As Paul Giannamore, a 24-year veteran of the newspaper industry, pointed out, the blogosphere all too often resembles a bar, where "everyone's got an opinion and is shouting it out."

"We still need someone we can trust to sort through all the opinions, all the data, and tell us what it means," he said.

Just as reliability of content and objective analysis can often be lacking in new media, so, too, can real interpersonal communication.

Dr. Wally Metts, a communications professor at Spring Arbor University, noted that immersion in a virtual community can lead to "the breakdown of immediate community," and that in online "relationships" it's often "not as much about who you are as who people think you are."

Metts also noted the problem of being "plugged in" 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- the continual access to news, information, entertainment and music impeding the silent reflection needed to progress in both the spiritual and intellectual life.

While Father Vonhsgen recognizes those potential pitfalls, he said Catholic media has to embrace new media if it wants to continue effectively carrying out its mission in the world.

"We're in the midst of a revolution. As a Church we've got to be there," he said.

Rules of engagement

How can Catholics use the media -- both new and old -- to engage today's culture? According to Father Roderick Vonhsgen, founder of the Star Quest Production Network, effective communication boils down to the rule of the "Five 'I's' and the Five 'S's.'"

The Catholic media's job is to:

Interest

Inform

Instruct

Involve

Inspire

and . . .

The Catholic media needs to keep it:

Short

Searchable

Social

Simple