Social Media

As is the tradition on the Feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron of journalists, the Holy Father has released his message for the upcoming 45th World Communications Day. Titled "Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age", Pope Benedict XVI's message this year is encouraging the correctly ordered use of the online social media, to cultivate genuine human relationships in which information and ideas leading us to truth may be widely shared.

In last month's Google I/O 2010 conference in San Francisco, Chris Messina gave a presentation on the Open and Social Web, and the developments taking place to enable and facilitate the vision of the social web. You will find his presentation below. It is a bit long, but quite informative and interesting.

Well, it was. Then, it wasn't. Now, it is. Confused? Join the crowd. When Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register came out on January 22 with his Vatican Now on Twitter blog post, the news was greeted with congratulatory comments. To those of us in the media realm, it made sense that the Vatican would launch this new communications initiative just as the Pope was issuing his 44th Annual World Communication Day Message in which he encourages priests to use the social media tools on the web. Hooray, right?

I came across this article in Glorify God titled "Did the concept of “Social Media” originate in the Catholic Church?". It intrigued me, since I don't really think of the Church as an innovator. Perhaps this is because I work everyday at getting Catholic institutions and organizations up to speed in the realm of digital communications.