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Santiago, Chile, 2nd
September
2004 (CNA) -
Speaking at a breakfast
for the Press Club of the Pontifical University of
Chile, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa of
Santiago, Chile, commented on both the positive and
negative aspects of the media in today’s
culture.
In his address the Cardinal
emphasized that communication is a field “near and dear
to the Church,” and he commented on the different
dimensions of social communications, saying the media
has passed from being a simple means of connecting
people and events to forming a culture unto
itself.
“People are no longer
living in a three-dimensional universe. The media
now constitutes a new universe,” the Cardinal
explained.
Thus, said Cardinal
Errazuriz, “the communications media not only informs
and communicates, nor just entertains and teaches.
The media presents, comments on, selects and even
silences reality. In many circumstances they
create it, implanting opinions on morality and values,
even altering it.” “Not only are they social
communications media, they are also social
transformation media,” he said.
One of the principal
problems, added the Cardinal, is “the tremendous amount
of information taken out of context,” “which makes
understanding the background that explains it, as well
as the very meaning of decisions and events, difficult
to grasp.”
In this sense, the Cardinal
said the task of the social communicator is a
“passionate mission” which demands the application of
ethical principals. “The work of communications
must be stamped by the fundamental law that God has
inscribed in our conscience: We must do good and avoid
evil.”
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