Benedict XVI: Networking promotes dialogue and solidarity.
The Vatican has joined YouTube. Well actually apparently the “Vatican” channel on YouTube has existed since November 21, 2005, though the first video has been only uploaded three days ago. (This interests me because I genuinely doubt the username would’ve been registered in 2005.)
But even more interesting than this is the content itself.
Benedict XVI: Networking promotes dialogue and solidarity
The video itself is not available to be embedded however I have decided to reproduce the text of the video (which is also provided in the video description):
“This is the theme of the message for the World Day of Communications announced by the Vatican during a press conference today. The new initiative of Vatican Radio, the Vatican Television Center and Google Italia was presented, bringing brief clips on the Pope and his activities to be aired on YouTube, beginning today. In his message, the Holy Father stressed the great potential for openness to the world, to dialogue and communication that electronic technology can achieve. The new digital arena makes it possible to meet and learn the values and traditions of others. For such meetings to be fruitful, however, requires honest and correct means of expression, along with a disposition to attentive and respectful listening. We must not let ourselves be taken advantage of by those simply seeking consumers in a market of undiscerned possibilities, where subjective experience overrides the truth. Benedict XVI addressed young Catholics in particular, as the leaders in bringing the testimony of faith to the digital world. “
First Obama and now Pope Benedict XVI?
One cannot help but feel that this setup provides for very one-directional communication however. The video cannot be embedded. Ratings have been disabled. Comments are “pending approval.” The particular video I reference here has had 3,537 views and not a single comment has been approved, three days after it was first uploaded.
As far as Laurel Papworth is concerned, No Comments? No Engagement. She cites Seth Godin as an example. The comment I left on that entry has since taken on a new significance. Keep in mind that what I wrote took place four days before the Vatican account had been unveiled.
I wrote:
I guess on some level you’ve got to want to be social. Presumably there are people out there who are completely asocial, or even antisocial. And one might wonder if Godin’s ivory tower approach doesn’t make him seem more aloof/mysterious to many people. I mean if he didn’t already have some level of noteriety we wouldn’t be discussing him now. Is he gaming the system? Sure. Are people still digging, stumbling, tweeting and retweeting? Yes. Not a day goes by that something doesn’t appear in my twitter feed about him – and I don’t follow Godin. And maybe, just maybe, it is within the twitter vernacular we might garner the most telling aspect of Godin’s (ahem) “tribe.” He doesn’t have readers so much as followers, not in the twitter sense but in the religious sense. He is as engaging as the Pope. They both appear periodically to make announcements from their pulpits and from within the relative safety of their Pope mobiles, and some people listen. But will any of us have any audience with either? Seems doubtful. lol
Happy Sunday!
(I promise to use my new found clairvoyant powers mostly for good.)
