For Directors/Heads of Sending Institutions or Organizations or Offices

Communications Lab - Youth for a Culture of Peace: An Overview

Empowering Young Catholic Communicators

Introduction: SIGNIS, the World Association for Catholic Communications has great interest in the formation of the next generation of Catholic practitioners. For the last several years it has promoted a Video Journalists project and otherwise sought the participation of young Catholics in its projects in the different regions of the world.

At the SIGNIS World Congress in -2015, there emerged the priority of forming partnerships with like-minded organizations to promote a Culture of Peace— a key element of SIGNIS’s mission.

The project as laid out here envisions a new instance of forming and empowering young Catholic communicators as agents for change for a Culture of Peace within other Catholic organizations. The hope is to provide a sustainable framework for follow-up as well as the development of concrete initiatives with partner institutions.

Hence, the challenge is to bring together young persons from various countries serving in the field of social communications; to motivate, encourage and recognize their creative talents in social communications; to challenge their call, through sharing of faith, work and life experience.

Based on Catholic Social Teaching’s and Social Communication documents, using theory and practice, the program will help challenge them and bring better focus and clarity in the mission.

Vision: SIGNIS will empower a new generation of Catholic communicators.

Mission: SIGNIS will form young people in Catholic organizations to be productive multimedia communicators imbued with a keen critical sense of media based on church teaching. They will be the catalysts for a dynamic Catholic initiatives towards a culture of peace both within a network of sister institutions and in public media.

Major Project Elements: Over the next three years (2015-2017) SIGNIS will set out to develop and implement the following:

1. A summer workshop to form or further develop young Catholic communicators to be leaders in critical media education and production from the perspective of Catholic Social communications. 2. Build a network of participants to assure ongoing interaction and development of international media initiatives. 3. Explicit agreements with select sister organizations and SIGNIS regions which will supply the candidates for the workshop, assist in funding and follow-up, will be detailed in a Memorandum of Understanding. The project program: SIGNIS will host a ten-day workshop each year, to take place in a rotating fashion in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The workshop would be less about technical expertise and more about how to think and strategize about media, with church teaching on social communications as a foundation.

Follow-up: Network and Joint Projects: Essential to the project is ongoing formation through peer networking and shared institutional projects. This ongoing effort would include:

1. Establishing a functioning online network among participants to: a. Offer mutual support b. Offer technical support c. Promote joint projects; examples: i.SIGNIS Asia/World Media Awards Competition ii.UN Plural + youth video awards iii.World Communications Day iv.Mission Sunday

2. Participant input into the next workshop

3. Partner organizations agree on a medium-term project to be carried out by workshop participants.

4. SIGNIS moderator will track and facilitate an online network of participants through , twitter, Survey Monkey, etc., and serve as liaison with partner organizations.

Forming partnerships: The key to the effectiveness and sustainability of the project is partnerships with SIGNIS regions and sister organizations that are willing to formally commit to it. The joint commitment would:  Increase funding options via joint applications to funders.  Provides candidates for the workshop/project with known fundamental media skills.  Assure ongoing follow-up after the workshops because participants would be within an institutional structure that assures continuity.  Further development of partnerships for media for a culture of peace: SIGNIS trains young communicators for the organizations, creating an ongoing relationship with SIGNIS and other organizations similarly committed to the project. Funding: Following formal agreements among the participating organizations, in time a plan for funding the project will be developed utilizing the contacts and fundraising resources of the organizations.

Participants: Once funding is secured, Candidates for the project would be recruited form the following sources: 1. Church Media organizations - Diocesan Social Communication offices/Catholic Productions Houses 2. Catholic NGOs – i.e.Maryknoll/Caritas/Pax-Christi/Fondacio/IYCW/SVDP 3. University - Catholic Students majoring in Mass Communications 4. Students can be referred from SIGNIS desks in TV, Radio, Cinema, Media Education, Journalism.

Communications Lab - Youth for a Culture of Peace: Expectations Outcomes: 1. Participants will commit themselves to the follow-up process which includes: Ongoing networking Producing content and/or educating through media about creating a culture of peace. Giving input for the next seminar

2. Participants will develop the following skill set: Be able to evaluate media structures and systems in light of church teaching, including economic, social and cultural aspects. Be able to develop coherent media strategy on a local level as well as participate in international media strategies. Be able to create media language appropriate to specific audiences.

3. Establishment of a functioning, ongoing online, interactive network of participants and partner organizations. The network will: Offer mutual support Offer technical support Promote joint projects; examples: ▪ SIGNIS Asia/World Media Awards Competition ▪ UN Plural + ▪ World Communications Day ▪ Mission Sunday ▪ Migrant Sunday

4. Partner organizations will commit to: A joint medium-term project for participants. Input into the next seminar Monitoring and evaluating the progress of participants in the development and application of skills acquired in the seminar. Evaluate and report the outcomes for their organization in terms of pertinent media education and production efforts. Join in efforts to raise funds for upcoming seminars. Global Partners/Sending organization responsibilities. 1. Develop with SIGNIS an instrument outlining the specifics of the collaboration. 2. Recruit and propose candidates for the workshop/project with known fundamental media skills. 3. Assure ongoing follow-up after the workshops with participants within their organizational structure that assures continuity (as outlined in Outcomes, 4). 4. Evaluate the project on an ongoing basis, and provide input for planning. 5. Initially assist financially insofar as able with minor expenses (travel, equipment). 6. As project develops, support and/or join SIGNIS in seeking funding for the project. 7. With SIGNIS, develop other media collaboration projects as opportune.

Communications Lab - Youth for a Culture of Peace: Program Outline of the formation and training

1. Critical thinking about media: Mass media has tremendous consequences in all areas of human life. Catholic communicators should be able to analyze and understand how it works, who controls it, whom it benefits, and how it forms our values and points of view. How to be literate in the media. Economics of mass media Media and culture Media and inclusion Church teaching on media, inclusion, economics and culture. Alternatives to mass media 2. Appropriate Media Language: Media must be not be created in a vacuum but with a specific audience in mind. Because we have a message worth hearing does not mean we are not subject to the same demands of quality, creativity and above all appealing to the to the needs of the audience as any other content creator. Knowing the audience Presenting the Good in secular, pluralistic or non-Christian cultures Internal vs. external messaging Storytelling, reporting, investigating: different means 3. Media Strategy: First, we must know what it is we want to achieve. Creating media with clear, realistic goals is the way to success. In today’s media world, an integrated media strategy is the most desirable. We are communicators first, using a variety of tools to shape the message. Strategy is crucial to advancing a culture of peace Media formats and uses, especially online. Why effective media today is multimedia Strengthening your group’s media strategy 4. Practicum: Lessons learned from a life changing situation that gives hope and meaning to our mission. Visit a local reality that challenges our vision of a culture of peace. create a short media piece on the reality Critique of each piece 5. Media for a Culture of Peace: Reflection on the practice of media based on Church social teaching. Selected documents will be used, as well as some case studies. Church teaching on what is a culture of peace Historical examples of media creating spaces for peace. The challenge of working in media in solidarity to create culture of peace. Commitment: to be a media educator/producer for a Culture of Peace. Thorough participant evaluation of workshop while on site