Pope concerned that centers of power control information

As more and more attention is paid to the problems of communication in our day -- from "fake news" to social media addiction to censorship -- an annual message from the pope directed to journalists and communicators seems to grow in importance.

Released each year on January 24, the feast of the patron of journalists, St. Francis de Sales, the message gives the pope a chance to speak of an issue in light of its implications in the world of communications

Pope Francis, for example, as been able to tackle the themes of AI, fake news, the importance of stories, and establishing trust. Benedict XVI took up themes such as pastoral ministry in a digital age, and children and media.

The message released today is on the theme of hope, as the Church is living a year of jubilee dedicated to that virtue.

The full message can be read here, but below we share some excerpts for reflection; emphases in bold are our own.

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In these our times, characterized by disinformation and polarization, as a few centers of power control an unprecedented mass of data and information, I would like to speak to you as one who is well aware of the importance – now more than ever – of your work as journalists and communicators.

Too often today, communication generates not hope, but fear and despair, prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred. All too often it simplifies reality in order to provoke instinctive reactions; it uses words like a razor; it even uses false or artfully distorted information to send messages designed to agitate, provoke or hurt.

On several occasions, I have spoken of our need to “disarm” communication and to purify it of aggressiveness. It never helps to reduce reality to slogans. All of us see how – from television talk shows to verbal attacks on social media – there is a risk that the paradigm of competition, opposition, the will to dominate and possess, and the manipulation of public opinion will prevail.

There is also another troubling phenomenon: what we might call the “programmed dispersion of attention” through digital systems that, by profiling us according to the logic of the market, modify our perception of reality. As a result, we witness, often helplessly, a sort of atomization of interests that ends up undermining the foundations of our existence as community, our ability to join in the pursuit of the common good, to listen to one another and to understand each other’s point of view. Identifying an “enemy” to lash out against thus appears indispensable as a way of asserting ourselves. Yet when others become our “enemies”, when we disregard their individuality and dignity in order to mock and deride them, we also lose the possibility of generating hope. As Don Tonino Bello observed, all conflicts “start when individual faces melt away and disappear”. [1] We must not surrender to this mindset.

In the First Letter of Peter (3:15-16) .... Significantly, the Apostle tells us to give an accounting of our hope “to anyone who demands” it. Christians are not primarily people who “talk about” God, but who resonate with the beauty of his love and a new way of experiencing everything. Theirs is a lived love that raises the question and calls for an answer: Why do you live like this? Why are you like this?

[O]ur response to this question is to be made “with gentleness and reverence”.  Christian communication – but I would also say communication in general – should be steeped in gentleness and closeness, like the talk of companions on the road. [...] I dream of a communication capable of making us fellow travelers, walking alongside our brothers and sisters and encouraging them to hope in these troubled times.

I dream of a communication that does not peddle illusions or fears, but is able to give reasons for hope. Martin Luther King once said: “If I can help someone as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song... then my living will not be in vain”. [3] [...] A good communicator ensures that those who listen, read, or watch can be involved, can draw close, can get in touch with the best part of themselves and enter with these attitudes into the stories told.

Dear brothers and sisters, in the face of the astonishing achievements of technology, I encourage you to care for your heart, your interior life. What does that mean? Let me offer you a few thoughts.

Be meek and never forget the faces of other people; speak to the hearts of the women and men whom you serve in carrying out your work.

Do not allow instinctive reactions to guide your communication.  Always spread hope, even when it is difficult, even when it costs, even when it seems not to bear fruit.

Try to promote a communication that can heal the wounds of our humanity.

Make room for the heartfelt trust that, like a slender but resistant flower, does not succumb to the ravages of life, but blossoms and grows in the most unexpected places. It is there in the hope of those mothers who daily pray to see their children return from the trenches of a conflict, and in the hope of those fathers who emigrate at great risk in search of a better future. It is also there in the hope of those children who somehow manage to play, laugh and believe in life even amid the debris of war and in the impoverished streets of favelas.

Be witnesses and promoters of a non-aggressive communication; help to spread a culture of care, build bridges and break down the visible and invisible barriers of the present time.

Tell stories steeped in hope, be concerned about our common destiny and strive to write together the history of our future.

All this you can do, and we can do, with God’s grace, which the Jubilee helps us to receive in abundance. This is my prayer, and with it, I bless each of you and your work.