The Catholic Standard Organises Media Workshop

The Catholic Standard, has organised a workshop on Fundamentals of Media Relations and News Reporting for its Reporters, Stringers and Diocesan Communications staff in Ghana at the Society of African Missions Conference and Retreat Centre, Oshuiman-Amamoley, Accra. The three-day workshop from March 8th to 10th 2024, was sponsored by Propaganda Fide through the instrumentality of World Catholic Association for Communication (SIGNIS). It was aimed at building and enhancing the capacities of participants to write good, impactful and development-oriented stories in this technological age and the advent of social media were fake news and sensationalism has become pervasive in the media landscape. It is also expected to serve as a catalyst to boost the circulation and patronage of The Catholic Standard. Very Rev. Fr. Clement Kwasi Adjei, the Secretary General of the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference who opened the Workshop, expressed optimism that participants would make the best use of the opportunity to learn from the facilitators and their fellow participants and also put the knowledge they will acquire into practice. “May I also urge you not to go back and sleep but put the skills you will acquire into practice. It is only in doing so that we can reach the world with our stories from the dioceses and institutions”, he added. He thanked Propaganda Fide for their support towards evangelisation through communication apostolate in Africa over the years. He expressed similar sentiments to Mr. Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, Chairman and Founder of APO Group, a pan-African communications consultancy firm for his generosity to Catholic Media Practitioners and also the Catholic Church throughout the African continent for the free Zoom facility his organisation provides to all Episcopal Conferences. Mr. Pompigne-Mognard the main facilitator during the workshop, took participants through the fundamentals of media relations and spoke about the types of media, namely print (newspapers and magazines), radio, television and online (websites and blogs) and their primary and secondary formats namely text, image (pictures), sound bites (audio), B-roll videos and Dope sheet. He also spoke about content production, distribution and monitoring and took participants through the preparation of Press Releases, among others. He observed that the Catholic Church potentially is the biggest media outlet in Africa given the fact that it is present in every nook and cranny on the continent but he lamented that she is not making use of the vast human and material resources at its disposal to be able to realize this potential and has thus become, “a sleeping giant”. Rev. Fr. Dieu Donne Kofi Davor, Executive Secretary of the Department of Social and Pastoral Communications took participants through the fundamentals of news reporting; Mrs. Victoria Lugey, a Media Expert, took participants through contemporary trends in news gathering while Ms. Doreen Darko, Assistant Editor of The Catholic Standard, also took participants through the editorial policy and in-house style writing of The Catholic Standard. She stressed that the Paper is national in character and therefore needs stories from all the dioceses in Ghana to reflect its character and mandate which according to her is to be a voice for the voiceless, reflect the truth while promoting evangelisation. She explained that 80 percent of their publications is dedicated to highlighting the activities of the Catholic Church while 20 percent coverage is given to social and developmental issues. In this regard, she appealed to participants to be abreast of the doctrine and teachings of the Catholic Church to be able to write good stories that reflect their mandate. Participants were urged to uphold the ethnics of the media profession at all times, and not allow themselves to be influenced with money in their work. They were also entreated to do thorough background checks and research in this era of fake news in the social media before going on air or publishing stories in their desire to be the first to “break the news”. They were further encouraged to highlight developmental issues in their communities and cautioned against indulging in bias reportage. Sir Benedict Assorow, the Managing Editor of The Catholic Standard who delivered the closing remarks, re-echoed the advice given by Fr. Adjei to participants not to go back and sleep, advising them to regularly send stories to The Catholic Standard for publication. He also appealed to Priests to support the communication apostolate of the Catholic Church to help boost the circulation and patronage of the Catholic Standard in their parishes and institutions. Speaking later in an interview with The Catholic Standard about what the Catholic Church can do to be able to effectively propagate its activities, Mr. Pompigne-Mognard said there was need to encourage Catholic-owned media organisations in Africa not to only target Catholics, but also dedicate part of their coverage to non-religious content such as sports and news happening around the world to be able to attract a wider segment of their population especially people who do not know about the Catholic Church. He explained that this would also serve as a means to propagate the Catholic faith. As regards what Catholic-owned media can do to avoid fake news he said, “You need to establish yourselves as beacon of authoritative and reliable sources by being professional and not participating in dissemination of fake news”. He added, “We know that a lot of Reporters in Catholic media are volunteers not coming from Journalism or even Catholic backgrounds. They need to professionalize to appear as well-rounded professionals. There is no reason one should not trust a Catholic newspaper, radio or website. It is about living up to the standards”, he emphasized. By Francis E. Monnie, CAMP-G