Bangkok: BisCom 8 participants developing new communications strategies
(Vatican Radio) The 8th meeting of the Asian Bishops’ Institute for Social Communications,
BisCom-8, is underway this week in Bangkok, Thailand. Participants are exploring the
theme: Social Media: Surfing, Networking, Blogging, Gaming, Addiction - Challenges
and Opportunities for Communication Ministry in Asia. A featured speaker at BisCom
8, Sr. Angela Ann Zukowski is the Director of the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives
and the Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation at the University of Dayton
in the US state of Ohio. She is also a former world president of the International
Catholic Association for Radio and Televsion, and has served on the Pontifical Council
for Social Communications. She told Vatican Radio that the participants are helping
the bishops think through the challenges facing them as communicators of the Gospel
in the 21st century. “The BisCom bishops are coming together and seriously
looking at the new digital culture – or digital civilisation – and [are] trying to
come to terms with what that means for communicating faith in the 21st
century,” Sr. Angela explained. She said Catholic leaders need to find and develop
new communications strategies. “We need to find those new ways to communicate that
speak to this new digital age that has led to a different kind of consciousness, a
different way of thinking – so that impacts our methodologies, and also the language
that we use to communicate.” Listen to Sr. Angela Ann Zukowkski’s extended interview
with Vatican Radio: