FEBRUARY 10-17
13.02.2018
Day 4
Fr. Johnson from Northeast India led in the Morning Prayer
Fr. Henry opened the day praying with biblical text from Mk 9:14-29. We need to look for appropriate and updated response to a given situation as Jesus responded in the case of the epileptic boy, unlike the disciples who failed with their so called traditional way of responding. Use of right means and methodology in publishing ministry is what we need to envisage in our endeavors.
After listening to the minutes of the previous day, we proceeded to the day’s business.
I Session
Watched two informative short videos on the YouTube
- Social media platform (social minute)
- Social media Statistics
Fr. Luis Erlin made a presentation from his long experience of using social media, the Facebook, in the publishing ministry
- Middle age Church had the authority – speak and interpret truth esp. in West
- 19th century media like newspaper started to speak
- 20th Church lost hegemony of truth, but other great media took over
- 21st truth is no longer in newspapers but is social media
- Anyone who has access to it can say hi/her truth
- Social media gave voice to the voiceless/
- People who were passive recipients of information become opinion makers and news creators
Facebook:
Two pages: one for all, one for personal contact. It is an opportunity to do mutual commerce. It also has corporate page. In the Fan page for followers, books can be sold.
It is the biggest platform for publicity that exists in the world today. It also creates a different impressions from seeing the same publicity elsewhere like TV or newspaper.
Maximum subscribers are in Facebook, so it is important to make the maximum use of it.
If I need to talk to people I need to be where people are. In some places, people are not in the Church, in the parish, but they are in Facebook. It is Church/ Parish without borders.
Use Hashtags to publish: this is the system of searching in Facebook (different from google where we type a word). Here search engine is always with hashtag #.
- For commercial purposes and advertisement
- Publish contents daily (or they will forget)
- Time to Publish and the day (Saturday 11 am to 4 pm)
- Use pictures for posting
- Brief videos and posts (4 lines and seconds of videos) “finger faster than eyes”, provide link for the material for reading or watching
- Advertisement in the Facebook
- Means and steps to set up Facebook and posts and publicity etc.
II Session
Fr. Denis from Philippines gave presentation on Website and report on media use in Philippines.
The need of improving e-commerce websites is need of the time and his presentation included:
- E-payments
- E-Books
- E-magazine
- Social media accounts (FB and Twitter) and its use for e-commerce
Fr. Rossa suggested to bring together all our resources and productions under one umbrella for the availability of the people instead of scattered presentation and posting.
We listened to some of the publishing houses about their works, challenges and dreams.
We anticipated Mass before lunch. Fr. George from East India presided over the Eucharist.
III Session
Loui Guades from Rome via skype addressed group on the use new digital media. His presentation was titled “throw your nets on the other side of the boat: Doing mission in the 8th continent.”
He began by reflecting on the theme as discussed in the General chapter.
Character of the 8th continent: Relationships are important to survive in this continent, using social media by social networking. He presented the statistics of mobile/internet use globally.
Our mission in this continent is to do evangelization through social media. It has 
unimaginable power. (Video – In a few minutes all changed. False news spread!! We need to use the media to defend the truth, defend the poor, defend faith, spread the Word etc.)
How to be a good fisherman in this continent
- Throw your net the other side –going forth
- Make your SEO ready
- Connect your website to Facebook build cyber communities
- Create Facebook page not face group
- Facebook live important events, seminars, promotions in time etc.
- Update yourself and team
As Servant of the word
- Gospel commentaries, homilies, bible shows
- Gospel driven videos, Gospel value, justice, peace
- Create posters
- Know cyber ethics
Shared Mission
- Team up, own up by Province
- Involve lay people and Claretian Family
- Advertise Claret publishing house (no need uniform websites)
- Train students
- Tap biblical commission
Economy
- Use the market place of Facebook, to connect people through commerce
- Integrate e-commerce with social media
- Use e-commerce like woo commerce
- E-transactions (Paypal, bank transfer etc.)
At the end of the presentation, Fr. Rossa suggested there could be an operator to coordinate and manage the social media networking of the publishing houses of the Congregation. It will be taken up when the conference comes up with the resolutions.
The participants then left to visit some Claretian places nearby and to spend the evening in Jalahalli.