Catholic Media Journal

Real-time Real-world on-location report. Well, this first audio report is from my office at Franciscan University of Steubenville. I’m looking forward to our trip to Washington for Pope Benedict’s visit, and having the chance to share the trip with you.

Jim Coyle

American Public Media’s “Speaking of Faith” with Krista Tippett is inviting people to share their stories and reflections about the Catholic church to help express “the humanness of Catholic identity.” As noted on their website:

 We’re using the occasion [of Pope Benedict's U.S. visit] as an opportunity to start a broad-ranging conversation about the rich tradition of Roman Catholicism — its history, trajectory, and the contemporary issues Catholics are wrestling with. Although we often hear news stories about the Catholic Church, diverse practitioners of the faith have had little voice in telling their stories.

If you are or were Catholic, we’d like to hear your perspectives on what anchors and unsettles you in this vast tradition. We’re also interested in the hopes and concerns you have for the church, now and into the future.

It will be interesting to find out what personal stories people share. And thanks for the tip about this from Pope2008.com.

In this edition of the Catholic Media Journal Podcast we look ahead to Pope Benedict XVI’s U.S. visit, hearing from Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Dr. Alan Schreck with some thoughts about Pope Benedict and authentic Church Renewal. (5:45)

The interview with Alan Schreck is an excerpt from an episode of Spirit and Life: The Franciscan Conferences Podcast, a bi-weekly podcast from Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Information about the music in this edition of the Catholic Media Journal Podcast can be found here. And to be an early subscriber to our free podcasts, just Subscribe Here.

The National Catholic Register’s website posted some comments by Fr. Owen Kerns, LC, Publisher of the Register, about some of the New Media work they’re doing - and mentioned some things we did in our Church & Media class last week in connection with Tim Drake’s Pope2008.com blog:

But here’s the most unusual attention [we've received about the blog]: Professor Jim Coyle at Franciscan University of Steubenville has been teaching a course on the use of new media in Catholic communications. He assigned students a paper on Pope2008.com’s blog coverage. Then he interviewed Tim, with the students present, and made the interview available as a podcast on his Catholic Media Journal website.

You can read the whole post here, or in the Register’s next issue.

It’s great exploring and experiencing New Media. We can all have a voice in the new media space - and there are many voices calling for our attention. There’s so much we can learn and share, but we have to stay alert as we seek the Truth.

Jim Coyle

One year ago today, March 14, 2007, I was in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans with 8 Franciscan University of Steubenville students. We were on a Spring Break “Media Mission” to the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Although a year and a half had gone by and much recovery and rebuilding work had been done along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans by individuals and organizations, the impact on the people and the area were still so evident.

I wanted the students to observe, experience - and share their experiences through written, oral and visual stories. And I was looking forward to again seeing some of the people I’d met in October, 2005, when I first visited these areas 2 months after Katrina had hit. How were they doing? How were their friends and families? How was the recovery going?

We found just about everything - joy and sadness, hope and hopelessness, hearts of gold and hearts crying out to God. Unfortunately, our Media Mission wasn’t part of a class, and when we got back to Steubenville after Spring Break, we were caught up in our classes and projects - and didn’t get all of our stories out. There were several exceptions, including an excellent video documentary produced by Kristen Rainey as her Senior Thesis project, and stories in the University’s Franciscan Way magazine and the student newspaper, The Troubadour. We’ve been able to share our personal stories with our friends and families. And as a demonstration in one of my classes, I produced a short podcast (12-1/2 minutes long) about part of the trip. Here it is:

By the way, The Endless Road Podcast is a very-occasional podcast I produce, often to test new equipment and audio programs. And listening to this 2007 podcast, I’m glad we’re using better equipment now. If you’ve checked the About page of this site or our earliest posts, you know that Catholic Media Journal began as an online diary of a 2005 Catholic Media Tour to Mississippi and Louisiana two months after Hurrican Katrina. It’s good to remember, to pray, and to support the people and the Church, however we’re called.Finally, if you’d like to be an early subscriber to our podcasts, follow this link.

Jim Coyle