Pastoral communication



Pastoral communication

In this century, the existence and advent of emerging powerful technologies of communication have transformed the global configuration and way of life. The influences of communication technologies and computer-generated information flow have reconstructed the social environment. The communication environment made up of communication technology transforms the individuals by shaping their opinions, perception, attitudes, thoughts and values.  Whether it be a mother’s caress, touch, eye contact, a speech, a short note, a letter, a quick scribble, a computer print-out, a television program or colors - these are transmitted, received and digested through a mode of communication.

The Church looks for ways of multiplying and strengthening the bonds union between her members. The marvelous communication inventions opened up new insights for our missionary work and building up the Church.  The shift from industrial to information society led to the emergence of new and urgent concerns for the Church. Pastoral communication is to understand the communication technologies and find the ways and means to use of for the mission of the church.     
            Pastoral communication is people centered communication  is defined thus “... a complex, integrated process involving people, procedure, ideas, devices and organization, for leading the people and mobilizing for their well-being. Transmitting the faith that believed to be message of love to all the people. 
                                                                                      
            A priest is a community communicator is interested in applying techniques of information and media for managing and leading people for accepting appreciating Christian values.  The principles of communication will help a priest to become a efficient worker in the modern world.

 He is more than a communicator that he will communicates what he believes and accepts.  For communicators will do anything for advertising and manipulation the people,    make communication more than a teacher; he is a manger of the communication situation, performing several functions. These basic functions of the pastoral communicator are as follows:

                        Function                                                                                  Examples
1. Analysis of problems in faith and social living                   Conduction research on Pastoral communication.
2. Devising of solutions to problems                                      Recommendation, conceptualization of multi media approach to solve the specific problem
3. Implementation of solutions                                               Presentation communication plan

4. Evaluation of solutions                                                       conducting pretest and carrying out posttest of media presentations.

5. Management of such solutions                                           Preparing a budget for conduct of a multimedia approach: organizing and supervising people to be involved in the project           

As can be gleaned from these functions, Pastoral communication is indeed a “complex” process.

Pastoral communication is a system and process that aims to facilitate the learning the Faith values of one or more persons through communication. This system is composed of several elements-people, procedures, ideas and organization all working in an integrated manner to bring about Faith learning. Focused on the learning process and on the learner, Pastoral communication has five basic functions, namely 1) analysis of social problems; 2) devising of solutions to the problem; 3) implementation 4) evaluation and 5) management of theses solutions to problems in learning.
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The purpose of Pastoral communication is to make people to accept and learn to live the faith. Accepting faith and Christian values are process of learning.  But what is learning? Simply put, learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior. The behavior has three domains – the cognitive domain, referring to awareness, knowledge, understanding, comprehension, realization, recognition; the affective domain or emotions, attitudes, values, aspirations, moods; and the psychomotor domain, or physical skills. Thus, learning is a relatively permanent change in any of these three behavioral domains, or in any combination of the three.
The parallel between the nature of development and the purpose of Pastoral communication now surfaces,. In essence, development is a process that involves changing people. Such human change entails learning, because the type of human change needed in development communication therefore, Pastoral communication directly helps bring about the development process. It does this by working towards the changes in peoples’ knowledge and awareness, attitudes and values, and skills desired in development. As part of the learning process, these behavioral changes must be held for over a relatively long period of time by groups of people in interaction. In this way a meaningful and authentic development can take place.
Berlo defined a process as a dynamic, continues never-ending nor beginning phenomenon. This implies that in Pastoral communication, what is learned can change, because learning is continuous. The learning that takes place inside a church or during a seminar, or as feast celebration contexts.

A system, on the other hand is an entity characterized by its wholeness. This implies that its various parts are so interrelated, working towards only one goal or set of goals, such that these parts are perceived in terms of the whole entity that they make up. Thus, when you come across the terms “wholistic” or “systems” viewpoint, these refer to a well-rounded point of view of reality and in problem solving, often times, these terms are used with reference to a problem or issue. A wholistic viewpoint taken implies that 1) the problem-solver has his objectives or goals foremost in his mind, and 2) he utilizes, among all available recourses, those, which can interact towards attaining his objectives or goals. This is because the problem-solver with a wholistic viewpoint realizes that any phenomenon can be influenced by not just one but several factors or causes, and that in turn, it influences other phenomena.
If we were to analyze the communication process as a system, we can identify its purpose and elements, then consider how each element affects the other elements and the purpose of communication as a whole. The basic purpose of communication is to effect change in people’s behavior. The elements of communication include the interactions, the messages and channels. Each of these elements affects the others and the outcome of communication as a whole.
In the same way, learning as a system has the following minimum elements: the learner, the learning outcome and the learning approaches (Davis et al. 1974). Each of these interacts and affect how learning takes place.
In line with the nature of Pastoral communication as a process and as a system, a second characteristic of the field is that its procedures are well planned and systematic. In the first characteristic of Pastoral communication, learning and communication were discussed in terms of systems as entities. Under the second characteristic, learning and communication are considered systems as a method. The systems method of solving problems essentially follows the scientific method, termed as the systems approach (Shrode, 1974). As a review, the scientific method proceeds through the following steps.
1.      A problem is felt / identified.
2.      Tentative answers / solutions ate sought (setting of hypothesis)
3.      Information is gathered or observations are made.
4.      Hypothesis is tested or an attempt is made to verify the consequences of logical implications.
5.      Conclusions are made, whether accepting, modifying or rejecting the hypotheses.
Adapting the scientific method to Pastoral communication, the specific steps in designing learning-communication situations essentially follows these steps (adapted from Davis et al., 1974)
1.      Rationale-setting
2.      Learner analysis
3.      Resource analysis
4.      Goal / objective-setting
5.      Evaluation planning
6.      Learning task description and analysis
7.      Planning of learning strategies including media materials
8.      Implementation planning
9.      Implementation
10.  Evaluation
11.  Redesign
  The third characteristic of Pastoral communication is that the field utilizes both human and nonhuman resources combined in a way that will achieve the best results in learning. The human resources may include trainers, production specialists, and administrative staff. Nonhuman resources include funds, physical facilities and equipment, materials or supplies, and time.
  A fourth characteristic of the field is that it applies concepts, theories and research findings on human learning and communication, with ultimate goal of inducing or enhancing learning. Further, the educational communicator systematically investigates how learning may be better enhanced through communication. Such research is conducted to improve the ways by which he tries to induce learning. The field, therefore, has a scientific base in learning science or psychology and in communication.
  Fifth, more specifically, the AECT (1977) lists five educational development functions and two educational management functions under educational technology as follows:
   Educational Development functions
1.      Research-theory
2.      Design
3.      Production
4.      Evaluation-selection
5.      Logistic, utilization and utilization-dissemination
Educational Management functions
1.      Organizational management
2.      Personal management
The sixth and the last characteristic of Pastoral communication as a major field in development communication is that it emphasizes non-formal education. Castillo (1979. p188) defined non-formal education for development as:
            “A deliberate, more or less organized set of activities designed to bring specific messages, knowledge, skill, new experiences, and even new values to a particular target population. Such messages and learning experiences are aimed at bringing about attitudinal and behavioral changes which are defined as desirable by society if development goals are to be achieved. This educational effort may be organized by established institutions and agencies, government, private, or voluntary but its peculiar character is that it is conducted outside the formal system although the facilities and resources of the school may be harnessed in carrying out its activities. Unlike the conventional school system, however, participation in these actives is very much dependent on the willingness of the intended ‘learners’ to be involved and on their recognition of the benefits that they will derive from such involvement”.   
With this overview of the field, the development communication graduate who majored in Pastoral communication will find his specific skills and orientation will-suited to extension, training, technical communication through audiovisual and other educational media, media communication, teaching, and research or evaluation in Pastoral communication.

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