The maiden edition of Media Training Workshop for Secretaries, PROs and CAMPAN members in Mokola Deanery was held on Saturday January 11, 2025 at St Gabriel Catholic Church Mokola, Ibadan. The timely and important training workshop was themed, “The Catholic Church and Media Content”. The training workshop was facilitated by Dr. Adewale K. Kupoluyi, Esq, a seasoned media expert and President of the Parish Laity Council,  Catholic Church of Ascension, Bodija.

 

Dr Adewale Kupoluyi in his delivery explained the Universality of the Catholic Church and her exposure to the use of Media, He outlined the sub-themes of the topic for the training workshop which are Media Content, Media engagement, Content Creation and the Effective Tools for Media Utilization in the Catholic Church. Dr Kupoluyi described Media content as any information, data, text, image, or sound that is delivered through various media platforms. This can include content from television, radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, whatsapp, and more.  He said Media engagement is a measure of how people interact with media content, including how they respond, share, and participate in it. It can also refer to the emotional and cognitive involvement that people have with the media.

 

Dr Kupoluyi said Content creation involves producing and sharing information or media content for specific audiences, particularly in digital contexts. Content refers to something that is to be expressed through some medium, as speech, writing or any of various arts for self-expression, distribution, marketing and/or publication. Hence, content creation entails various activities including maintaining and updating web sites, blogging, article writing, photography, videography, online commentary, social media accounts, and editing and distribution of digital media. He urged the participants at the training to be careful when creating contents in order to avoid plagiarism, or legal issues.

 

The Catholic Church has issued documents that address the role of communication in society, including the Decree on the Means of Social Communication. The Pope has emphasised the importance of Catholic communicators sharing the Gospel with the heart, and not being driven by aggression or denigration. Catholic communicators in Nigeria are to educate the public and promote the Catholic Church's mission through communication. They are to promote peace and harmony in the country remarked Dr Kupoluyi.

 

Dr Kupoluyi mentioned that Media content generation and engagement in Church communication requires professionalism. Hence, deliberate efforts should be made to ensure that those saddled with the responsibility are adequately prepared, trained, and equipped to properly carry out the assignment. The need for a shift from tool dependency in the use of Digital Media to an innovative approach. What innovative approach further provides the means that is useful and relevant for the Church’s mission. We should move away from evangelism - the act of sharing the good news of salvation through preaching, witnessing, and personal testimony, which is the primary goal of evangelism by attracting people to the Church - to evangelisation, which is that process of welcoming people into the Christian community and helping them experience a relationship with Jesus Christ, hence the goal of evangelisation is to glorify God by bringing people to Christ.

 

Dr Kupoluyi suggested that Catholic media practitioners need to be well-educated on ways to engage Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an ethical manner to benefit the evangelisation mission of the Church. He advised the Secretaries and Public Relations Officers, to always communicate with kindness by encourage others with the right words that are helpful and can build people up (Ephesians 4:29), for gracious words are sweet and healing (Proverbs 16:24), while the value of carefully choosing words and speaking them at the right time, is crucial (Proverbs 25:11). 

 

The participants at the training agreed on the importance of collaborating with the existing  media platform of the Church such as the Catholic Weekly Independent Newspaper, the choir and other means for effective communication and evangelisation.

 

The organizer, CAMPAN Mokola President, Mr Simon Senaya, appreciated Dr Adewale Kupoluyi, for facilitating the training and exposing the participants to ways at which media contents can  be better channelled for the propagation of the Catholic faith. He thanked Amb. Edith Isidahomen for  her input and expressed his appreciation to all the participants for the Parishes in Mokola Deanery. He equalled thanked the Parish Priest Rev Fr Emmanuel Eseola who supported the initiative of the Parish CAMPAN to organize the training workshop.

 

The training workshop was well attended by participants from St Richard Eleyele, St Agnes Apete, Mater Die Gbopa, St Monica Ologuneru, St Christoper Sango, Churuch of the Ascension Bodija, Sacred Heart Catholic Church Ilupeju and the host St Gabriel Mokola. The National President of CAEAN Amb. Edith Isidahoman  was in attendance at the training and also motivated  the participants with her contributions..