Paradigm shifts in the teachings of the Catholic Church about media education

Abstract

This paper analyses the development in the teaching of the Catholic Church on media education as expressed in its official documents. These will be analysed in the light of the paradigmatic shifts in the literature on the teaching of media education. In this paper we will explore the extent to which the development registered in Church documents about media education reflects these paradigm shifts. Church documents especially in the pre-Vatican II era reflected a protectionist approach emphasising censorship because it was believed that the media had a predominantly negative influence. Vatican II, as well as references in the writings of Pius XII, reflects a more positive attitude towards the media Paradigm. The Church’s position on media education in more recent Church documents widen their discourse to include societal and media structures in addition to media texts and thus proposes a more comprehensive model of media education. We argue that due to the Church’s emphasis on a particular moral system, Church teaching on the subject will never fully reflect a paradigm which is value free.