KMT 2020 nr 3

Common impact: media message and the first pope’s radio message

Cite: , Powszechne oddziaływanie: przekaz medialny i pierwsze papieskie orędzie radiowe, "Kultura - Media - Teologia", 2020( 42) nr 3, s. 91-108.

DOI: 10.21697/kmt.42.6

The article brings up the problem of how the first pope’s radio message from the 12th of February 1931 allows to define the scope of impact involving media message. At the time, possibilities of sending and receiving this message are far more limited than nowadays. The world is not seen through globalization yet. Meanwhile, Pope Pius XI addresses not only all Catholics, but all people. This kind of understanding who the recipient of media message is does not come across as surprising nowadays. However, among his recipients, the Pope enumerates also all creatures, including the supernatural world and even God Himself. Secondly, the study draws attention to the way Pius XI presents the origin of media message: undoubtedly, we owe it to people, but first to God Himself. Hence, the Pope indicates that through radio message one deals with the impact which is not merely global, but universal. The purpose of the article is to encourage further reflection on whether such a theological view on radio message can and should be referred to media message per se and, if so, what results for broadly understood media along with their creators and recipients it can produce. Thus, the following conclusion can be drawn: instead of restricting oneself to perceiving nothing more than the global village, as if it were everything, one proposes universitas, a holistic view and involvement that constitute an organic one with a meticulous concern even for details.

About authors

Wojciech Misztal

Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawła II w Krakowie

ORCID: 0000-0003-0521-4916