The Reference Framework for Salesian Youth Ministry places the need to act with projects oriented towards the creation of communication processes, that is, it is not enough to propose isolated activities or actions; it is necessary to generate processes that facilitate the formation of digital citizenship, necessary for the young person to act significantly in the places where he or she is located.
The document also indicates operational lines of intervention:
- Formation in the critical and educational use of media and new technologies;
- Involvement in the production of messages and contents specifically aimed at young people, using the means at their disposal;
- Fostering media as a new gathering space for young people;
- Promotion and enhancement of all forms and expressions of communication - music, theater, cinema, television, photography, cartoons, multimedia and other artistic expressions - with a clear educational and evangelizing purpose.
The Guidelines for the educational mission of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA) also bring the perspective of communication as a primordial element of Salesian education. For both the Salesians and the FMA, educating to digital citizenship is a necessity and a commitment that cannot be neglected, because in a socio-cultural context in which the digital environment becomes an inhabited place and part of the daily life of young people, education must address this issue to help them move with greater freedom and responsibility in this environment.
In a democratic society, the use and access to technologies are a first element that must be thought of and educators and Salesian institutions must fight for this right, engaging in actions aimed at the democratization of the media. But not only that: in addition to the right of access to the media, a democratic society, characterized by freedom of expression, must also lead to the responsibility with which it communicates.
In this sense, it is interesting to recall the current debate around fake news, which raises a series of ethical and citizen questions and which indicates the primal need to educate in the conscious and responsible use of communication. There is a clear need to train people for an adequate use of the media, which requires not only the formation of human and democratic values, but also the ability to critically analyze the content offered and disseminated in the various media.
Educating for digital citizenship is thus a commitment proper to Salesian education and is linked to the desire to build a world according to evangelical criteria, with a view to building the Kingdom of God in the "here and now" of our history.
Irmã Márcia Koffermann, FMA,
Executive Director of Rede Salesiana Brasil de Comunicação (RSB-Comunicação)
