By Felix Anthony –
Guwahati: Responding to the challenges of fake news and baked news in an era of social media, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in India (CBCI) conducted a two-day workshop on Effective Use of Social Media for the directors of social communication in North East region on Monday at Inspiration, Guwahati.
“There has been a visible absence of Church in social communication”, said Dr. Theodore Mascarenhas, the General Secretary of the CBCI. Inaugurating the event, Bishop Mascherenas stressed the fact that, “due to lack of social media communication the voice of the Church is not heard most often and people take advantage of this to portray us in negative light without our knowledge. North East India is a very important region and our effective use of Social Media should help us to protect and promote the secular values and the unique identity of the people of this region”, he told the 20 delegates from across North East India.
Mr. Kushal Neogy, sub-regional director partnership for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) for South Asia, explained to the participants the existing challenges of social communication. “We need to be more active and up-to-date on our social communication as Church body to be more visible and help our voice heard”, he said.
Hosting the event, Rev. Fr. Amal Raj, the Deputy Secretary for the Bishops in North East Region, welcomed the Resource persons and all the delegates to the workshop and thanked Bishop Mascarenhas for organizing the event for the directors of social communication in North East India.
“In the midst of the fake news all around, such workshop is a good start to counter fake news and to make our voices heard through social media, said Sr. Euginia FMA, a delegate from Shillong.