3. EDUCATION, CULTURE AND LEISURE

48. The means of social communication have an ever growing role to play in the vast field of human education. In many places audiovisual aids, the new video cassettes and the regular use of radio and television have become accepted teaching instruments. They make the work of experts in different fields accessible to more and more people. Elsewhere the means of social communication are used to complement the established ways of teaching. They also give opportunities for further education to adolescents and adults. In places where the educational facilities are inadequate, they can provide religious instruction and basic education and fight illiteracy. They are useful instruments for instructing people in agriculture, medicine, hygiene and many forms of community development. As far as possible, this use of the media for education should have a creative quality and elicit an active response. In this way, the pupil is not only led to knowledge but learns to express himself by using the media.

49. Moreover in a manner that is unique, the media, which are already a conspicuous element in daily life, bring artistic and cultural achievements within the orbit of a great part of the human race. And soon, perhaps, they will do the same for the whole of it. This is as authentic a mark of social progress as is the removal of economic and social inequality.

50. The media can deepen and enrich contemporary culture and communicators should recognize that everyone has a right to this enrichment. They should not hesitate therefore to take the chance offered by the so-called "mass media" to reach great numbers of people. The media also make it possible to cater for differing needs and interests since, in a professional and attractive manner, they can produce the fruits of every type of artistic expression.

People, then, will find no difficulty in using the media to deepen and refine their cultural life as long as they supplement this use with the exercise of personal reflection and an exchange of views with others.

51. An example of the cultural potential of the media can be found in their service to the traditional folk arts of countries where stories, plays, song and dance still express an ancient national inheritance. Because of their modern techniques, the media can make these achievements known more widely. They can record them so that they can be seen and heard again and again and make them accessible even in districts where the old traditions have vanished. In this way, the media help to impress on a nation a proper sense of its cultural identity and by expressing this, delight and enrich other cultures and countries as well.

52. It should be recalled that many great works recognized as the products of genius, particularly in music, drama and literature, were first presented to the public as entertainment. So entertainment need not lack cultural validity. ⁴²

Today, through the media, the noblest forms of artistic expression offer true recreation - in the fullest sense of that word - to more and more people. And there is more and more call for this in our complex society. Simple entertainment, too, has a value of its own. It lightens the burden of daily problems and it occupies men's leisure. The wide variety of productions that the media offer for these hours of leisure is in fact a remarkable service to mankind. But recipients should exercise self-control. They must not allow themselves to be so beguiled by the charms of the media's products or by the curiosity that these arouse that they neglect urgent duties or simply waste time.

53. The media are themselves new factors in contemporary culture, serving as they do large numbers of people at the same time. But as well as enriching culture, they can occasionally degrade it. They often play for the applause of the lowest cultural levels of their audience. And because they take so much of modern man's time, they can easily divert him from higher and more profitable cultural pursuits.

An unrelieved diet of productions geared to the lowest cultural level within a population would tend to debase the taste of those who have already attained a higher level. These dangers can be avoided if communicators really care about the well-being of culture and buttress their good intentions with a sound knowledge of the science of education. Moreover, it will be recalled that the media are perfectly capable of productions on the highest artistic level, and these are not necessarily the most difficult to follow and to enjoy for the great majority.

Cf . Miranda Prorsus, A.A.S., XLIX (1957), p. 765.