Beatification TV coverage falls short

WE THANK some TV channels for going out of their way to provide extensive remote coverage last May 1 of the beatification rites for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. However, in terms of being able to adequately and insightfully capture the spiritual significance and other thematic ramifications of the unique event, the coverage fell short, sometimes even woefully so.

What seemed to be the problem? The local TV people involved generally treated the rites as a news event, not a spiritual occasion that required special preparation to do full justice to it.

Some of the news teams sent to cover it were clearly at a loss on how to “understand” and render it clear and significant for viewers in the Philippines. A number of personalities made mistakes that betrayed their lack of basic information—like not knowing the difference between a chalice and a ciborium.

Others took the easy way out and replaced real research and immersion with facile reliance on “experts” and other resource persons, on whom they relied to “annotate” the proceedings and explain some relevant or irrelevant spiritual matters.

Alas, their reliance was excessive, so the news teams were sometimes reduced to merely asking simplistic questions that the “experts” answered in much too verbose and pedantic a manner.

Lost opportunity

As a result, the “localized” coverage, while welcome, didn’t really add much to the spiritual experience in terms of insight and increased religious fervor. A key opportunity lost, indeed, all because the TV people involved didn’t realize that a spiritual event requires much more than standard and knee-jerk “news and sidelights” coverage.

In the future, therefore, we hope that our TV channels learn from this experience to treat a religious event with the special depth and insight required. Train and develop personnel who are versed in and sensitive to spiritual significance and nuance, so they can stop excessively relying on “resource persons” who don’t know TV and thus can’t take advantage of the medium’s specific strengths.

Incidentally, this special sensitivity and sensibility are needed in TV coverage of art events as well. How many times have we watched, dismayed and stupefied, as ostensibly experienced TV people cover artistic events and performances with insufficient appreciation of their significance? Only superficial questions are asked and little effort is made to get into the artistic experience’s heart and soul—a real pity, because “heart and soul” are precisely what the arts are all about!