Workshop at NISCORT Underlines Importance of Public Relations for Effective Pastoral Ministry

New Delhi : Realizing the importance of good Public Relations, 29 priests and Religious holding responsibility for Public Relations in their respective dioceses and religious congregations came together at NISCORT to attend a 3-day workshop on Public Relations to hone their skills in this vital area. The three-day workshop, September 24-26, was organized by NISCORT in collaboration with the CBCI Office for Public Relations, and was led by   Fr George Plathottam, Director NISCORT.

In this digital era, sharpening of communication skills is vital, especially in the realm of evangelization, Fr Plathottam said.  Modes of communication are increasing by the day, and for effective public relations one has to keep pace with the modern trends including social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc,

The participants were taught the basics of writing a news story and how to make it newsworthy and the importance of utilizing social media in their ministry.   

Public Relations Officer of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) Fr. Dominic D Abreo, CBCI Deputy Secretary General Fr  Joseph Chinnayan,   Spokesperson, Delhi Archdiocese, Fr Dominic Emmanuel,   along with senior journalists like John Dayal,  Jacob Kani,  Augustine Veliath,  Rita Joseph shared their insights and expertise during the three-day workshop, September 24-26. 

The participants were taught how to conduct interviews and write press releases. Each of the participants were asked to select one of the 32 topics provided. They then prepared 10 questions pertaining to the selected topic and quizzed their partners and vice versa.  The interviews were video recorded and analysed later. The participants were taught how to select relevant questions and shoot them at the interviewee. They were taught the importance of body language, poise and handling of the mike etc while conducting interview for electronic media.  

The Piece de Resistance of the workshop was the press conference staged by the participants with the help of the staff and students of NISCORT. It was analyzed and reviewed to learn more about how to handle the press and media persons in a proactive way even during a crisis.   

The principals and PROs present, who have to regularly face the press, gladly assimilated the tips provided. Fr Titus D'Costa, a school principal in Ahmedabad, summed up the three-day workshop saying the programme was quite engrossing, and that they were glad to have participated in it. He wished every bishop and religious superior would take programmes like this seriously and train their personnel in communications and public relations. “In a year I have to handle at least two major crisis situations, and the workshop has helped me a lot to deal with such issues, he said.