About the Media Academy
A new ministry was recently launched at Saint Joseph Catholic Church and Saint Joseph Catholic School in Saint Johns, MI.
The Media Academy ministry was created by parishioners and supported by staff of our church in response to a growing concern for the health and well-being of our youth.
The purpose of the academy is to focus on issues facing young people and the effects of media and technology on the lives of our children, our families and our Catholic community.
Our current generation of children are growing up in a society that relies on the internet. Young adults have access to more social tools and media than at any time in history. Although they excel at the use of tools like smart phones and platforms like social media, they have received little guidance in appropriate usage limits and the development of critical viewing skills. There is simply no faith-based source for credible information for parents, children and teens to access in order to productively take part in discussion and understanding of these tools and platforms.
There is also little guidance and encouragement for parents on how to take action during this time of rapid media production and consumption.
In addition, teen depression, anxiety and suicide rates have dramatically risen and new research has now directly linked these health conditions to the introduction of smart phones and social media platforms.
Much of this tech development has occurred fairly quickly and as a result many parents have been caught up in the hardware and software wave themselves.
People of all ages show signs of addiction, and the social media algorithms drive the viewing frenzy, feeding viewers a non-stop selection of clip after clip, many tailored to the viewers’ particular taste.
In response, a new academy board was organized last spring to address this epidemic that is affecting our parish community. The board strategy will include a review of current research, consultations with experts, organization of presentations by experts and the development of action plans at our parish.
The board will combine these resources to build a multilevel support system with a goal to build awareness for youth and parents.
This first phase of the ministry began as an experimental stage with faith-based workshops produced and coordinated by volunteers to address the impact of social media on our youth.
- Spring 2024: focus on increasing awareness of vocations and an introduction to media production to 5th and 6th grade students. Two student hosts completed two faith-based interviews with adults from our Catholic community.
- Fall 2024: introduced students to the process of short segment video production. The training explored how content is created and guided student teams in the production of segments on their gifts and talents. The school workshops also explored the nature of creativity, the art of writing a compelling story and the steps of producing a short video segment. Students produced four faith-based segments on their gifts and talents.
- Spring 2025: focused on the role of the producer working on a production on location. Students gained experience in preproduction organization and production of a faith-based interview segment with an adult director of a catholic based organization.
- Fall 2025: launched to involve teens who take part in Youth Group at the church. The workshop focused on teen issues and included team discussions, video production equipment training and video segment producer training. The youth worked in teams to produce four short video segments with a strong emphasis on the impact of faith in their lives.
All sessions listed above produced a variety of videos which are published on the Saint Joseph Catholic Church YouTube channel.
Inspired by the interest and the success of the program, Father Michael Willims and the academy director have assembled a board of volunteers from our parish with the goal to involve more members from our parish. The Media Academy board has had several meetings, have created a mission and will be directly involved in the strategic direction of the ministry and take an active part in the academy projects.
The Media Academy Mission:
The academy will explore issues and devise action plans to address the challenges and effects of media and technology on the lives of our children, teens and families. This effort is driven by our gospel commission to address the issues that are eroding human dignity and the sanctity of life in our larger Christian community.
The Lansing Diocese has provided support for this effort and provided a grant for the purchase of video podcast equipment. This equipment will allow youth to learn the basics of interview production and train to gain experience in interview technique for faith-based segments. The construction of the video podcast studio is currently underway in the school.
The board and academy director would like to continue the progress accomplished so far by investing in additional equipment, learning resources, a speaker series and staff support for the student and youth group workshops.
This has been an effort initiated and organized by volunteers at our parish and supported by the church and school staff.
The board has a strong direction but needs the support of members of our Catholic community. We have created a list of sponsorship levels that will ensure that the foundation continues to build and the effort continues to make progress.
Please consider assisting with the very important ministry.
Father Mike Williams – Pastor of Saint Joseph Catholic Church
Chris Wells – St Joseph Catholic School Principal
Kathy George – Media Academy President
Dave Collins – Media Academy Director
All board members and the academy director are volunteers.
Contact the director at collinsvirtual@gmail.com for membership details.