1191 A Culture of Exchange, and a 'David's opportunity'
austraLasia 1191
A Culture of Exchange, and a 'David's opportunity'.
ROME: 7th July 2005 -- Readers will have noted that
austraLasia has reached a more-or-less steady rate of one news item per
day, and some queries have come in asking how this has been achieved.
After eight years of 'slog', it appears that we have reached a nice
balance where the news arrives naturally, from a reasonable spread,
mostly unsolicited, and to the benefit of all. There is a simple
reason behind this: many more readers are seeing themselves as
correspondents.
The ultimate aim is to see everyone as a
correspondent, though not all at once and not every day!
Over time, simply by putting more people in contact
with more people, austraLasia has begun to receive news from a variety
of persons in a variety of ways. But we have also benefitted from
indirect types of 'correspondent'. Some Salesian websites have
begun to introduce RSS. This means that austraLasia, which
subscribes to any of these feeds the moment it learns of them, receives
up-to-date news immediately and without fuss. Salesian India is
an outstanding example of this proces with a dozen or more such feeds
in operation. austraLasia is also linked to other Asia-Pacific
news agencies. When a confrere speaks to one of these agencies
(AsiaNews, UCAN are two examples) that comes our way too.
There is no single definition therefore, of a
correspondent for this newsletter. Several writers have adopted a
monthly rhythm - just one item a month. Others write when
something is immediate. In effect, this is the difference between
'soft' and 'hard' news. The former tends to be background and
human interest or, in Salesian terms, 'animation', the latter news at
it happens. Both types are acceptable for austraLasia. If every
one of the members of the EAO region Salesian Family wrote once a year
we would be embarassed by the amount of material!
News does not require particular writing
skills. You can provide points and let us write them up.
You may indeed write them up yourself. News does, however,
benefit from attention to the typical journalist's questions: what,
when, where, who, how and why. An excellent guideline for a
news item is 'no more than 3 main points, no more than 7 small
details', and anything less is even better!
In the light of the Rector Major's most recent
letter, his comments on the shift from one-to-many to many-to-many,
from centralisation to decentralisation, from local to international
communication, etc., it is clear that we can all have a role to play.
Read this 'soft' news item as your invitation to join what he terms a
"David's opportunity".
______________________
AustraLasia is an email service
for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions
as an
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your name will come off the regular email list. RSS eliminates
problems such as multiple mailings, viruses, email bloat. Think
about
it!
