Pope Benedict XVI sent his first tweet this week to launch News.va, developed by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications, aggregating content and links from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube; along with radio, TV, print, and other media outlets.
It is intriguing to compare two videos marking the papal tweet.
The first video shown here is the official piece from the Vatican’s YouTube channel. It is narrated in English, has been viewed 26,304 times and has zero comments.
The second video also shows the papal event but is live in Latin and contains no English. It was filmed by a Roman TV agency and has been viewed 52,325 times with 116 comments and counting.
English may be spoken more widely than Latin but the voiceover ruins the sanctity of the actual event, no? Do you truly need the English to comprehend the occurrence? Sometimes words are better left unsaid.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Very interesting to know Ari, I liked the videos! Isn’t it strange how even the Pope is getting involved with social media, that really does demonstrate it’s power!
“Sometimes words are better left unsaid.” – but if people can’t actually read what is there, is that really such a good thing?
Not strange (to me) as the Vatican embraced social media a few years ago. It’s merely Twitter that’s new for the boss.
lol, I didn’t know that… ok
Hmm, he doesn’t look too natural on that iPad, though I like the effort! A little odd that he’s tweeting in English instead of Italian though?
June 30, 2011 at 1:00 AM
Hi, Ari.
It is interesting to know that the Vatican and the Pope is doing its best to reach out to the masses. And, I agree when you said, “Sometimes words are better left unsaid.” The Pope’s actions in the video speak for themselves.
Thanks for sharing another interesting tidbit, Ari. I am always learning something new from you. Had you not posted this, I wouldn’t have known about the event.
Regards!
Kim
June 30, 2011 at 10:45 AM
His eyes clearly shows lack of understanding of what is happening. Good advertising trick for Apple. In general, presence of any church on the Internet it’s very strange for me .
June 30, 2011 at 5:28 PM
Hello,
Its rather strange seeing the Pope with all of this technology. You always think of the Pope being old school but the modern technology is such a good way to reach the young Christians of the world that its a great move by the Vatican. The world needs more of the Pope’s messages to reach them. Thanks for sharing this post.
Hi Ari
Nice comparison and what a great final line…
“Sometimes words are better left unsaid.”
Might steal that line.
July 1, 2011 at 4:38 AM
Dear Ari,
I prefer A Tale from 2 Cities, that was the first thing which came into my mind when I read your latest post!
Actually, the language is Italian and as some other commentator said the Pope seemed blissfully unaware of the technical details.
Wonderful PR for Apple and let the world go on.
Have a good day,
Barbara
The technology really advances these days. I didn’t even expect the Pope will use the technology that we are enjoying right now. Of course, I have no problem with that. In fact I am happy that even our Pope is utilizing everything he could find in the internet.