yBenedict

New media play a key role in the communications surrounding the upcoming World Youth Days in Sydney, Australia. Recently we heard that the pope will send text messages to the mobile phones of pilgrims to the event, and Satuday, cardinal Pell launched another initiative to reach out to the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visiting Sydney this year: yBenedict.

The website brings daily reports on how young people of the world are preparing for WYD2008, “from Scotland to San Francisco, from Singapore to Spain and right across Sydney and Australia”.

Y stands for…

You’ve got to love creative the title of the website, “yBenedict”:

“Y stands for you – the site is a service to the pilgrims of the world. Secondly the Y stands for ‘young’ which describes the age and spirit of our site. Thirdly, the Y stands for ‘Generation Y’ a label often used to describe those aged from about 18-35 years old. Finally the letter ‘Y’ stands for the question WHY? This final ‘questioning sense’ in some way touches all people, regardless of their religion proposing the deeper spiritual question ‘WHY are things as they are?’”

Audience participation

The website invites visitors to send in questions:

“Our yBENEDICT website and our yBENEDICT team will thus try to provide answers to some of these questions whether they be as simple as ‘Why is the Pope coming’ and ‘When will he say Mass’ to slightly more complex questions like ‘Why do we need a Pope anyway’ and ‘What is the Mass?’”

The site also asks for volunteer journalists, photographers and translators to enhance the content of the site. However, it takes a few clicks to discover that the makers of the site are actually seeking for audience participation, and not just for professional journalists.

“Write about your Final Mass before coming to WYD, or how much your group has fundraised, and the story behind that. Write about how someone that you know has been converted through WYD. The possibilities are endless. Write about a significant event your group organised, and introduce your group to yBENEDICT.”

However, I was unable to find any examples on the website of what they are looking for. And I’m a little surprised that they only ask for written stories and photos. What about videoclips? When your primary target audience is very familiar with recording, uploading and watching videos on YouTube, you would expect a section with videoclips. And if these clips would be posted on YouTube, the message could reach way beyond the boundaries of the website yBenedict!

yNot?