The Pauline Center for Media Studies (PCMS) is a project of the Daughters of St. Paul. Its focus is to develop and encourage media literacy/media mindfulness within the context of culture, education, and faith formation.

The PCMS, founded by Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, began in Boston in 1995 and moved to Los Angeles in 2006. In 2015, an East Coast office opened in New York, directed by Sister Hosea Rupprecht, FSP. The PCMS expresses a part of the mission of the Daughters of St. Paul to educate and form the audience to critically discern the messages communicated through traditional mass media and emerging forms of social communication.

“In her official teaching, the Church
has consistently called media, ‘gifts of God.’ ”
- Sr. Hosea Rupprecht, FSP

Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and participate with messages in a variety of forms, from print to video to the Internet. At the heart of media literacy is a strategy that questions media messages. Because we live in a world shaped by media values, messages, and technologies, media literacy is an educational and faith formation imperative for the 21st century.

“Control is for the moment. Communication lasts a lifetime.”
- Sr. Rose Pacatte, FSP

In a faith context, we progress from media literacy to media mindfulness, using critical thinking skills and questioning the media to discern the values and ideologies of media messages and engage them with the values presented by Jesus. Media mindfulness helps kids, teens and grown-ups investigate culture, understand their world and make media choices consistent with their faith.

“Media mindfulness skills can empower young people to be wise consumers and producers of media.” ”
- Our Media World