Media Freedom(s): Quo Vadis? (III) [R]*

[Continued from: Part I and Part II]


Journalists spend most of their time asking other people questions. But there are also plenty of questions we in the media should be asking ourselves.

[here]



Hate Becomes a Commodity

One of the plagues of human history has been the belief that there are certain people or groups of people who don't share the same moral status as everyone else, when it comes to the kind of treatment they receive. These individuals and groups are society's scapegoats. Traditionally, they have been subjected to symbolic violence, in which they have been depicted in words and images and other forms of expression in degraded ways. Beyond that, they were often subjected to physical violence, as well, depending on the society and the scapegoats in question.
The list of individuals and scapegoats who have been forced into these roles is legion. They are the innocent and the guilty; the mad and the sane. They are Jews, blacks, Christians, pagans, heretics of all sorts, political critics and criminals, saints and scientists, et al.

Today, we see a new variation on this endless historical game of dehumanization and degradation. Now, we have a political system and media that gain much of their profit and power by turning public figures into scapegoats, arousing the emotions of anger, ridicule and disdain in audiences and voters. But beyond them, there is, in this system, now, incessant pressure to generate scapegoats -- to invent fools and villains for public consumption, so as to win political contests, make money and receive public acclaim.

The right to not be smeared, worldwide; the right to not have one's suffering turned into a sadistic circus; the right to not be bombarded by insulting questions -- these and other rights we assume belong to the rest of us, fall by the wayside. To gather the information and images they need to create their stories, the perpetrators of this system violate a second set of rights as well -- rights to not have one's privacy invaded; to not be followed, pressed in on, surrounded, and turned into prey.

With the emergence of a worldwide media culture, this is now a global phenomenon. And information that can be used to damage people and put them in the scapegoat category (or further into the scapegoat category) has now, incredibly, become a form of wealth. With the proliferation of media and the Internet, which is turning millions of people into journalists of a sort, and into something much like a public figures, and with the growing use of surveillance technologies and computer files, this system now threatens to get completely out of control.

We are developing a global media system in which Hate is becoming a commodity. What is new about this system isn't that it manipulates hate to achieve various ends. Rather, it is the scale and pervasiveness and sophistication with which it does so, based on high-tech tools of communications and image manipulation. As a result, we are all being drawn into a worldwide virtual gladiator game in which the stakes are all too real for the victims and for everyone who must now live and be brought up in an environment that encourages many of humanity's worst instincts.

[here ]

The Ethical Reporter

There can be little doubt that the news media today is a force for truth. But like most of the works of man, it is also immersed in the cycle of violence, misperception and transference that governs human affairs. The task of journalism is to grow beyond the untruth of sadism and submission, while strengthening the healthy alternatives of independent and ethical reporting.

At its best, such an ethical and independent reporting would be motivated by a desire to tell the truth and defend right, to defend the genuine moral order, rather than get revenge for past wrongs. Reporters working in such a system would be concerned with the triumph of truth, as a force that can free people and enlarge the realm of justice, rather than with the triumph of the injured self at the expense of other people.

In its ideal state, this kind of reporting is a form of non-neurotic behavior. It is the expression of a mature, adult personality, able to use its considerable powers to grow and improve the world. A reporter who fits this description can’t help but expose wrong – he does so merely by honestly describing the untruth he sees around him.

[here and more here]

*[First posted 24/09/10]

[Continued from: Part I and Part II]


Journalists spend most of their time asking other people questions. But there are also plenty of questions we in the media should be asking ourselves.

[here]



Hate Becomes a Commodity

One of the plagues of human history has been the belief that there are certain people or groups of people who don't share the same moral status as everyone else, when it comes to the kind of treatment they receive. These individuals and groups are society's scapegoats. Traditionally, they have been subjected to symbolic violence, in which they have been depicted in words and images and other forms of expression in degraded ways. Beyond that, they were often subjected to physical violence, as well, depending on the society and the scapegoats in question.
The list of individuals and scapegoats who have been forced into these roles is legion. They are the innocent and the guilty; the mad and the sane. They are Jews, blacks, Christians, pagans, heretics of all sorts, political critics and criminals, saints and scientists, et al.

Today, we see a new variation on this endless historical game of dehumanization and degradation. Now, we have a political system and media that gain much of their profit and power by turning public figures into scapegoats, arousing the emotions of anger, ridicule and disdain in audiences and voters. But beyond them, there is, in this system, now, incessant pressure to generate scapegoats -- to invent fools and villains for public consumption, so as to win political contests, make money and receive public acclaim.

The right to not be smeared, worldwide; the right to not have one's suffering turned into a sadistic circus; the right to not be bombarded by insulting questions -- these and other rights we assume belong to the rest of us, fall by the wayside. To gather the information and images they need to create their stories, the perpetrators of this system violate a second set of rights as well -- rights to not have one's privacy invaded; to not be followed, pressed in on, surrounded, and turned into prey.

With the emergence of a worldwide media culture, this is now a global phenomenon. And information that can be used to damage people and put them in the scapegoat category (or further into the scapegoat category) has now, incredibly, become a form of wealth. With the proliferation of media and the Internet, which is turning millions of people into journalists of a sort, and into something much like a public figures, and with the growing use of surveillance technologies and computer files, this system now threatens to get completely out of control.

We are developing a global media system in which Hate is becoming a commodity. What is new about this system isn't that it manipulates hate to achieve various ends. Rather, it is the scale and pervasiveness and sophistication with which it does so, based on high-tech tools of communications and image manipulation. As a result, we are all being drawn into a worldwide virtual gladiator game in which the stakes are all too real for the victims and for everyone who must now live and be brought up in an environment that encourages many of humanity's worst instincts.

[here ]

The Ethical Reporter

There can be little doubt that the news media today is a force for truth. But like most of the works of man, it is also immersed in the cycle of violence, misperception and transference that governs human affairs. The task of journalism is to grow beyond the untruth of sadism and submission, while strengthening the healthy alternatives of independent and ethical reporting.

At its best, such an ethical and independent reporting would be motivated by a desire to tell the truth and defend right, to defend the genuine moral order, rather than get revenge for past wrongs. Reporters working in such a system would be concerned with the triumph of truth, as a force that can free people and enlarge the realm of justice, rather than with the triumph of the injured self at the expense of other people.

In its ideal state, this kind of reporting is a form of non-neurotic behavior. It is the expression of a mature, adult personality, able to use its considerable powers to grow and improve the world. A reporter who fits this description can’t help but expose wrong – he does so merely by honestly describing the untruth he sees around him.

[here and more here]

*[First posted 24/09/10]