Written by Aleksandra Krstic,
Journalist, Mreza Production Group, Belgrade
According to one of the definitions in political science, power is "the ability of one person to cause another to do what the first wishes, by whatever means." Politics really involves this. But, does the power involve choice? If I don't have any power, do I have a right to choose? Journalism is all about making choices: what makes the news, what is newsworthy, this or that interlocutor, what’s the angle of the story, etc. In that sense, both politics and the media posses power and choice.
Despite some critical views, good political reporting is one of the corner stones of democracy. Fair political reporting explains how politics affects everyday lives. It helps all of us getting an objective and fair insight in politicians, their parties, programs and the most important plans, their real faces and personalities.
But why has a good political reporting almost disappeared in our modern societies?
Probably because the trivialization of news has weakened the democratic process and devalued the trust in politics, especially in the countries of South East Europe. The media has started to deliver "scandal" stories rather than objective reports on some important decision making processes. At the other hand, politicians begun to use media for trivial purpose: their statements look like free advertisements which nobody understands. Politics has lost the tool of communicating with “ordinary” people. Once upon a time, the best tool of all was the media: strong, powerful, objective, fair, truthful, balanced instrument which has been making and shaping public opinion. Power instead of choice?
I’d like to hear your opinion about the breakdown of communication between politics and the media. Is there any good solution for bringing them together again as keystones of democracy? Can we discuss bad and good practice of political reporting? Is the collision between politics and the media maybe useful? How all this affects the public opinion?
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"If i dont have any power, do i have the right to choose?" That is the question.
The idea that the freedom of choice could be taken from us, should strike fear into the heart of every liberal thiking person out there. Is it possible, through promoting democracy as our governing philosophy, that we have slowly lost sight as to why we learnt to accept this as 'our way'. If so, we might as well all catch the train that goes one to the dark ages, casue the plan ain't working. The point of good journalism is to give the people that choice.To present the entire case and leave us to decide. We are the jury and our judgment is what counts. Exorciseing the right to choose, that is afterall, the courner stone of democracy. The point. The Germans had no choice in the 1930's and look where that ended. It is unacceptiblae to consider a free world, with no choice. It would be like believing in Jesus but not accepting that Mary was a Virgin.
So, the next question is what is it about politics that fails to turn us on? Is it that we see it as a zoo of human liars and thieves? Is it that kids simply fail to see the connection with legislation and thier own exsistence? Is it simply boring for? Or is it that we are such a self involved society that we find fashion crises more relivant to our future than petty things like war. We live in strange times and they seem to be getting worse. The politians all seem like sharks, striving to be the biggest fish in the sea. They crave power like a child craves chocolate. This makes the journalists like Piranha's. Alone they are ineffective, but in a pack they can strip a corpse of its flesh in seconds. So, where does this leave us? Perhaps there is the answer. If we really are dealing with piranha's and sharks, it seems the smart person is the one who ignores that entire world of ugliness. The truth however is that all corners of the world have both pretty and ugly sides so ither deal with it or leave.
As long as those who crave power yeild to their addictions, greed and amibition will go hand in hand with dishonesty and half truths. It is human nature unfortunatly. Pirahna's exsist because some of dont like watching crimminals smirking as they avoid the hand of justice. At the end of the day it is up to us, the public to decifer the shark from the dolphine. If the politians have nothing to hide, the journalism would be a lot easier. So would life, probably...
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