WHY AND HOW

Written by Tamara Skrozza
Journalist, "Vreme" weekly magazine, Belgrade


A few days ago, commenting one of the blogs, someone asked: Why are media people not reacting when they see that they are being used by the politicians?

The question, asked numerous times in various debates, has never been properly answered. Or, to be more precise, it has been answered by posing another question: What exactly should ‘media people’ do when they see that their media is being misused by politicians?

But the first problem is deciding how to react.

1. Do we boycott politicians?
Serbian journalists tried that in 2000, boycotting Serbian radical party, but the results were quite poor. Some media simply refused to boycott radicals and many politicians did not notice that they were being ignored.

2. Do we make public statement that they are misusing our media?
It sounds nice, but none of the editors would agree to do something like that. Not because they want to be misused, but because it would ruin their political contacts, and therefore future reporting.

3. How can we prove that we are being misused?
That is probably the trickiest problem, as political misuse is usually organized very ‘elegantly’. No witnesses, no tape recorders, no ‘paper’. Nothing. Just a quiet ‘agreement’...And, as we all know, quiet ‘agreements’ can’t be proven. At least, not easily.

Another problem is defining the main character – the person who, in a specific moment, is representing your media and is being misused by a politician.

In most cases, that person is an editor in chief, a general manager or other high ranking figure. He or she will most often want to keep quiet about it. They depend on politician – for information, or needs the money that political party wants to give,...

For ‘ordinary’ journalists there are even more problems. A reporter has no means of going into battle with politicians – especially if their editors don’t want to fight with the political parties, and their colleagues don’t care for other journalists’ problems. Ultimately, their families depend on whether they will keep the job or not.

There are, of course, many other issues around the reaction of ‘media people’. The points made here are only something to think about.

But whenever you ask “Why?”, try asking “How?” as well.

“How?” is a question rarely asked in this context, but it is the most important one. When we solve the “How?” problem, “Why?” will be answered in no time.

Power and/or Choice? Politics and/or Media?

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?