Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 71 No. 2-3, 2001.
Preliminary communication
Media in Value Crisis
Mirko Juraj Mataušić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In the context of value chrisis in the Croatian society, it is impossible to avoid the media. They are a constituent part of that crisis, its reflection but its factor as well. Today, the value crisis as well as the media crisis are global. In Croatia it is amplified by the presence of the communist legacy, the consequences of war, general impoverishment of the population and the commercialization of media.
It is justified to talk about the crisis when the discrepancy between the norms and the real situation is such that it prevents the system from working. The first part of the article points to the fact that we can really talk about the crisis of Croatian media, the second part tries to examine the relationship of the public towards (such) media, while the third part brings forward some theological observations regarding the media.
Together with now almost traditional ways of violation of human dignity in media through the excessive display of violence and pornography emerges the fact that today in Croatian media anybody can be accused of anything without the need to prove the person's guilt. Besides, the praxis of ruthless digging out of information of somebody's private life has become very common, especially with famous people. That threatens their reputation, often their health and sometimes even their survival. It becomes even more problematic because of the fact that the most important media are under control of the politicians and every center of political power in Coatia wants to have its own media. While the mechanisms of the journalists' resistence to the political influence on media are not sufficiently developed, the commercialization of media establishes their new dependence on the economic sphere. As there is not enough profit for everyone on our market, an unsparing fight of all arms for gaining the audience goes on among the leading media.
These are the causes of further deviations. According to the judgement of the leading people in media, some of the basic values of journalism and its ethics are not being respected, in the first place the authenticity and verification of what is being published. Because of the postition of media whose power is almost unlimited, it is very hard to fight for justice against them.
Bad economic conditions are a cause of further unfavourable influences such as, for example, the concentration of media in the hands of a small group of owners. The fact that owing to that freedom and power it is easier for the media to point to some misuses and irregularities in public activities does not justify their negativity. Similarly, the fact that the greater part of journalists does their job well and the most media contents are all right cannot be the reason for not pointing to the disregard of journalist profession and ethics in other cases.
In order to improve the conditions, we point out the need to clarify the proprietary relationships in media, define the educational and expert criteria for journalists, better explore the conditions in media, develop the civic society with the greater influence of citizens on media, as well as to develop the judicature.
In the second part the article brings up some results on media from the European Values Survey and similar researches that have been conducted in Croatia during the last three years. Among other things, these surveys have shown that the trust among people is very low, which is obviously contributed to by the described condition of the media. However, it all happens at the expense of the media themselves, because of all social institutions they hold the last place regarding the trust the young citizens (between 18 and 35 years of age) have in them. The Catholic media hold a much better place, but their distribution is smaller, which suggests that they are less influential as well. The lack of trust in secular media does not mean they are less influential.
The results of the research show that the acceptance of values (for example: positive attitude towards one's job, trust in people, enthusiasm for living, feeling of joy etc.) is proportional to media observance, especially the news oriented media.
The third part of the article reports the results of the theological observations and considerations on media in West-European countries conducted during the last decade. The media compete with the traditional role of the religion: they bring the people together, they explain the meaning of life and promise deliverance. Recently the Internet has joined the other media. In its cybernetic space it creates the impression that man is omnipotent. The religious role is characterized by the ritual repetition of the various contents in media (always at the same time), which is all garnished with advertisements which consciously express their promises using the religious vocabulary.
A crisis is always a chance to improve a current condition. That is why we first have to take into account the positive sides of media and enable them to express themselves more. In its official documents the Church has set a very demanding programme, but its realization has been poor so far. It is urgent that the Church emphasizes the importance of the media in its activities, and gives even more importance to nurturing the authentic communication within its traditional area of action.
Keywords
mass-media; the power of media; media observance; values in media; value crisis; media religion; society; the Church
Hrčak ID:
29107
URI
Publication date:
20.5.2002.
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