Media Ethics are Universal
Our Journalism group had a unique opportunity to visit a local TV/Media station here in Nicosia this week, ANT1. Unlike in America, there is no FCC equivalent which mandates that TV and other forms of media operate independently of each other. At ANT1, they simultaneously deliver radio and television broadcasts, along with other print forms of content, and have a very limited number of competitors. It is a very small island, so this is a little easier to understand. However, my thoughts kept going back to the reason the FCC has such rules about independently operated media – ethical reasons, to be exact, since it becomes easy for one media company in this case to dominate the market as well as have frightening control over the content/messages that are delivered.
Even though I was somewhat familiar with what the radio and TV facilities would look like inside (they truly are about the same anywhere you go), I was pleasantly surprised to get to hear the News Director’s thoughts on media ethics immediately after watching a live TV news cast happen.
Chrixtox Papadopoulos (or Christos, if I read his handwriting correctly) said that he had studied journalism in both Cyprus and America, and was one of the first journalists in Cyprus to have the opportunity to work in television, since it only was brought here about 15 years ago. One of my fellow students asked him what he thought were some of the biggest differences between American and Cypriot media, and another asked if Cypriots consumed celebrity news and the like as much as Americans seem to; he took a ten minute tangent to explain his chilling response, which began like this:
“All media, here, in America and elsewhere, have their reasons for existing…. I’ll put it that way,” he said, clearly indicating that he was putting it nicely when he could have been more blunt, or honest.
He continued his answer into more and more of an ethical discussion, and it was obvious his experience in America while completing his thesis had been a bitter-sweet one. He was able to give examples of his experience, particularly in relation to his research work revolving around America’s invasion of Kuwait in 1989.
“My teachers and directors asked me why I wished to study about an event that was already old news, and I told him that if 10 percent of them could point to Kuwait on a map, I would give myself a zero and come back next year to try again. Of course, they could not, so I was given permission to continue my project on the media interpretation of the Gulf War.”
He explained in a number of words that he was realizing how many Americans are not receiving the messages they should be, especially concerning their own government’s foreign policies and actions taking place overseas. It seemed to disturb him deeply that such a large and powerful nation as the United States was filled with such obliviousness (he had my fullest sympathies on this feeling, so I grabbed my recorder and listened harder).
He continued, “It was then that I realized the true power the media had over the masses.”
Our professor, Dr. Legg, added a good point to the explanation of this, mentioning that we forget how small a place like Cyprus is in comparison to America; we are much more prone to be focused on ourselves simply because there is so much “insular, or inward looking” content to be found within our own borders. Much of American media is almost completely focused on American pop culture, issues and topics, and rarely anything else.
Papadopoulos responded like this:
“I think that everybody around the world should be more aware of what’s going on outside their country. If we were ALL more aware of what’s going on outside our country, we would have a more peaceful world. If we just stick to our own little world, then we don’t broaden our horizons, to see different cultures and understand how different cultures think…”
“Right next to you is Cuba. And I have been there three times now. It is truly a pathetic thing, to see people suppressed in such a way. If you live in the neighborhood of Fidel Castro, you get all of these benefits, but the people of Cuba get none of that. They are isolated from the world.”
“I believe the American people, if you talk to them and put your ideas forward with objective, and show them with examples, I think they are willing to listen to you. And I faced that when I was doing my thesis in the states, on the media interpretation of the Gulf War.”
“I guess what I am trying to say is, we need to be more open to new ideas.”
My heart was comforted to hear these words, and I am glad I recorded the conversation for keeping, to remember that there is hope for a better future and that I saw a glimmer of it during my all too brief stay in Cyprus. I will strive to show my agreement with these opinions reflected in the work I do throughout my life, both as a writer and as a human being who cares about others as much as I do myself. American media in all its forms, though it is bigger and older than most in the world, has a great deal of re-maturing to do, and we have a great deal of responsibility to take for the state of both our own people and for the world.