Picture this: Wednesday, 30 October, Saxion Hogeschool Enschede, an august gathering discussing the authenticity of the packaged news delivered to them by media. The consequence: an enlightened audience that won't watch the news as before.
The evening kicked off with an opening by the moderator, Dr. Nico Schulte Nordholt, of the UT's Technology and Development Group, an expert on Indonesian politics who regularly appears on Dutch television. Nico, with a background in anthropology and political science, shared his very own revealing experience of media manipulation while in Indonesia.
The aftermath of 9/11 translated into an enormous public outcry resulting in burning of effigies of western leaders and violent demonstrations. One of the reputable television networks covered the whole story with an item lasting 40 minutes that included the fact that both the demonstrators: hired landless villagers, and the staged fights were part of political gimmickry. The news item made its way to television cut short to just 7 minutes under the pretext of and portraying the radicalness of Islam in Indonesia without any of the differentiating facts.
The floor was then taken by the speakers for the evening, Thomas Kamara and Abdel Rubio, to share their piece of confrontation with the menace of media manipulation.
Thomas, recipient of Titus Brandsma award for Courageous and Principled Journalism (2001), works closely with the IPS (International Press Society) to encourage the distribution of fair information about non-western countries, with a focus on Africa.
He accused the media of disseminating packaged, pre-determined, glorified and biased news regarding Africa to the world though admitting the fact that information could no longer be tampered in the present times of e-communication. The Liberian journalist further confessed that financial aid flowed into the African continent, thick and fast, only when sabotage and carnage were telecast. Although amused by the recent development of politicians pooling in state resources to establish contacts with western media, Thomas admonished that roads and hospitals were more indispensable than PR.
Abdel, a Moroccan by birth but educated in the Netherlands, is trying to fight the phenomenon of manipulation in his own small way, especially when it could lead to hatred between people of different religions. He rationalised that since hardly anything spectacular happened in the Netherlands, certain anonymous sources tried to instill fear of terrorists post 9/11. He mentioned the impertinent and exaggerated coverage of Muslims during the crisis, nearly 25% of the total coverage, when actually barely 5% of the population in the Netherlands is Muslim.
He expressed his worry that competition exerts pressure on media ventures to either downplay or glorify news. He recounted the incident concerning the harassment of two homosexual men by some young Muslims in Rotterdam which was blown out of proportion by a famous Dutch media venture to attract public attention. The incomplete excerpts of an interview with a Muslim priest and generalisation of the behaviour of Muslims toward homosexuality cast Islam in an unfavourable light.
Referring to the much-publicised recent scuffle in Venlo, Abdel vents hisirritation, "More attention is given to the ethnicity of the perpetrator than the criminal act and this really sickens me." Nico supported Abdel by stating that the broad outlook existing decades ago had narrowed down. He asserted that sensational news was a subject that helped sell newspapers.
When asked about the harm in showing the pathetic part of Africa to the world, Thomas retaliated that bombardment of stereotypes reinforced certain ideas in the minds of the people. Describing the manner in which a story on the Liberian war boiled down to one showing the practice of voodoo, he illustrated the downplaying of news coverage by media. Pointing out a dwindling readership, deteriorating integrity and lack of independence, he reasoned, "Neutrality is an illusion," especially in this game of survival of the fittest.
To a question posed regarding the presence of an independent authority to monitor media in this era of globalisation, Thomas blasted out, "Tyrants and dictators don't go by public opinion, they rely on violence." They also conspire to use news coverage to feed the interests of certain influential persons. Therefore, an independent body would be of little help. And it would be difficult to achieve a frank and free press.
The discussion terminated with a provocative comment from a person in the audience, "The west serves as paradigm of globalisation to the rest of the world; when people from here migrate elsewhere, that's globalisation but when people from other parts of the world migrate to the west, they are considered immigrants. Why can't this be termed globalisation?" Is media manipulation the answer? Think about it!
