How much and in what way is the culture presented in the media?
I attended the round table on online journalism in Croatia that was held in the first part of March in Zagreb. The round table opened the discussion about the crisis of the traditional written media which are going through the transition provoked by high commercialisation and governed in that sense the main logic became the logic of acquisition of profit. The product of this logic is the culture of scandals and sensationalism and formed in that way, offline media spaces are undermining public spaces for thinking, discussion and participation.
However, thanks to digital network environment this power of media is partly minimised. Online space offers potential for defining new social spaces, but also for redefining journalism. Numerous virtual platforms (websites, portals, blogs, forums, social networks etc.) provide freedom of communication and faster and easier punching into information for citizens which is coming from various sources: public, private or third sector, individual, informal groups, initiatives etc. Each individual can now communicate and communication with other individuals is unfettered. Anyone can produce, share and participate in the discussion and bring opinions, ideas and attitudes without any control or fear of losing job or being censored. In such manner the new possibilities for the citizens’ journalism is opening.
All what I’ve stated bellow forces me once again to re-think the position of the culture in Croatian media and to think about ways culture is presented in traditional, both written and electronic (radio and television) media in Croatia. Culture sections are in majority of daily newspapers eliminated or reduced to a minimal level and articles are often motivated by scandals, spectacles or sensationalism. Croatian public television has for many years only few shows which follow the filed of culture and arts but their broadcasting time is in extremely inadequately scheduled. Other commercial televisions regard culture only from the aspect of scandal and only then they open their doors. Radio stations are equally poisoned with the similar approach but at least Third programme of the Croatian Radio and daily culture shows on Radio 101, local radio station in Zagreb region, still bravely defend the filed of culture. As to the specialised magazines in Croatia they are surviving with difficulties, appearing occasionally, some are being turned off while other are reappearing and due to the poor distribution chain it is difficult to reach them out of Zagreb, capital of the country. Already this short overview on the representation of the culture and arts in the Croatian media sounds scary and unfortunately I am sure that the deep analyse would give us even more horrifying results.
For these reasons, cultural and artistic practices are more and more present in the virtual world (through the websites, portals, blogs etc). Network Clubture based in Zagreb, where I work since 2005, for the lack of presence of the independent and contemporary culture in Croatia media, decided to launch the portal Kulturpunkt in order to create a space which will continuously present this dynamic filed of culture. Next to this portal, in the last few years many other portals and blogs for film, theatre, literature, fine arts etc. started appearing. However today they offer the best overview of the Croatian culture and repeal extremely unsatisfactory presence of culture and artistic praxis in the traditional media.
As I know, the situation in other post-socialist, post-transition countries of the Western Balkans are not too much better. But I would like to know how the situation is in other European countries. What are your experiences? Who and where is writing about your cultural and artistic events which you are organising? What is the quality of articles? Is there a critical and analytical approach to these journalistic articles, contributions, reports? Are traditional media in your countries also in the crises? Are the media presentations of culture and arts also transferring into the virtual space which is still free and lives without pressure of the commercial logic? Please write and give us your comments, I am sure that all of us want to hear your experiences and thoughts.
Tagged as:
culture, digital culture, media, off-line, online, virtual space
LabforCulture is a partner initiative of the European Cultural Foundation. LabforCulture is grateful for the support provided by its funders.
My field of expertise is culture, art and history of the Arab world. This limited field offers maybe the best examples of sensationalist media coverage. Cultural matters from this region only reaches the European media if it can in some way be connected to sensationalist stereotyping. Any attempt to counter this by means of solid information seems to be systematically blocked, as my own as well as other colleagues' experiences show. It is almost impossible to publish any diverse views in traditional media. The reason given for this lack of interest is usually that it is "irrelevant" and "not interesting for the public". However, on the occasion of events I am often asked by members of this supposedly uninterested public why I do not publish anything. It seems that media responsibles are somewhat out of touch with their public.
I am convinced that the case is similar in other fields. Much of the media crisis is grounded in a reluctance of media producers to live up to their traditional role of public information service. Instead, cheap scandal is offered and the public turns towards new and independent media such as on-line publishing. And traditional media answers with denigration tactics, such as accusing independent on-line publishers of the same sensationalism and lack of journalistic training. Unless they re-think their strategies and the role they want to take up in future this crisis will lead to the death of traditional media.
Charlotte Bank
www.zakharif.eu
Anonymous User | 22 mar 2009