|
WHY JOURNALISM EVENINGS?
One doesn't need to be George Soros to realize that capital presents the most
severe threat to journalism.The political influence that so many are afraid of
now is actually something that belonged to the era of industrialization, electrification
and heavy industry. In a time when multinational corporations dictate to the political elites
what policies they should implement, the media are inhabited by a good many exporters of democracy,
moralizing fundamentalists, more or less hidden nationalists, public relation consultants,
advertisers, and biased pamfleteers. Their truth is the circulation of capital.
There are two controversial myths about journalism that haunt Slovenia in these days.
The first is the one about the lost old times when journalism was still responsible,
still of high repute. But if one turns to the past and attempts to locate the object
of fascination that the believers of this myth are pursuing, one soon finds that this
object was always-already lost; except if one is to look for the golden age of journalism
in the era of "socialism with a human face", i.e. the era when journalists throughout Slovenia
(rare exceptions were to be found among enthusiasts at Radio Student, Mladina magazine, Tribuna
and Katedra student-run newspapers) dutifullly performed their socio-political vocation; i.e. their
task of not only reporting on but also creating the (better, socialist) reality.
However, this myth of the lost object that we have never really possessed is not only characteristic
of Slovenia but is a prevailing discourse on journalism all over the world. Also in the world's
forge of democracy journalism workers strive for Pulitzer prizes and speak highly about the bright
traditions of their profession. Nevertheless, hardly anyone mentions that this respectable gentleman,
whose name stands for one of the world's most representative journalism awards, was the one who,
together with Citizen Hearst, was responsible for the birth of the most vulgar yellow journalism.
In the "golden age" of American journalism, nothing was too low to be exploited by these two
"legends" to defeat the competition in the bloody battle for domination of the newspaper market.
Nevertheless, the fall of socialism brought about quite a few good things for Slovenian journalism:
a number of the values and dogmas once held so sacredly simply vanished. In other words,
the breakdown of socialism generated normal conditions, the ideal frame of reference, where there
was no value to be taken for granted and no sacred truth to be trusted.
The reaction to this newly-born "irresponsibility" of journalism has generated yet another
myth of journalism, the myth concerning now the popular non-concept: the "transition"
(and "countries in transition"). According to this myth, journalism in Slovenia
(as well as all the other domains of human action and creativity) is still burdened with
the socialist past and must carve its way to reach the bright capitalist future, new sacred
truths, and irrefutable (market-economy driven, Christian-fundamentalist and vulgarly-utilitarian)
values.
Unfortunately, a great number of Slovenian journalists reached this new objective even before
they set out on the thorny journey of "transition". But some of them have been left in-between,
and it is these that should be "helped" never to reach this new sacred goal. If our Journalism
Evenings under the patronage of one of the multinational corporations, Soros' Open Society Fund,
can be of any help, they are worth the money that is spent on them. Or, to paraphrase the old
revolutionary saying:
"With capital against capital!"
|