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By
Dr. Walid Abdelnasser
Introduction:
Civilizational diversity is a constructive and enriching force in the long
march of humanity, rather than a cause for division and confrontation. The
dialogue among civilizations, therefore, reaffirms the rights of both to
be “different” and to be “equal” simultaneously. It aims at bringing about
a deeper mutual understanding among peoples belonging to different
civilizations by increasing their knowledge of each other’s ideals, value
systems, motivations and ways of thinking and ways of life. As an ongoing
and peaceful process, such dialogue is based on tolerance and mutual
respect, and requires from all participants to engage in it on an equal
footing and to listen carefully to each other’s viewpoints.
The dialogue among civilizations will help avoid misunderstandings and
distrust among different groups of people, and to solve current humanity's
economic, social, humanitarian, cultural and political problems by sharing
experiences on the national, sub-regional, regional, inter-regional and
international levels.
The Role of the Media:
Since the media play an important role in shaping pubic opinion, they have
great potential to facilitate the dialogue among civilizations by
expanding the public’s knowledge about the belief systems and the
practices of other cultural, religious, ethnic, and social groups. This
potential, however, is not automatically realized, as the media operate
under various constraints, such as financial limitations and strong
competition, commercial marketing considerations, ideological biases on
the part of individual media, a public demand for sensational and “exotic”
news, or a growing demand for visual material. These constraints, more
often than not, lead to a shortsighted, one-dimensional, stereotypical,
and biased coverage of events in other cultures.
Media professionals should become more aware of the vital role that the
media play in informing the public and its potential to foster justice,
peace and mutual respect among different cultural, religious, ethnic and
social groups, nationally and internationally. Individual newsmakers
should constantly reflect upon their own level of objectivity and
tolerance in choosing a subject to report and the style and words in which
to do so.
Similar to conventional media, the so-called new media and new information
and communication technologies embody a huge potential to facilitate
dialogue among civilizations. The internet, in particular, offers
individuals the opportunity to easily communicate with members of other
cultural and social groups irrespective of national or other borders.
These new forms of media contribute greatly to increased, diversified and
decentralized information flows. New technological developments have made
it possible to establish connections among mobile telephones, televisions,
personal computers, and other electronic devices. This wireless and
satellite technology can be used to partly substitute for – but not fully
replace - conventional communication infrastructure, allowing developing
countries to “leapfrog” technological developments.
However, it needs to be clearly stated that access to new information and
communication technology is not evenly spread around the world. Most
internet users, and hosts, are located in western developed capitalist
industrialized countries. To realize the potential of new technologies for
dialogues among civilizations, more efforts will have to be made to remedy
this imbalance. Language also constitutes an obstacle to the full
realization of the potential of new communication technologies for an
improved dialogue among civilizations. The dominant language on the
internet is English, which represents the native language of only a small
proportion of the world population. More linguistic variety in terms of
internet content, better, cheaper and possibly automated translation
services, along with a greater emphasis on foreign language education,
will help lower the language barrier to a successful dialogue among
civilizations.
Despite what was mentioned earlier about the role of new forms of media in
facilitating dialogue among civilizations, it remains to be true that in
inter-civilizational dialogue, face-to-face direct communication serves as
the best tool to rectify distorted, stereotypical views about other groups
of people or events in other cultures, formed on the basis of information
received indirectly, e.g. through the media. Face-to-face communication
will also remain of primary significance in fostering greater mutual
understanding among different cultures and civilizations in our
contemporary world. Although new information technologies cannot replace
face-to-face direct communication, it can be used as a tool to promote
more direct forms of interchange, as it offers opportunities for direct
communication between individuals in widely dispersed locations.
Dialogues among civilizations .. The lessons from
history:
Historical observation proves that, in the past, the media have
contributed to a better understanding among various cultures, as can be
seen, for example, in the role the media played in the establishment of
international humanitarian organizations such as the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). On the other hand, the media have also
contributed to ethnic, religious or other conflicts among as well as
within countries and peoples by serving as instruments of propaganda or
acting as elements of incitement and hatred for parties to the conflict.
History also reveals that media coverage of a particular culture
occasionally tends to move in a pendular type of movement, varying between
stereotypical and sensational coverage, and a style or reporting that pays
more attention to the “normal” and “ordinary” than the “exceptional” and
“extraordinary”.
History highlights the importance for newsmakers to report and analyze the
similarities among different cultures and civilizations along with the
dissimilarities, in order to promote a better mutual understanding, and
with it, the basis for fruitful dialogue. To do so, they should have a
profound understanding of their own cultural background in order to draw
proper comparisons and fairly evaluate features of and events taking place
in other cultural settings.
Multicultural society and civilizational
transformation:
Examples from various parts of the world show that the media can both
facilitate and obstruct intercultural dialogue in multicultural societies.
In some cases, the media have played an important role in enabling a
better understanding among local groups belonging to different identities,
ideological frames of reference and value systems by giving them room to
report on specific ethnic, linguistic, cultural and/or religious matters
while simultaneously disclosing what they share in common. In other cases,
however, media catering to specific ethnic, cultural, linguistic or
religious groups have created or reinforced an “image of categorization”,
according to which individuals develop a strong identification with their
own ethnicity, culture, language or religion and an antagonism towards the
"other". This process can lead, as it has done in the recent past and
continues to do, to violent clashes between members belonging to different
ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious groups.
Reporting on cultural diversity within a single country is best served by
media pluralism, giving room to the expression of the diversity of
viewpoints that co-exist within this society. Multicultural countries
which currently lack a sufficiently diversified and transparent media
network are entitled, if their governments deem it necessary to request
and consequently receive assistance from the international community in
order to increase the number of news sources, including, but not limited
to, public service broadcasting. Apart from national television stations,
newspapers and other media catering to the whole country, local news
providers can also play a positive role in fostering tolerance among
different ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious groups in one region
within this country. Local multi-media centers, where citizens can have
equal access to information and work together on equal footing to found
media programs irrespective of their cultural group affiliation, are
another positive element in promoting intercivilizational dialogue.
Regulatory bodies, which set and monitor minimum standards of fair and
just broadcasting, should particularly exist in developed countries which
control the bulk of news providers and networks.
Perspectives from the Third World:
The history of media coverage on the third world in western countries –
and vice versa – illustrates how paying excessive attention to the
differences among cultures and civilizations, rather than focusing on what
they share in common, results in over-simplified distinctions between “the
East” and “the West”. Such a view not only ignores cultural and other
commonalties between these regions, but also completely disregards the
differences among sub-cultures and sub-civilizations under the same
cultural or civilizational umbrella or paradigm. This spirit contradicts
the very essence of the call for dialogue among civilizations, which
strives to recognize diversity within unity. Unfortunately, in general
such an overly simplified categorization of civilizations continues. Media
still occasionally apply the hierarchical, and dichotomous rhetoric of
orientalism and colonialism in their coverage.
A number of examples can be found in the Third World where audience are
provided with a chance to see for themselves how members of other cultures
perceive world events. For example, television viewers in some countries
in the south can watch news programs from a variety of countries on a
daily basis. In some cases, a national newspaper from a Third World
country would produce a newspaper in a joint venture with an international
paper from a developed country. Occasionally, the joint paper may carry
articles on the same news item which appeared in the two original papers,
thereby presenting its readers with different perspectives on the same
“reality” and encouraging them to think critically everyday.
Alternatively, newspapers from Third World countries may produce an
international edition that is printed in a developed country to provide a
different perspective on events in this country, its region as well as in
the world at large. A third possibility that materialized in reality has
been to have a newspaper from the Third World producing periodic (weekly,
bimonthly or monthly) newspapers in foreign languages, mainly English or
French, to express views pertaining to the members of this culture or
civilization on domestic, regional and international events, in an attempt
to counterweight the prevailing value loaded western-originated coverage
of the same events. An example in this respect is AlAhram daily newspaper
of Egypt.
The south is a diverse region not only in terms of ethnicity, culture,
religion, or poltiical systems, but also in languages. However, the
majority of news about the south is produced in English and by foreign
correspondents who, quite naturally, make their judgments based on their
own cultural backgrounds. In order to better reflect the diversity of
“native” viewpoints on events taking place in countries of the south, more
reporting in English should be done by journalists from the south and who,
at least, have lived a good part of their life there. This will not only
serve to better communicate the diversity of the south and the truth about
its reality, at least from the perspective of its peoples, to the
international community, but will also promote mutual understanding among
members belonging to different cultures within the Third World.
This effort will be greatly facilitated by increased cooperation among
media in the south, including exchange of information among media from
different parts of the south from their “native” perspectives on a regular
basis, as well as encouraging other types of similar media cooperation and
exchange arrangements.
Globalization of the media and cultural
diversity:
Over the past decades, a worldwide process of consolidation among the
media has taken place. One of the results of this process has been the
establishment of news services operating on a global scale, with their
news programs available in a similar format in almost every corner of the
world. On the other hand, however, the consolidation of media enterprises
has been characterized by value loaded biases, mostly against cultures and
civilizations of the Third World. The main reason of such adverse
development has been the fact that this consolidation process
predominantly took place in the developed Western countries.
The globalization of media does not, therefore, necessarily have to be
interpreted as a vehicle for the globalization of value systems, i.e. an
increasingly common perception of reality among members of all cultures.
Some media certainly try to do just that. Some do it out of
internationalist or humanitarian considerations, while others do it out of
plans os achieving hegemony by one culture or civilization, which they
believe, or claim, to be superior to others as they believe in a
pyramidical hierarchy of civilizations and cultures Other media, on the
contrary, perceive their role as promoters of particular cultural values,
which are frequently identified with specific territorial boundaries.
Among the latter, there are those that give no room to viewpoints other
than those of the culture they want to promote, while some may be open at
least to a search for solutions to similar problems on a global level.
More conducive to the dialogue among civilizations are media which through
their coverage of news events involving members of other cultural groups
try to emphasize the existence of some common ground, of basic ideas
shared by members of all civilizations within the cultural diversity and
pluralism which characterize humanity today. This type of news coverage
and feature articles or programs would encourage readers and audience to
comprehend, respect and appreciate the particularities of different
cultures in their locality, country, region and the world, by presenting
such cultures with close reference to the respective “native” value
systems and cultural parameters. At the same time, they would give room to
showing the commonalities, shared values, customs, ways of life that exist
across cultural boundaries, thereby eventually enabling the establishment
of some common frames of reference in some areas – as opposed to universal
values – among the members of different civilizations.
To play this role of a facilitator of inter-civilizational dialogue
effectively, the media will have to cooperate more closely among
themselves, at the local, national, regional and international levels.
Such cooperation may include:
- exchange programs among journalists. These would not only give
journalists a chance to broaden their personal perspectives by
experiencing different styles of journalism while reporting back to their
home institutions, but will involve them actively in the work of their
hosts;
- an exchange of media content (television programs, newspaper and
magazine articles, website content … etc) to encourage direct exposure of
readers and audience to other cultural perspectives;
- the consideration of the possibilities and feasibilities of joint
production of media content, which will foster the identification of
common denominators among different cultures and civilizations.
Sub-regional, regional, inter-regional and international organizations
should render support in all forms to the development and implementation
of such cooperation.
The importance of education:
The final interpretation of any kind of information is made by the
individual recipient. Sufficient attention should, therefore, be paid to
the education of each individual citizen of the world, so that she or he
can appropriately filter and evaluate information. New information and
communication technologies in particular lend themselves easily to the
polarization of ideas by providing channels to disseminate biased versions
of reality. Education should be aimed at equipping individuals with the
skills and knowledge necessary to think critically for themselves.
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