Zawaya

The media: showing more love and less blood

By: Saloua Charfi

The media do not create information only. They also – and above all – create values that are communicated through pure information.

The media are an effective means to instill new behavior and attitudes that fit easily into the dominant culture; hence the need to use the media in order to spread positive values.

In our media world that is excessively dominated by images of terror and death, we are in dire need of a humanistic culture of solidarity and mutual assistance.

Most media channels allocate a few days in their agendas to raise awareness about worthy causes, such as the damages of smoking, or major diseases. They even serve as a medium for donors.

This task, however, has become a heavy duty to perform instead of being a conviction to pursue, since these programs are cyclical and only follow the national or international official agendas, which is not likely to entrench these values in people’s daily behaviors.

To achieve this, we must insist on at least two aspects: the duration through systematization, and the use of marketing techniques that can embed these values in people’s mores.

Messages must be implicitly communicated through several programs (a recurrence or transversal technique) ranging from TV newscasts to fiction, including variety and game shows that can feature some questions related to these human causes.

The techniques of seduction should be used, but not in the negative sense through feelings of pity and guilt, nor in the sensational sense by revealing raw and shocking truths about some diseases or poverty.

Art, with its symbolic expression, can play this role.

Artists can raise awareness about the most terrible evils in a gentle way.

A Maghreb channel called Nesma TV, for instance, has allocated a week for Palestine without displaying any violent images. The channel broadcasted movies showing the daily lives of Palestinians with their virtues, weaknesses and problems like any other country in the world; painters presented their works of art for the sake of art; and musicians who have been successful worldwide shared their experiences.

That way, the channel spared us the slogans, wooden language, and violence, to show us the purely human side of the Palestinian people.

Religious values are also an effective means of persuasion.

Instead of instrumentalizing them in order to kill each other, we can put religious values in the service of solidarity and peace.

That is actually their primary function.

History is also a solid element.

Every nation has in its history some great moments when unity and mutual assistance were exalted. These moments should be revived in fiction.

We can encourage artists – the new opinion leaders – to talk in variety shows about their charity work and commitments, instead of only asking them questions about their private lives, which is unhealthy sometimes.

In sum, don’t show too much but show meaningful things; show less blood and more love.