Rio:
Weekly interviews on relevant subjects to the Third Sector
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Better Food for the Soul |
On December 7, the II IVOH’S Dialog - Images and Voices of Hope took place
in the ISER/VIVA RIO. IVOH is a group that gathers professionals directed to
the analysis of values transmitted to the public by the media. During the
meeting, the results of an exploratory study led by group members were
presented. The study tried to evaluate the population expectations towards
communication media and what people would do if they were directors. 91
people in the city of Rio de Janeiro were interviewed and a negative image of
the media was revealed. Most of the respondents said their function was to
spread out the news, to inform and manipulate facts. The programs were
condemned due to their low quality and wrong values.
Nádia Rebouças, specialist in advertisement and publicity, member of the
National Council for Self-Regulation in the Advertisement Business (Conar),
professor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and member of the IVE, was in charge of
the data interpretation, together with André Trigueiro, journalist, IVE
member since its beginning, and moderator of the event on December 7.
In this interview, Nádia notes the lack of humanistic values in the
schools of communication. To her, professionals are not aware of the social
responsibility of the media, and only society mobilization will solve this
problem. “We receive information on everything, and the media needs to
rethink its role; society needs to rethink its role as well. The same way we
are conscious of the need to improve what we eat, choosing our food
carefully, we need to select the food for the soul and the heart – which are
the values, most of them coming from the media”, Nádia remarks.
Rets: Among the questions asked was: “what does media mean to you”? The
most frequent answers were “to inform”, “to release” and “to manipulate”,
“form opinion”. What’s your view of the role of the media today?
Nádia Rebouças: I believe it is not possible to think about any type of
media that does not influence society. The strength of communication is
immeasurable – it is a weapon that can be used for the good and for the evil.
One of today’s problems is that journalism has become a show. Some subjects
are more “profitable” than others, but not always the news bring the entire
story. The Richthofen case, for example, has become a soap opera, there is a
new chapter and new discussions each day. It seems that the media have the
power to direct society, and not the other way around. But given the power of
the media, it seems impossible not to be like that. The challenge is to know
what is its social responsibility, since the media has so much power. We must
ask how the future journalists are graduating, if they are aware of their
importance – not from an ego perspective, but from their responsibility.
Rets: How are the communication professionals reaching the job market?
Nádia Rebouças: The level of citizenship has increased in the society
since the impeachment of former president Collor. Children have more opinion.
I am not saying it is right or wrong, but there is more interest in a variety
of subjects. The academy is more active. At Conar, I am tired of judging
cases from individuals – they used to be corporate or from collective
organizations until recently. In sum, people are more critical and mobilized
nowadays.
The movement is similar to that of conscious consumption, more critical
each day on what it gets. The big question of our group is what type of
society we want to build. Knowing that advertisement, media, communication in
general, create patterns, we should then think carefully about what we do.
See the number of pregnant teenagers. What’s the responsibility of the media
in this phenomenon? It is necessary to question and revise the images
transmitted, including certain types of dance, tight clothes, etc.
Society has been losing the naiveness of thinking that it can watch
everything and nothing can be changed. We need to see communication under
this point-of-view. Decisions are much more serious than those considered by
the people in charge of communication. It is not enough to criticize or
report; we need to have clear thoughts on the role of the communicator today.
Another example is the drug dealer Fernandinho Beira-mar. With so much
exposition, we run the risk of transforming him into a hero, but I am not
sure that those editing the newspapers are aware of that.
The group intends to think and discuss these types of issues. The survey
ended up being done with people with some interest in the subject. Ideally,
we would like to make something bigger, but we do not have enough money.
However, I can see that even low-income people are tired of the current
media. Each type of media has a different responsibility, but TV has the
heaviest charge nowadays.
Rets: In the middle of so many critics, how do you see the media
credibility?
Nádia Rebouças: Its credibility is clearly declining. I don’t think people
believe that information is wrong. The problem resides in turning the news
into show, into exaggeration. Journalists should ask, “Am I doing with other
people what I would do to myself”? And they are not the only ones. The
advertisement people do that too. Sometime ago, in a sneakers’ ad, Xuxa
induced children to destroy their shoes so that they could get a new pair of
sneakers. In a country with 52 million people under the poverty line, this is
outrageous. This ad was sued and removed after a week. That is, it reached
the entire population, and I doubt that any father was happy with the
message. On the other hand, a clothing store had an ad in which a woman cut
her husband’s clothes to make him buy new ones in that store – nothing was
done against it or to stop it. Why does this happen? I don’t know, but these
cases indicate that we are at least more careful with children.
I’ve been using the example of the sneakers to illustrate my classes, in
the fight for social responsibility. Students are scared and this indicates a
more mature society. Nobody will stop making advertisement because of
academic critics, but when society starts complaining, then things will be
different. The survey points out an improved status: there is more concern
about the messages, the social vision is more active.
In the end, the logic is the same as with food. The same way that we
should be conscious about improving the quality of our meals, being more
selective in choosing our food, we need to be selective with the food of the
soul, of the heart – which are the values, most of them coming from the
media. We can already see new proposals, more concerned with “being” than
with “having”.
Rets: Talking about this stimulus to consume, how are the educational
values in the media? Are they meeting their constitutional obligation of
educating and giving value to the regional and national culture?
Nádia Rebouças: There is no yes or no answer to this question. There are
good and bad things, but on a daily basis, programs are getting worse. There
is a lot of erotic appeal and emphasis on consumption, even consumption of
people. The problem is not so much related to what is transmitted, but to the
way it is perceived and received by the audience, since Brazil has a number
of geographic and cultural differences. The first step is to perceive the
importance of such diversity. Then, work with the student and the
professional. The humanistic education leaves a lot of room for improvement.
It is necessary to understand the role of communication in this country, in
order to be able to communicate well. Hope resides on the fact that there is
a lot of talent hidden, talent that can bring new things, but there is still
not enough room.
Rets: What can be done to open up this space?
Nádia Rebouças: Working in Colleges. Professors are important in this
process. I dream about organizing a “Fourth Power Congress”. Next year (in
March, in Greece), there will be the Third World Meeting about Media for the
Children and Teenagers, and important values and issues will be discussed.
Society is suffering from an ethics crisis. We are building up new values and
the media are present in this process. Take the environmental issue, for
example. We often see articles on environmental disasters and ways for nature
conservancy.
But this is not something that the communication media can do by
themselves, it is an exchange between them and society. On the other hand, if
the media are not able to encourage and promote new attitudes, all this
effort will not be valid.
Rets: But couldn’t the media values be considered a mirror of society?
Nádia Rebouças: It is a reinforced mirror. The advertising agents are
usually accused of being the ones generating these values. We give answers
like “if we don’t do it like this, it won’t sell. People want to buy
fantasy.” However, if we look at the issue carefully, there are already
people selling products with models outside the beauty pattern. And this
applies to all sectors. It is necessary to react and avoid accommodating, try
to put ourselves into each other’s roles. We need to change the model to be
able to use the productive potential of the entire population. We receive
information on everything and the media need to rethink their role, as well
as society. The news on tragedies are immeasurable, but in some places the
amount of good news is so large that I wonder where I am. Then why can’t we
give this option? We are dealing with feelings, but the editors do not take
emotion into account. There is a lack of compassion. Journalists are
“created” to highlight facts, find new facts, but the importance of ethics is
not considered in most cases.
Rets: You talked a lot about the need to better educate future
professionals. But what can we do with today’s professionals?
Nádia Rebouças: They should look for congresses, seminars, etc. There
needs to be communication channels directed by people with a new mentality
and less hegemonic media with more jobs. It would also be interesting to have
public policies to assure a high quality of programs. In addition, it is
necessary to bring the discussion to society and create a critical mass that
do not answer that media are only information. This is our task at the IVE –
the idea is to create new channels. We know that the change is slow, but
people should perceive it.
Rets: In some moments you compared communication to food. Would it be
interesting to work on a “Zero Hunger” type of program for the media?
Nádia Rebouças: Yes, it would be interesting – and it will be done
someday. But some programs will only end when society changes – and it is
under a changing process. In the 80s, the program “Malu Mulher” brought the
image of a new woman, that society needed to accept. The soap operas are
showing black people marrying white people, homosexuals and more recently,
the problems of drug users. These issues are still “taboos”, but each time
they come up, they force society to think about them. The part of the media
that is aware of its power of influencing society needs to identify
opportunities to educate in the soap opera. There is still a lack of
perception that no news is the truth, but part of a history – there are
special cases, and not paradigms.
Rets: What are the next steps of IVOH?
Nádia Rebouças: We will meet to implement some projects. We are a
multi-discipline group and we will start with the Children’s Group. The most
important is that we get together and find space in the press to value good
ideas. Human beings are too complex to be able to judge from the news,
especially when these have become “shows”.
The Opinion of André Trigueiro |
Journalist André Trigueiro has been part of the IVOH since the
beginning of activities of this movement. In this interview, he
highlights the importance of press and journalism credibility, and
the consequences that current media values have to this concept. He
says: “Our role is to fight for education with quality for all,
ethics and citizenship.”
Rets: One of the questions asked in the survey was: “what does media
mean to you”? The most frequent answers were “to inform”, “to release” and “to
manipulate”, “to form opinion”. Is this a stereotype or are media really
manipulating the population while informing?
André Trigueiro: The media contents do not reflect what we
conventionally call reality, but a view of reality, instead. This
understanding requires that readers, listeners, TV watchers and internet users
keep a vigilant position absolutely necessary to correctly understand the
news. It is necessary to be less innocent and more conscious of the process of
making the news. To form opinion is one of the attributions of the press, when
it opens space to writers, reporters, and lobbyists. To report irregularities
and point out solutions for daily problems are other important attributions.
Like human beings, the media are not perfect, and require some adjustments. In
my opinion, the true manipulation happens in the content of publicity, in the
consumer appeals, in the alchemy of sounds and images that produce a
compulsive desire of buying. This is manipulation.
Rets: In what sense does this affect the reliability of the media?
André Trigueiro: The media have various fronts. I respond for my
area, which is journalism. Credibility is the largest asset of a journalist.
Each communication means has its own target public, a segment of the
population that is strategically sought. This relationship needs to be as
truthful as possible, establishing a trustful relationship. Any failure in the
process leads to loss of credibility, which is the worst nightmare for a press
professional. The fact is that there are different types of media for
different categories of readers, web users, and spectators. Sensational
contents attract some and retract others. What sounds aggressive to one
person, may sound like music to others. The human family is an immense
patchwork in which each piece brings a different color. Our role is to defend
education with quality for all, ethics and citizenship.
Rets: Media have the constitutional obligation to take care of
information and education of the population. Has this duty been fulfilled? Do
citizens consider that the media have been transmitting good values?
André Trigueiro: I believe that the media, in general, have been
abusing of violent contents, valuing the agenda of wars, crimes, and chaos. I
don´t think this happens on purpose, but due to ignorance. Most of the times,
this is supported by the false assumption that violence attracts more
attention, sell more and gets more audience. It is necessary to revert this
trend. Show violence without being violent. And find out a positive agenda
that helps society to position itself clearly in relation to facts that bring
uneasiness. It is urgent to call the attention of media professionals to the
impact of each word, each image, in the emotional universe of the great
audience. It is necessary to be careful and not to induce the audience to
disbelieve the present world in a way that is no longer worth working for
peace, love, health and citizenship. If media are really the 4th power, it is
necessary to use this power with wisdom and discernment. Humanity lives a
moment of crisis, basically a crisis of values, and what is expected from the
media in periods like these is the signaling of paths in search of new
paradigms that can sustain the civilization in the third millennium.
Rets: A lot of answers highlighted the commercial side of the media,
leaving other important aspects aside. Is there an exaggeration of the media
in this sense?
André Trigueiro: Credibility is at stake. If a certain communication
means is “commited” and avoid coverage of a certain issue for commercial
reasons, the risk of becoming disbelieved is enormous. The communication
company that searches for credibility needs to avoid this type of trap and try
to act with exemption. In democratic regimes, in which press is free, there
are no forbidden issues. What one means does not cover, the other means can go
and give it extra coverage. And make good revenues while the competitor does
not move. And this is a very competitive market.
Rets: In relation to the question of what could be done about the
role of directors/interviewers, the majority affirmed that they would make
changes. At the same time, the audience of the programs that have been
criticized is growing. How can we interpret this contradiction?
André Trigueiro: There is a morbid side of human beings that leads
us, for example, to be willing to see a corpse in the street. Or when we zap
through the TV channels, we stop at programs that show terrible facts or
deformed creatures that become attractions in circuses. It is hard, in a
survey, to admit and recognize this type of behavior. It is our ugly side that
criticizes in public and recognizes it at home. That is how humanity evolves.
Consciousness grows faster than attitude.
Rets: The values that the media transmit do not seem to be ideal for
the people interviewed. However, can’t the media be considered a mirror of
society?
André Trigueiro: The media are us. We, professionals who are
inserted in the media. We that consume the contents of the media. If we are
not perfect, the media are not perfect. I repeat what I said: the cruelest
part of this process, in my opinion, happens in the appeals to consumerism.
The report “Perspectives about the children and the media” published by UNESCO
this year brings information about the eagerness with which the media agencies
attract children, still without any defense. The values of publicity are “you
are what you have”, “you are what you can buy”. This destroys our perception
of the world and the meaning of life. Before being a consumer, I am a citizen.
Am I less human if I don’t have a bank account, car and cellular phone? Am I
less human if I don’t have credit cards?
Rets: The media image seems to be very negative. What can
communication media do to improve this perception? How should communicators
receive the conclusions of the survey?
André Trigueiro: First of all, it is good to see what type of
responsibility the respondents think the media should have. I say that because
many times some burdens are attributed to the media without belonging to them.
A good education, for example. Basic health notions, for example. Values of
citizenship, for example. Media can be important tools in disseminating
positive values, but we must separate their role from that of other social
agents. I am optimistic. IVOH intends to alert professionals about our work,
about the need to rethink violent contents and search for new realities in
which positive aspects can deserve more attention. I am involved with this
movement. I am doing my part.
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