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Images and Voices of Hope conversation entails reflection on ethics and awareness in advertisingOn April 6, 2002 about 40 people gathered in the headquarters of Brahma Kumaris in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the conversation Images and Voices of Hope (IVOH) - advertising creating a better world. Among participants were advertising professionals, photographers, graphic designers, directors of creation, owners of agencies, entrepreneurs, professionals of the third sector, editors and journalists. The event was a global initiative of Brahma Kumaris, Visions for a Better World Foundation and SIGMA - Social Innovations in Global Management, in partnership with the Media for Peace Movement (www.midiadapaz.org), Renata Castello Branco Studio, Giacometti Advertising, Full Jazz Communication, Perspective, Live and Let Live Association, Plural Community and Anima Planning and Image. Ken O'Donnell, organizational consultant and director of Brahma Kumaris for Latin America, and Rosa Alegria, consultant and coordinator of the Media for Peace Movement, facilitated the dialog using the method Appreciative Inquiry created by David Cooperrider of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. This method leaves aside the deficient discourse that permeates society and invites the participants to explore what is best in their lives and work. A process developed in four key phases: discovery, dream, design and destiny. Through interviews in pairs, chats in groups of four and open forum 5 questions previously formulated by the facilitators were worked at. (1) Recall a moment in which your self-image mobilized you positively. How was it?, (2) Recall a creative moment in your carreer which contributed for a better world. How was it? (3) Describe instances of comercial advertisement that have contributed for a better world. Why? (4) The better world requires new patterns of consumption. How does the force of advertising can contribute to this change? (5) How to translate the yearnings of the sector to make your contribution for a better world stronger? The appreciative process made emerge from the group the following discoveries, dreams and proposals of practical action: DiscoveriesUnfortunately advertising professionals still are ashamed of the good.
The human side of the consumer is subestimated when we think that we need to be appealing or explicit to sell. In this point, agencies as well as clients are making a mistake. Advertisement needs humour and lightness. To get a smile out of someone that is watching TV is already a big thing. Yes, it is possible to advertise with humour, that creates empathy with the product and consequently with the public. There is a very thin line between making a piece of advertisement that really takes the public to think and react with humour and make a piece of advertisement that is gross, that goes away from its initial objective and ends up being aggressive. Advertisement can and should contribute for the self-esteem of all. My dream is not a solitary dream. There are millions of people who dream my dream and want what I want and we can, therefore, make it together. Advertisement has to make the qualities of the consumer come to surface. Words and images have the power to construct or destroy. Each one of us can do good to people and the world through positive images and words. It begings with me. If I want peace I have to be peace. If I want a better world I have to be this. The values of simplicity and authenticity, as well as the transmission of a concept of peace in daily action are necessary in comunication. Dream"The purpose of a dream is to empower the present". Ken O'Donnell Valdir Cimino, founding director of Live and Let Live Association, that woks with children in terminal state, gave the following report about the strength of a dream. "When we asked the families of some children of 8/9 years old that they didn't know how to write, we had, as an imediate answer: he is going to die, he doesn't need a school. It was the adult cutting out the vision or future of the child. From this point on - and we are working for three years already - we decided to ask to the children what they want to be in the future, mainly those in terminal state. Until April 11th, 2001, there was individual will: I want to be a nurse. From the 11th on the focus shifted to the colective (and the media influenced a lot) I want a better world, I want a world with more flowers. A child even drew the two towers of WTC and wrote: I would like the World Trade Center to be constructed with more love. In a simple act we can fuel the dream of a child with cancer and even HIV. She has the right to the future and has the right to put this dream into action." Proposals of practical action
IVOH (www.ivofhope.org) is a global conversation about the impact of images and messages in the lives of people. It was lauched in New York in 1999 and since then 26 events occurred in various parts of the world. Aiming to give continuity to the dialog started on April 6 in Sao Paulo, Brasil, a new meeting is being set soon. More information through the phones 11-3864-3694 and 11-3864-2639 or e-mail saopaulo@bkumaris.com.br Brahma Kumaris (www.bkwsu.com) is an international non profitable, non-governmental organization that works for a positive change in human beings and society. It has general consultive status in the Economic and Social Council of United Nations. It received 7 prizes "Messenger of Peace" from the UN. January 25, 2002 Hope in images and wordsThink about today as the opening of a dialogue, not an event. A dialog for us to realize that it is possible to do something to change reality. We, from the media, have a relation to what we create. There is a social construction through language. Social changes can come from public conversations. Action is only possible when there is relationship. Transformation will always come from periphery to the centre. What moves this project is the idea that the world needs a new history. The prevailing history - that of the world as a business opportunity - is a very reduced history. Opening discourse by Judy Rogers, general coordinator of Images and Voices of Hope, in the opening event of the movement in Rio de Janeiro In 1999, more precisely in June, about 400 people connected to the area of communication, art and media in the United States got together at the Fashion Institute of Technology to launch an international dialogue on the impact of public images and messages in society. There, Images and Voices of Hope (IVOH) took birth, internationaly coordinated by the north-american Judy Rogers - ex CBS/Fox Video, ex-20th Century Fox among other vehicles - in an initiative of Brahma Kumaris Organization. The movement defines itself as "a global conversation on the impact of images and messages in the life of people." Practically, IVOH consists in a series of events around the world in which influential people in any vehicle and communication means get together to dialogue about what they can change for the better inside the vehicles in which they work and in the materials that these transmit. Or, as explains Ana Lucia Oliveira, responsible for the iniciative in Rio de Janeiro, "our proposal is dialogue, it is to touch people and lead them to have na atitude in relation to what they are doing, inside their possibilities." IVOH came officially to Brazil in November 24 last year, through a dialogue-meeting held in Rio de Janeiro, with the participation of Judy Rogers. Although, according to the national coordinator of Brahma Kumaris, Luciana Ferraz, some work in this direction was already being done, especially in Sao Paulo, with meetings that dealt with themes similar to those treated in IVOH conversations. Those were called "Communication Encounters", began in 1998 and they reached a public that varied from 8 to 50 professionals per meeting. Worldwide there have already been more 25 official meetings of Images and Voices of Hope. The most recent happened on the 25th of January in Miami, Florida, USA. Besides these bigger events, there is also meetings of maintenance and updating of concrete activities that each group of people is leading, which are not accounted. In the dialogues, the method of Appreciative Inquiry created by David Cooperrider of the Case Western Reserve University and fundamented in interviews that try to understand what gives more life to people and organizations is always used. If we consider that the press has a social function - as long as the common citizen takes what is published not only as truth, but as a referential for his daily life - this discussion about relaying pieces that bring a positive message or that emphasize iniciatives with positive results for the majority of society is still more valid. With the recent happenings - that go from terrorist atacks to economic crises in a worldwide scale, passing through unnending ethnical wars - news about such facts dominate papers, TVs and even publicity. However, what Images and Voices of Hope wants is to call attention to the fact that a counterpoint exists, good news exist and they only need to win space in the communication vehicles so the general population can know them. The choice of IVOH in bringing together journalists, advertisement people, radio and TV technitians and other professionals in those areas is strategical. Touching those people there is a big possibility that changes begin to occur in information vehicles and, therefore, in that which the public receives from these vehicles. It is important to emphasize that there is a difference between manipulating the information and making editorial choices that also give space to positive news. A good example of the atitude in this line was reported by journalist Andre Trigueiro, anchormen of GloboNews at the inaugural encounter of november 24th: Andre told that in TV Globo's newsroom, they received a photograph of the middle east that originally came without a text. It appeared to be a palestine soldier pushing an israeli youth. Initially his colleagues in the programming department jumped to the "obvious" conclusion that the soldier was pushing the boy. Some hours later the text showed up explaining that the soldier was protecting the boy from an explosion that occurred nearby. In cases as the one above related, what IVOH wants is to stimulate that precisely the good actions that stay hidden behind the predominance of bad news and daily urgencies of the newsrooms be emphasized. At the meeting of November 24th some definitions were drawn regarding to action in national communication media. A core-group was formed, which will serve as a reference for the continuity of the projects. In the field of concrete proposals, the possibility of creating a news agency which would organized and distributed positive guide lines and informations, rising subjects that meet with what the group understands as "necessary", "ethical" and "responsible". Thus, we intend to end with one of the main reasons given for this kind of information not be transmited: the reason that they do not reach the newsrooms of the big press. It was also suggested the creation of a methodology that served as basis for a periodical research that calibrate the contents of the media and spaces that are opened for the target news of the moment. "The group defended the right (in fact, the duty) of the press to denounce, alert and inform without censorship the news that are eventually not good. The problem is in abusing the resources of word and image to emphasize aspects of these information that end up reverberating in a negative way in the reader / listener / tv spectator", related Andre Trigueiro in a meeting after the 24th. Besides that, IVOH won as a partner the sites of "Cia da Boa Noticia" and "Midia da Paz", which have similar proposals and intend to lend mutual support, being together in the organization of events and other strategies to amplify the idea of IVOH. Judging by the mobilization and effect that the meetings have had in participants, the iniciative has everything to reach its objectives. Muniz Sodre, writer and Professor of Journalism at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), said about the events: "It is imperative today to exchange the sour and miserable vision of things for an affirmative attitute of life. The media should convert itself in an ethical catalyser of hope". Journalist Gabriela Mafort agrees and also considers "fundamental the initiative, as a first kick to discuss the role of media in Brasil and important for us to get out of the marasmus and come into question what are the consequences of our work in the lives of people." The national coordinator of Brahma Kumaris expressed her satisfaction whith the engagement of the participants: "I think the biggest attainment until now is the growing number of journalists and other media professionals interested in the idea and a growing number of other initiatives taking birth in various parts of the country with the same concern". Nevertheless, there are still challenges and obstacles to be transposed. One of them, reminded by Gabriela Maffort, is the resistency of professional from this milieu to reflexion, besides the effective lack of time, due to the profile of journalistic work. Nevertheless the biggest clallenges still is to reach the big media. According to Brigida Fries, representative of Brahma Kumaris in Sao Paulo, the challenges are to sensibilize the owners of the vehicles of communication to give more space for transforming actions and facts; show that the divulgation of what is being done of good brings economical return: "There is a public interested in this. This has also been pointed in various researches - many people are already fed up with the banalization of violence. Desmystify the idea that to emphasize the positive is to censure the negative. Both forces are acting, therefore, both has to be reported, but with balance, ethics and responsability". Even embryologically the organizers of the movement in Brazil are still making efforts and intend to soon reach all the objectives of the movement in an attitude well synthetize by Ana Lucia: "We have a dream. And we believe in it."
The Dialogue Images and Voices of Hope in Rio de Janeiro gathers communicators to work towards a more positive mediaThe dialogue Images and Voices of Hope (IV of Hope), which happened in Rio de Janeiro on 24/11/01, had the theme "The media as an agent of benefit to the world". Amongst those present were journalists, photographers, educators, lawyers, and professionals from radio, TV and newspaper, totaling 52. This gathering was like the launching of a new chapter in the history of the media. The proof was the final result: the formation of a core-group, which will serve as reference for future project developments. The site "Media of Peace" (http://www.midiadapaz.org ) will work as the distribution channel for the ideas of the group. The IV of Hope is a global dialogue about the impact of images and messages in the life of people. The first dialogue happened in New York, in 1999 with the participation of about 400 media and arts professionals. Since then many other dialogues occurred worldwide, always using the Appreciative Inquiry method developed by David Cooperrider from Case Western Reserve University, which is based on interviews that bring out what gives more life to people and organizations. The IV of Hope is a worldwide project coordinated by the Brahma Kumaris, Visions of a Better World Foundation, and SIGMA - Social Innovations in Global Management. How it happened in RioJudy Rodgers, the international coordinator of the IV of Hope commented, after the presentation of a video illustrating the project, that "You should think of today as the beginning of a dialogue, not as the beginning of an event. A dialogue to perceive that is possible to do something to change reality. We, from the media, are related to what we create. There is a social construction through language. Social change can happen through public conversations. Action is only possible when there is relationship. Transformation begins in small circles and then it reaches the masses. What moves this project is the idea that the world needs a different history. The prevailing vision - that the world is a business opportunity - is a very reduced history." Gayatri Naraine, also coordinator of this project and representative of the Brahma Kumaris at the United Nations in New York, conducted meditation experiences while the group glared at the ocean (the event happened at the Carlton Rio Atlantica Hotel, in front of the ocean). That allowed them to have the necessary inner silence to reflect on the interactions of the day. The program also included three artistic presentations: clowns, ballet and a lyric singer. Appreciative Inquiry questions were organized in three different phases: Significant Moments, Creating a New History and The Future in Action. A sense of urgency coming from open minds and spirits was the tonic of group conversations. All wanted to share ideas and experiences, keeping the vibrations and the energy high throughout the day. Oriana White, psychologist and director of CPM Research, shared the result of the research Peace and Non-Peace: what they mean. "Peace is the absence of fear. When I fear, I reduce my freedom. There is not a state of peace, but a process of peace, which is unending. Peace and non-peace are the two sides of the same coin. And this process is a balance which is constructed at every moment." Future ActionsAfter the interviews, the 5 groups proposed many actions. Group 1 - Dialogue in Rio: form a core group and meet on December 8th in order to consolidate the concept of Peace and Non-Peace; debate what is a good news report and what is a bad one (class from Prof. Evandro Ouriques from UFRJ) and use the material of the Movement Media of Peace. Group 2 - Media of Peace: Work with the Living Values in Education project, also organized by the Brahma Kumaris; organize critical readings in journalism schools; define what to do so that peace becomes news; work as sources of inspiration to inform good news to journalists; create a questionnaire at the site "Media of Peace" about the most constructive news of the week; create the stamp "Peace Online" - what value would you give to your city? Group 3 - Media and NGOs: learn with the success of the NGO Viva Rio; improve relationships with editors; increase the interest of the media in spirituality; bring positive facts that create surprise on a daily basis. Group 4 - Spreading the News: get to the essence of all ideas presented; publicize the IV of Hope; use the core group as a sounding board for projects and ideas; create a dialogue group online (midiadapaz@intl.egroups.com). Group 5 - Marketing and Advertising: improve ethics in communications; promote peace as news content in all available spaces, such as the sites www.midiadapaz.org and www.ciadaboanoticia.com.br; work at the heart of the city with the opinion makers, such as ABA and Clube da Criacao; create advertising films with images of peace. Testimonials"It has never been so important to reflect on the impact of our words, images and even the tone that we bring to our narrative. Above all, to reflect on the fundamentals that govern the reports and the adverts. The world, which recognizes the media as a power, is the same that suffers an acute value crisis. A media with ethical values, elevated principles, signaling a better world where there can be justice, fraternity and hope. A media that does not endorse the perspective of violence and brings out the most horrid side of things. A media without censorship, but with self-regulation as a quality guarantee. A better media, for a better world." Andre Trigueiro, journalist, Globo News, Rio de Janeiro "The Images and Voices of Hope was a wake up call for me. A call for action. All of us who deal with mass media content are interfering, every day, in the contemporary history of humanity. It is crucial to make something constructive out of this interference. It is an urgent and gigantic work. But I have found that, luckily, we are many. And we are not alone." Christina Carvalho Pinto, president of Full Jazz Comunicacao, Sao Paulo "The Images and Voices of Hope is an inner cry to rescue the critical values for a better live. The media, acting to form a healthier culture, has the responsibility to spread the information of the good." Valdir Cimino, president of Associacao Vive e Deixe Viver, Sao Paulo "I will use a metaphor to try to define the beautiful proposal of the IV of Hope. This initiative is like the sound of a clarinet waking up those interested in carving the ways for a better understanding amongst human beings. In reality, the human adventure is also made of negative and disturbing events. But not this only, on the contrary that it appears to suggest, constantly, some equivocated procedures and some vicious practices in the process of narrating the facts of life." Cesar Vanucci, Journalist, Belo Horizonte
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On December 7, 2002 the II Dialogo IVE-Imagens e Vozes da
Esperanca (Images and Voices of Hope) took place in the ISER/VIVA
RIO, and its main discussion theme was "Media, Values and Brazil.
The IVE (www.ivofhope.org), launched in 1999 in New York, promotes
dialogs and stimulates actions for the creation and distribution of
stories that claim the possibility of a healthier society. It is
organized worldwide by Brahma Kumaris, Visions for a Better World
Foundation and SIGMA - Center for Social Innovation in Global
Management, in partnership, in Brazil, with the Movement Media for
Peace, Giacometti Propaganda, Perspektiva, Full Jazz Comunicacao,
fotografos Clicio Barroso, Renata Castello Branco, Norberto Isnenghi
e Eduardo Barcellos; ABRAFOTO, Associacao Viva e Deixe Viver, CPM
Research, Anima Planejamento e Imagem, Consultoria PUC Junior,
Instituto Teu Sonho Meu Sonho, Ellerni, Reboucas & Associados e ISER/
VIVA RIO. 
The dialog
was carried out by Ana Lucia de Castro, event coordinator IVE/RJ and
representative of the Brahma Kumaris organization. The event had the
participation of media professionals, researchers and students of
communications. In the opening ceremony, sociologists Rubem Cesar (executive
director of VIVA RIO) and Paulo Baia (professor of UFRJ/IFCS); Maurilio
Ferreira (director of the Journalists Labor Union in the town of Rio de
Janeiro and director of the ABI - Associacao Brasileira de Imprensa); Miguel
Pereira (director of the Social communication department of PUC), and
journalist Andre Trigueiro, called people's attention to the various roles
that media plays in building up values, specially in Brazil. 
In the
afternoon, during the video showing, media agent Christina Carvalho Pinto
(Full Jazz); Rosa Alegria (coordinator of Media for Peace); Renee Castelo
Branco (editor of Sem Fronteiras program at Globonews); and Noni Ostrower
(art-educator at CECIP - Communication and Popular Art Center) exemplified,
with images, the paths for a more democratic media that is able to integrate
human values, in the sense of building better and more creative solutions for
the future. The exploratory study, done under the orientation of the
statistician Maria das Gracas O. Nascimento (and comments from "publicitaria"
Nadia Reboucas, was released at the event. The logo for IVE/RJ, created by
Reboucas & Associados, was launched. TV PUC and Jose Louzeiro/Gerson
Rivello
were in charge of covering the event, aiming at producing a documentary. 
Actions
for the next year (2003) were defined - among them, the continuity of the
exploratory study on the perception of the media by the society. The results
of this study will be part of the building blocks of a national research, to
be implemented in 2003, and which will be available at the "Midia da Paz"
website ( (www.midiadapaz.org), IVE website (www.bkumaris.com.br/ive_pagina02.htm)
and at the Sindicato dos Jornalistas do Municipio do Rio de Janeiro website (www.jornalistas.org.br),
among other sites that may be interested in its release. The creation of a
website will help make the ways that society can control the media more
transparent . The set up of "Imagens e Vozes de Esperanca" groups in various
institutions, with the goal of extend the dialog through seminars and
workshops. And a news agency directed to offer alternatives of information
treatment. In addition, a petition was organized (see Annex). 
Journalist
Andre Trigueiro highlighted the need of giving more visibility to news that
are not about violence and of creating work agendas to create alternatives,
in the treatment of information, for democratic access to the media by
society; Miguel Pereira remarked that modern citizens, mostly media
professionals, end up creating a huge distance among themselves, because they
are constantly exposed. He highlighted the need for an expansion in dialogs,
so that a news network can be established. In the scope of the university,
Miguel Pereira pointed that the dialog and human values need to exit beyond
curriculum, having a constant presence in the daily talks in the campus.
Media, in his opinion, need to restore the vision of the society we are
looking for, showing pictures of human life aspects. This is different from
utopia, since it is doable and it is part of an effort to forecast facts that
will help create a better world. 
Rubem Cesar
cited the experience implemented in Colombia, by the mayor of Cali. As a way
to prevent violence, he created a group of journalists who, working with the
university, specialized in searching for good news. They started to focus on
and highlight solution of conflicts, without using violence, at personal and
group level, showing that non-violence can be more effective. Rubem Cesar offered help to VIVA RIO to create positive agendas for the media. Maurilio
Ferreira talked about his experience as an "old" reporter, who, on the
contrary to what happens nowadays, has always tried to send out messages of
peace, growth and understanding; he also cited the problem of the labor
market which becomes narrow with the dehumanization of routines: the machine
has replaced the professional. Paulo Baia, learner of the politics as rumor,
explained the nature of rumors, and its distribution net within society. He
highlighted the conflicts that come up in a fight for ideas hegemony.
Pointing out to September 11, when the city of Rio de Janeiro stopped due to
a web of rumors, which used cellular phones (communication instrument of
immediate access, that goes beyond space, since it doesn't need fixed support
or connection), Paulo Baia explained the possibility of using informal
networks to release facts and constructive news. In the case of September 11,
in Rio, rumors made fears and memories of the imaginary of the population
come to the surface. 
During
the video presentations, Renee Castelo Branco broadcast, through images
edition of the Persian Gulf conflicts, the possibility of solution for the
problem between Arabians and Jewish that has aggravated more recently, after
World War 2. The video shows the cultural tolerance tradition of the
Arabians, much larger than that showed in the past by Christians to the
Jewish, and a time of understanding between Jewish and Christians that
reached its highest point around year 1000 after Christ, in Andalusia. Noni Ostrower showed the documentary Botando a Mao na Midia. He revealed the way
in which democratization in the use of VCR and its adequate use to the
universe in which it is generated can lead to surprisingly positive results.
The teacher
cited that, by recording and releasing, in VHS, the dirt conditions of the
school, the students reacted positively, and lead them to get together and
make it change, recovering the organization and cleanness of the place.
Christina Carvalho Pinto commented on two sequences of TV advertisement
campaigns that were awarded: one totally incorrect, the other one, creative
and efficient, without letting values go unnoticed. Christina highlighted
that the society, regardless the social-economic level, is unhappy with the
behavior of the media. Rosa Alegria released the Movement Images of Peace and
presented the work of the University of Uberaba, winner of the Media for
Peace award, which produced advertisements from campaigns, incorporating
values with creativity. Despite the absence of technical and financial
resources, the result was excellent. 
In an
article about the exploratory study presented at II Dialogo IVE/RJ, Nadia
Reboucas (Reboucas & Associados), highlighted that "this is not an easy
research to draw, since it involves regional differences - of age and gender
- of the type pf media, among many other variables." Three questions were
used to to obtain what Nadia called "thermometer"(without any statistic
significance) from those most interested in the subject, who were asked to
spontaneously answer three basic questions: