Blogosphere faces the challenge of not repeating the errors of the main mediaFor Ignacio Ramonet, from Diplô, “dispersion and lack of a broader perspective” of the issues are challenges to be met by the communicators. According to the journalist Luis Nassif, “the most important issue is not the technology itself, with is undergoing transformation, but the values behind it”.
Marcel Gomes
Foz do Iguaçu – In spite of the fact that the new means of communication have turned the access to information in the world more democratic, problems such as the “dispersion and lack of a broader perspective” of the issues are challenges to be met by the communicators. The opinion belongs to the journalist and sociologist Ignacio Ramonet, director of Le Monde Diplomatic, who is taking part this Friday (28) of the 1st Bloggers World Meeting in Foz do Iguaçu (BR). The event goes until Saturday (29).
“Today information is overabundant, and because of that, it has no value in itself, it is free”, he said. “That is why there are qualities present in the traditional form of journalism in dealing with information, that cannot be eliminated, and actually contribute to qualify the use of new technologies”.
This would be a role journalists could perform, since at present “they no longer know what is their function”. “There is an identity crisis in the traditional media, which have lost monopoly, and in the journalists themselves”, analyzed the Spaniard.
Ramonet emphasized the role of the new technologies, which make it difficult for governments to control information, “like in Tunisia and Egypt”, and to also further democracy. However, he pointed that everybody should be prepared for the future, because “everything is temporary, and in five years twitter, facebook and ipad will perhaps be replaced by new technologies”.
“The old means of communication have lived in stability for decades. This doesn't happen today. If the bloggers' event took place in five years ago, we would be talking here of My Space”, he said.
Brazilian Experience
In his lecture, the Brazilian journalist Luis Nassif affirmed that the blogosphere is already used by the most diverse sections of society, from the left to the right. “I live in war with Veja magazine, which daily slandered me through one of its writers on the internet”, he affirmed.
In unison with Ignacio Ramonet, he said that “the most important question is not technology itself, which is constantly under transformation, but the values behind it”. Nassif also remembered the role of the traditional media in the legitimation of economic policies in several periods of brazilian history.
“During the time of the coffee economy, the press defended the policies that were beneficial to this sector. Whoever proposed something different, was criticized”, he affirmed. He remembered that the birth of the radio and the phonographic industry in the first decades of the 20th century shook the incumbent power, because “it helped to create a national self-esteem, when the elite were still speaking in French”.
In the 1990's, Nassif said that again the economic policies were determined by the media, which took advantage of the fact that “politics is conducted by immediate pressures”. “It is through the media that one can reach public opinion”, he analyzed.
According to the journalist, in spite of the power that is still held by the traditional means of communication, there are already cases where the blogosphere has made a difference, as when it helped to take apart the campaign to slander the Satiagraha operation conducted by the Federal Police, which in 2004 caused the fall of the banker Daniel Dantas.