[on the subject of journalism with regards to cultural advocacy, human dignity, and government]
Let me demonstrate how a free press affects the world. The mission for a free press is the same mission for the preservation of a culture. You can find some examples of how that can be on this page, where I will gather information about journalism for you to consider if you have a poor opinion of "The Media..." because a proper understanding of journalism is critical to a proper understanding of this project.
Why are you including a section about the media on a French cultural advocacy blog?
Consider that even the very profession of journalist has been hijacked... and that if information and knowledge is what makes one free, then that preserving the authentic purposes of journalism will mean the preservation of culture, tradition, and patrimony.
Is Journalism really as noble a profession as you say? How can it truly help a culture survive?
Knowledge will govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.
-James Madison
To me, the central purpose of journalism is to tell the truth, so that people will have the information to be sovereign.
-Jack Fulter, Chicago Tribune
There is no week, nor day, nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their supreme confidence in themselves—and lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
-Walt Whitman, journalist and poet
Whatever our personal frailties may be, the nobility of our calling will always be rooted in two commitments difficult to observe: refusal to lie about what we know and resistance to oppression.
-Albert Camus, journalist and author
Journalism is something other than a craft, something other than an industry—something between an art and a ministry. Journalists proper are unofficial public servants whose purpose it is to serve the community.
-Whickam Steed, The Times of London
The instruments of both life and death are contained within the power of the tongue.
-The Book of Proverbs
This edition offers to students a commitment to and a belief in the traditional role of the press as a means of enabling people to improve their lot and govern themselves intelligently (…) a journalism that meets the needs of people by supplying them with the information essential to rational decision making, (…) carrying stories that reveal indignation at the indecencies visited on the young, the poor, and the powerless.
- Introduction to the ninth edition of “News Reporting and Writing.
So, what does this have to do with the project?
As a former journalism student and editor in chief of a weekly paper, I believe in all the statements you just read. And yet when I went to work in journalism after college-- full of ideals and excitement, I realized that what I was getting into had nothing to do with nobility and everything to do with selling out-- the modern media world is a mess.
Today's media is a zoo. Completely hemmed in on all sides by loyalties to corporations and governments who are drunk with power and money issues, journalists are no longer free to report the news, and everything is about what angle and ideology they can push. Here in America, in particular, the people must choose their ideology first in order to choose which paper to read. New media, and in particular, the internet, has given the public the ability to find, research, write and report the news without professional training. This is important because the news is changing. Nowadays, I'm more likely to get the truth on twitter than on CNN. The truth matters, because things are rapidly changing... and it's not for the better. The world is fast paced, and we are being lied to and manipulated by the press, in an era where every bit of information counts.
There is injustice out there. There is corruption. Human slavery is still very much alive. Poverty, hunger.... sadness. These are the things I want to see end. And they come as a result of unchecked power.
I can't do much. At the end of the day, I'm just a woman with a computer....a woman with a full house and full responsibilities. But maybe, just maybe, you will read something here that makes you think differently about another person. That helps you put yourself in their shoes, or stand up and get motivated to make a needed change, or love someone who seems unloveable to you. If I can succeed at that.... then this project is important. Ambitious, I know. But you never know unless you try. :)
Named for my hometown, the city whose name birthed the cry of freedom which is now the French National Anthem, Massilia Media Project aims to use traditional and social media to tell the truth about the culture of the South of France, thereby preserving and celebrating a rich history-- a history which tells the story of great struggles and amazing victories on the way to unity and perfect peace.
Using journalism, especially guerilla journalism, and investigative techniques to demonstrate the war on traditional life and the culture of death rapidly taking over this area of the world, I hope to open the eyes of Americans, many of whom may have roots in Provence, and to speak out in favor of bringing back a culture of LIFE, one region of the world at a time.
There is injustice out there. There is corruption. Human slavery is still very much alive. Poverty, hunger.... sadness. These are the things I want to see end. And they come as a result of unchecked power.
I can't do much. At the end of the day, I'm just a woman with a computer....a woman with a full house and full responsibilities. But maybe, just maybe, you will read something here that makes you think differently about another person. That helps you put yourself in their shoes, or stand up and get motivated to make a needed change, or love someone who seems unloveable to you. If I can succeed at that.... then this project is important. Ambitious, I know. But you never know unless you try. :)
Named for my hometown, the city whose name birthed the cry of freedom which is now the French National Anthem, Massilia Media Project aims to use traditional and social media to tell the truth about the culture of the South of France, thereby preserving and celebrating a rich history-- a history which tells the story of great struggles and amazing victories on the way to unity and perfect peace.
Using journalism, especially guerilla journalism, and investigative techniques to demonstrate the war on traditional life and the culture of death rapidly taking over this area of the world, I hope to open the eyes of Americans, many of whom may have roots in Provence, and to speak out in favor of bringing back a culture of LIFE, one region of the world at a time.
