Opinion
How long has it been since people replaced the terms journalists or the press with the sweeping term the media? It has been quite awhile, considering the quick succession of terms in vogue in colloquial Greek language. The meaning of this is clear: people have started to distance themselves from some types of information – and even ignore some types of media. It is as if the entire press were enclosed in a homogeneous whole; as if media discourse were homogeneous and linear; as if all issues have to be interpreted in the same way by different commentators. This is not true, of course. It is a fake reality which is, however, to be seen by an increasing number of Greeks… In the past, however, the pluralism of information and comments was obvious. Who is responsible for the present condition? An easy answer is the competitive urge that has become an imperative, which leads to a uniform way of expression that is light and easy to digest; a common language shared by television, the daily press which rushed to imitate the television-based transmission of news, and magazines. The difficult answer concerns our common stake in shaping this discourse. We do not find it convincing but we still don’t react… It is a relief when when the news does not come as news but as spectacle – and in spectacles we do not seek the truth, but sensation…
