Do Something About It
A
Media Man's Story - Bill Porter's Autobiography
Are you
satisfied with the media? Does it lift you up or pull you down? Here is the
story of one who believes that the media can be a decisive force for justice,
freedom and peace in the 21st century.
As his wife told him fifteen
years ago, If you are thinking like that, dont just complain do something
about it!
BILL PORTER worked as a
freelance journalist in Asia, Europe and America. Returning to Britain he became the Chief Executive of the
UK
arm of a Dutch publishing multi-national. After holding executive positions
with the Publishers Association and the Periodical Publishers, he was among
the pioneers of electronic and database publishing.
Encouraged by his wife
Sonja, in 1990 he founded the International Communications Forum, and was
Chairman for ten years. Roger Parkinson, then President of the World Association
of Newspapers, stated that the ICF had put the issue of the medias effect
on society onto the worlds agenda.
In this colourful and
intimate autobiography Bill Porter tells his entertaining and extraordinary
story.
Click here
to see the book cover.
Book
Launch Offer for ICF Supporters
We are
delighted to announce the publication of “Do Something About
It!” by Bill Porter, ICF’s Founder President. The book was
launched at the ICF’s fifteenth anniversary meeting at Caux, Switzerland,
in July 2005.
The cover price of the
book is £12.50. By special arrangement with the Publisher, ICF supporters
will be able to order the book at the special launch price of £10,
post-free. This price remains valid until 30 August 2005.
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A
Message from Bill Porter
I am
taking the opportunity of the publication of my book of anecdotes and experiences
Do Something About It to send this message to the nearly 3,000
persons whom I have met or who have wished to be informed of the work of
the International Communications Forum during the last 15 years.
It was in 1991 that I
rethought my life and that of the media of which I was a part. I became
aware that this remarkable and privileged group of men and women, far from
building a bet¬ter society, had become a prime element in pulling it down.
And, more to the point, I realised that my own motivations and behaviour.
were part of the problem. I was devoted to making money and becoming
important for myself and my company. But while not saying that these
motivations were wrong, I lacked the balancing element of accepting
responsibility for the influence for good or ill that we had on our
audiences.
Backed by my Yugoslav
wife - a wartime resistance heroine, three years in a concentration camp,
fluent in eight languages, a lawyer and an aristocrat - I decided to do
something about it, firstly by applying honesty to my company finances, to our
advertising and expense accounts and the integrity of our products. It was
fundamental that to bring change to the most influential force of society I
had to begin with myself; a u-turn for a profes¬sion that thinks that it is
in the business of criticising others but not of experiencing
self-criticism.
It was then that I
became aware of a sense of inner compulsion to work to change the direction
of the media away from the zero of bad and towards the 100 of good. It led
me to talk with some of my influential friends about my change of thinking
and some of us decided to set up a world-wide network of media
professionals who would apply moral values in their personal and working
lives and, so, naturally in¬fluence positively the audiences which they reached.
We called it the International Communications Forum.
Fifteen years later and
approaching my 85th birthday and in spite of the loss of my wife and a
number of skirmishes with illness and accidents, I can say without any
shadow of doubt that these have been the most satisfying and effective
times of my life. It is not easy to quantify what has been achieved. but I
do observe that more and more senior media people have been writing
critically about our image and are seeking for a constructive role for our task
of information, education and entertainment.
A remarkable number of
books have been written by colleagues analysing where we have got it wrong
and how we can get it right. They are accepting the deep dissatisfaction of
the public in what we have been doing, in our embedded negative mindset.
They are wondering how we can give hope and inspiration to people instead
of destroying it; of how we can challenge and help our politicians,
diplomats and business leaders to work to solve the world's problems instead
of tormenting them with their weaknesses and inadequacies. And, overall,
restore faith and trust between us all.
For me it has been a
great experience to meet each one of you directly and indirectly, in many
cases leading to close friendships and to knowing your families. Well, keep
going strong and bring this earthship to a safe landing.
William Porter
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