Henry F. Heald (Photo: David Channer)Henry Heald is a semi-retired freelance writer specializing in agriculture and international development. He is also the Canadian Representative for the International Communications Forum.
Despite the low level of respect for the media among the general public, the communications industry, as the largest business in the world, has the responsibility to lead society towards sustainability based on sound moral values.
The world faces major moral problems and the organized religions seem ill equipped to deal with them. The Christian Church is preoccupied with proving the divinity of Jesus and helping the poor, but seems unable to persuade its followers live by the truths preached by its founder. The Church has failed to zero in on Jesus' chief target - the rich and powerful who most need o understand the message of humility and compassion that he taught.
Yes, Jesus cared for the poor and the downtrodden, but the thrust of his message was for the policy makers in the Establishment. That is why they killed him. Much of what is good in society is the result of individuals living out their faith, but much of what is evil in society is the direct result of the churches' hierarchies' refusal to walk in the footsteps of their founders.
--We have an economic system that has no plan to ensure that everyone has enough to live in dignity.
--We have what we call a "correctional system" which is really a penal system. It punishes offenders, but has no real concept of correcting anything or anyone.
--We have an educational system that trains people to get jobs, but doesn't educate them to live in a global society where sharing is the only way that works.
--We have an agricultural system that produces more food than is needed by the people who have the means to buy it, but no way to convert the hungry poor into paying consumers.
--We have a world body - The United Nations - which is certainly not united. It serves only as a platform for each one's national proclamations and legitimizes undemocratic regimes which should be dismissed as pariahs.
The only force that can bring about change on the massive scale required is the communications media. Unfortunately it is so seriously divided and confused about its role that it is more often part of the problem than a key to its solution.
Everything we have learned since we finished school - as well as much we learned while we were in school - comes from the media. The one thing that makes humans different from any other species on the planet is our ability to think beyond our immediate environment and to debate abstract ideas. Whether that is a gift from an all-powerful God or the result of evolution and natural selection, is irrelevant.
I personally believe in an omnipotent creator who steered evolution to bring us to where we are today. But that shouldn't hinder the creationist or the atheist from joining in the task of making the media the vehicle for the salvation of the planet.
Almost every reporter, editor, broadcaster, author or artist believes that the media have a responsibility to steer society towards sustainable moral values. Then why don't they do something about it? For the same reason that the practising Christian in the pew doesn't challenge the clergy; for the same reason that the honest accountant doesn't challenge the crooked boss. It is fear of being victimized or ostracized by the CEO's of the Establishment. For journalists there is the added incentive that dirt pays better.
William E. Porter, a retired British journalist and book publisher living in France, has written a book called "Do Something About It". It is the story of how he overcame his fear of ridicule and challenged his media colleagues to make the communications industry the pioneer of a just, honest, creative global society. The International Communications Forum, which he founded, has been bringing media practitioners together for some 15 years now, to look at the challenges facing their industry.
Fundamental to his plan was the more basic decision to practise what he talked about: to admit his own failures to live up to the values he espoused and to put right what was wrong. Honesty with oneself is the necessary first step in remaking the world. It is the same for the clergyman, the business manager, the farmer, the prison guard, the politician, the mother, the teenager. If we wait for religion to do it, it won't happen. It is up to the mass media, including the entertainment media, to make it the popular thing to do.
We praise the investigative journalist who finds where the dirt is hidden and exposes it; who flushes the cheats out of the back rooms and makes them be honest about their misuse of public funds.
But we also need investigative journalists who will find and expose the hard working men and women who play by the rules and set honest values and high standards for society. Stories about the hockey coach who teaches young players good sportsmanship and fair play and stands up to the self-important parent who wants his/her child to be the star. Or about the schoolteacher who gets to know her/his students and helps them overcome their problems - academic or social. The honest politician who catches the people in his constituency who fall through the cracks in the social safety net and gets them the jobs or the training or the welfare they need and are entitled to.
Often it will be the journalists themselves who will need to have the courage to be honest with their readers, their colleagues, their supervisors and themselves. Honest about their personal lives, their practices, their work, their goals and their motives.
Most media corporations have a Code of Ethics that their employees are expected to live up to. Presumably the owners and managers are also expected to live up to it. Finding loopholes to avoid obeying their Code seems to be more the norm. Ethics are simply moral standards. As one Russian journalist remarked at a meeting of the International Communications Forum, "I always thought the Ten Commandments made a pretty good Code of Ethics."
Basic moral standards practised on the job, in the home and in the secret recesses of the mind. That is what will build a sustainable global society. Moses spelled them out for the Hebrew refugees fleeing Egypt. Muhammad spelled them out for the nomads in the Arab deserts.
Dozens of spiritual leaders over the centuries have spelled them out for their followers. Jesus of Nazareth encapsulated them in his Sermon on the Mount, reinforced them with the parables he told his followers and backed them up with the way he lived and the way he treated people.
They can be summed up as honesty, purity of motive, forgiveness, humility and compassion. And where better to demonstrate them than in the media that billions of people read, watch and listen to every day.
