State 3. Paper. Forum News and Class Struggle
In the mass media to mass media
Excerpts from the paper presented by the author in the forum made by the Communist Party of the Valley on Sunday December 5, 2010. "F high more initiative, selflessness, determination and political assessment from the left to assume the creation of mass media as a strategic exercise of their actions ", says the rapporteur.
By Luis Alfonso Mena S. (*)
The history of media, such as Gabriel travels in his book Fonnegra The press in Colombia, is the story of oligopolies, most of them relatives, led by the big newspapers first, and then the big radio and television.
also is the story of censorship and self-censorship and their management is essential in terms of strategic interests of the ruling classes over their circumstantial differences, in order to ensure the status quo.
This seems clear in light of leftist thought, there seems to be much less for the retina of a large number of Colombians who today look at the passage of our joints with the dichotomy of good and evil, devoid of class positions and rather inclined to accept the views imposed from power.
Among other reasons, because for them and many of its practitioners, not just the media but in the academy classes today rather than what would be an enormous multiplicity of variables, a varied social makeup for mixing with general concepts like layers, actors, sectors, groups, clusters.
way we would be in the presence of an extensive taxonomy that classifies people by their professions, trades, positions and even subjective preferences, rather than the places they occupy against the prevailing economic system, as allegedly it all depends on the skills and dispositions of these people to take advantage of benefits that provide an overall structure to break through and climb the social ladder.
From the above, would be sufficient to enter in the struggle of millions of people embedded in social mobility and enter into the dynamics of personal growth, individual effort, because supposedly the key is not our position to the means of production, compared to its possession, but it expresses in the subjective attitude of struggling to move up in pursuit of harness and "progress."
The resolution of social confrontation with the dilemma friend-enemy has been gaining ground in the diversification that interests you impose on those in power, and according to which the problem of society are profound differences between classes but only behaviors ethical components, so that the matter would be resolved in the struggle between the defenders of law and morality and those who transgress.
The problem is that today many thinkers from the left are trapped in this false dilemma, afraid to raise the problems of communities in terms of class struggle, and prefer to use an increasingly wide range of euphemisms, probably show that more scholars and even-handed, less hectic and harvested, to say the least anachronistic.
Thus, core concepts such as imperialism, the bourgeoisie, fascism, oligarchy, the proletariat, classes and class struggle are becoming less used and increasingly replaced by more abstract, less accurate. Today we have a less rebellious and more left next to the settlement, more willing to transfer its principles in order to share power.
enter here in the debate on the fundamental question: how to take power, ultimate goal of any political struggle, which the media are not far and in which, however, participate as framework of the state public or private groups that use or muted, depending on their position in the struggle for that power.
But the question obviously goes beyond the media, and is posed to society in general and to the left in particular. Moreover, at a time as we live, with leftist governments such as that allegedly exists in Bogota, subjected to two sides: their own mistakes and the siege of the media elites.
left journalism and its challenges
Today we need to pass the complaint on the handling of the mass media concerning the imposition of the media agenda on the fact that large media channels are not only serving the elite but extensions of the oligarchical classes in power (ideological state apparatuses, such as Louis Althusser renamed it) and move beyond the stage of mass generation of alternative means, if you will, mass not only in print, but in radio, television and the Internet.
The extraordinary contribution, Voice brave fighter is of paramount importance in today's society and history will say so. But it must go further. We should pick up experiences and definitely independent media left and Mexico's La Jornada, Page 12 of Argentina, Correo del Orinoco Venezuela and Brazil de Fato, among others.
The latter is really a paradigm, then, as Pascual Serrano tells us, is " edited and owned by social movements. Among them, organizations such as Via Campesina, referendum, social pastoral linked to the Catholic church, progressive trade unions, leftist parties, feminist groups, student organizations ... These and other organizations are invited to write the editorial board, which convenes monthly meetings with political personalities and intellectual criticism which identifies and provides ways for the newspaper. There is also a political council, with public figures of national prestige, which supports the newspaper's political line. "
According to Serrano, the newspaper, founded in 2003, since 2006, publishes 50,000 copies weekly. " Currently the project is financially healthy by income from the sale of copies, donations from social movements and advertising. There is no political event or movement in Brazil where there is also the journalist in Brazil de Fato, a sale of the newspaper stand. Although due to the economic crisis, social movements had to increase their donations, do not accept private advertising, you should usually only the federal government through institutions such as the Federal or by placing advertisements that inform state social projects. "
"The debate about the appropriate balance between activism and journalism is a constant. Although in its early days was, say, more propaganda, has evolved into a more professional without losing the editorial, design is a good proof of it, "says Serrano.
This is just a case. There are other alternative press, left, independent mass movement, because the alternative is not synonymous with limited or marginal in the movement and arrival in the clusters to which it is intended the left press.
recent experiences in Colombia have not been very fruitful. It is not but see the brief life of the newspaper of the Democratic Pole. And on radio and television are in their infancy. Not only because of the exclusion imposed by the mainstream media, but because, and admittedly, takes more initiative, selflessness, determination and political assessment from the left assume the creation of mass media as a strategic exercise of their actions, exercise would have to spend no energy leftover, but the most important energy and resources.
We must move from complaint to action. A society like today's media imposes a duty left to think first about the media, but not just the elite to demand that they fulfill their duty to report with balance, but to create spaces that allow it have their own channels from which to counter the enormous power of those in command.
Class struggle Today more than ever is not only the media but in the possession of them, over the media elite to the mass media on the left. That is also a revolutionary challenge, as important as taking power.
(*) Direct virtual magazine journalism Free! Parentheses and the campus newspaper.
Bibliography
Fonnegra, Gabriel. The press in Colombia. How do I report? Who is? Who do you serve? , Bogotá, El Ancora Editores, Journalism Library Today, 1984.
Serrano Pascual. Brasil de Fato, an example of coexistence between media and social movements, internet version.
Photos:
appears in the photo above Luis Alfonso Mena S. Carlos Lozano Guillén, director of the weekly Voz, who also participated in the forum on media and class struggle.
The middle graph corresponds to the attendees and the photos below are covers of Brasil de Fato newspaper, La Jornada of Mexico and Page 12 of Argentina, leftist media of wide circulation in their respective countries.
