Mass Media and Politicians: Who’s Corrupting Whom?

The recent master class by The Day’s Chief Editor Larysa Ivshyna at the Journalism Institute of the Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University, held as part of the traditional “Spring of Journalism”, took place on a day when Kyiv was sweltering. Despite the heat wave, Journalism Institute students, most of them freshmen, preferred to attend a lecture by a practicing journalist than seek respite from the heat in the cool waters of the Dnipro. Here are excerpts from this master class.

ON POLITICS AND CONSPIROLOGY

Kseniya PASICHNYK:

“Are you placing hopes in the new leadership to improve the state of journalism in Ukraine?”

“I have extensive journalistic experience: I started back in 1984. Since then I have seen a lot of politicians, and I can say that, of course, there are cases when politicians show an interest in journalism. As a rule, this happens just before elections. Journalists cannot automatically count on politicians. They can only count on those politicians who focus their attention not on elections (in this case, the 2006 parliamentary elections) but on the country’s future. Do we have many politicians who are concerned about the country’s long-term future? If you know any, try to find out what kind of journalism they want to see.

“The first step for journalists is to learn to think critically. When we speak about politicians, we must be interested in those politicians who will ensure deep-reaching reforms. As a result, there will be not dozens but millions of affluent people, who will buy newspapers and advertising space and time from the mass media. Meanwhile, wealthy readers and wealthy print media will keep manipulations to a minimum. The journalism that you have in mind is possible only through market reforms and only in a country where the press controls the government. I do not expect anyone to improve the state of journalism at the drop of a hat.”

SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS

Anna PUCHKOVA:

“You have been critical of pop journalism. Is it possible to uproot this negative phenomenon? What would you recommend to young journalists who want to stay away from it?”

“Again, this depends on the demand that has formed in society. Under the old coordinate system, under the Soviets, a lot of people were raised to read serious newspapers and journals. Then life changed abruptly, and we entered a completely different coordinate system, a different dimension. A torrent of new things overwhelmed us. As you probably noticed, initially most of them were cheap and loud. Now we have an opportunity to develop our own criteria, our own standards of what constitutes quality journalism and what social needs it should meet. Pop journalism is very loud, bright, and easy. As a rule, it does not require any hard work and there is no quality product. Good, quality information is, as a rule, always expensive. It’s a privilege of educated individuals and an educated society. We must aspire to this.

“If the people see their future in the European Union, they must go to the trouble of reading serious things; they must develop and learn. Incidentally, our English- language digest has a section entitled ‘All of Ukraine Studies English.’ But we also seek to translate our identity and convey it to foreigners in English, without forgetting Ukrainian or who we are. Unless we make ourselves develop, we won’t progress any further than pop journalism.”

COALITION AND QUALIFICATIONS

Natalia HONCHAROVA:

“What miscalculations of the new leadership can be used as a pretext for a repetition of the Independence Square rally, this time against it?”

“When the people were still demonstrating on Independence Square, politicians were already thinking about winning the 2006 elections. I sensed something very hypocritical in this. It seems to me that the people on Independence Square really saw an opportunity for a moral recovery. And the people would support Viktor Yushchenko in the parliamentary elections if his party formed in a natural way, because the people had put their hearts into his victory. This didn’t require dishing out quotas, which in fact was a distribution of the entire vertical of power among several political forces. I think that Viktor Yushchenko, who had a tremendous credit of trust, could have said: ‘Dear friends, I respect you, but stay in parliament, and the government will be manned by those with appropriate qualifications.’ That is, he could have formed a professional government. A party government can form after the parliamentary elections. If a coalition of parties makes it to parliament, these parties form the government under the new laws. Meanwhile, the way everything has turned out has put Viktor Yushchenko in a very complex situation. Now each partner in his coalition can threaten the president by saying something like, ‘If you replace my minister, I will withdraw from the coalition and say that the new anti-popular government is preventing me from making the Ukrainian people happy.’ Given the fact that Independence Square earned us all a green light to Europe, and the West saw us and believed in us, a professional government could have accomplished a great deal. Even when the previous government did some good things, the West didn’t support them because of the situation unfolding around Leonid Kuchma. Meanwhile, now we have the green light, but there’s no one to lead the way.”

A SIGN OF TOLERANCE

By Maria KORYTOVA:

“Can a person who speaks Russian as a mother tongue have a strong national Ukrainian identity?”

“A political nation is a slightly broader notion than an ethnic nation. But in my view, a Russian-speaking person cannot sense certain nuances. Speaking of Ukraine at the present moment, I would speak Ukrainian to protest against the plight of the Ukrainian language, even if I were Russian by birth. Incidentally, I know many such people who have chosen Ukraine as their home. As a rule, they are very educated and cultivated individuals. The more languages a person speaks, the more s/he wishes to learn Ukrainian in order to feel tolerant and accepted in this society. If people are ignorant, they dig in their heels and say that they have a poor command of Ukrainian and respect this language too much to cripple it by using it. In reality, all it takes is a little extra effort. Or do you want the Ukrainian language to disappear altogether? Will you feel personally responsible for the fact that there is one less Ukrainian- speaking person? Moreover, the Ukrainian language is a worldview. It is all the more wonderful when young, beautiful, and stylish people speak Ukrainian.”

NATURAL PLEASURES

Anna PUCHKOVA:

“They say that print journalism has no future. What do you think? What is your vision of The Day’s future?”

“I think that print journalism faces some risks. But not everyone will be reading electronic publications, just as not all people watch videos. Some like going to movie theaters or simply theaters. Others like the luxurious feel of a fresh morning newspaper over a cup of coffee. This is completely different. There’s no sense in foregoing natural pleasures. Electronic media are fast, but they don’t bring that kind of pleasure. And it’s not a question of being conservative. It’s a question of different perception. I think that as long as our society is developing, there will be a growing demand for The Day.”