Today, you are considered illiterate even if you are unable to distinguish between true and false news, between fact and assumption. Therefore, it is time for Kosovo to adopt the best models in this field, where media education starts from preschoolers to university professors. This education should equip every layer of society with critical thinking about each media content they read, watch and listen to. So, the blame should not be sought only in the media but in the lack of education about them.
Writes: Faton Ismajli
"They have lost their minds."","Halil Matoshi is more of a drinker.…”, “It's a lie, a very bad word”, “I knew he was stupid, but I couldn't believe he would stoop so low”.
These voice comments are from four citizens of Pristina, in the form of short interviews, were published in November last year, about what they think about Halil Matoshi's idea that "Skënderbeg should be removed from Pristina because he was not Kosovar."
Voice comments were much more cautious than those on social media. One of them even warned of the end of Matoshi. "Oh, my dear, if anyone takes away Flamen, you little bastard, you will always have more trouble, little bastard."
I took the text with the reactions of the four citizens as an example for discussion with a group of teachers from Prishtina, who were part of the lectures supported by UNESCO, the EU and implemented by the Department of Journalism at UP and INDEP, on media education. Some of the professors had hesitations about the content, some commented on the professional aspect, while the question of whether the same text was true or not, whether it had a reliable source of information, etc. was missing.
Citizens' attitudes against the former journalist They were reactions to a satirical news item, i.e. a false content, that the promoter of the idea of the Kosovar nation has also demanded the removal of Skanderbeg from Pristina.
In this case, firstly, the journalist who published the news failed, without realizing that Halil Matoshi had never held such a position. Second, because the news was published by a satirical portal, which publishes false statements with the aim of encouraging readers to laugh and have fun. And thirdly, many readers had also fallen prey to this false news, who had distributed the text criticizing Matoshi.
Peter Signer, formerly columnist at The Guardian, after the elections in America, had written as an American citizen, Edgar Welch, had fallen prey to fake news that a pizzeria in America was massacring children by Hillary Clinton. Welch, Signer says, had gone to the pizzeria armed, searched the entire facility, fired a gun once, found nothing, and surrendered to the police. He was facing four criminal charges stemming from the fake texts.
Despite these two bad facts, the media, especially new ones, have helped each person have much easier access to information; have greater freedom of expression; increase the transparency of institutions; be a more open society; and receive information about events in every part of the world in real time.
And, precisely these two examples and many others highlight the need for critical education for and about the media, so that every reader, viewer, and listener can have a critical approach to media content, whether on portals, television, radio, or newspapers.
To have a critical approach, readers must have basic information, understand media ownership, their functioning, have information about how news is produced, have knowledge about the legal and ethical aspects of the media, about the sources on which texts are written, and be willing to distinguish news from opinion, fact from assumption, etc.
In this situation, we should read and trust media that provide substantive texts, have credible and verified sources, and remain true to professional and ethical standards of journalism.
No one can say that Kosovo's media could be like the BBC, but there is no harm in aiming for such a standard.
80 percent internet access
Going back to history, we must recall that the first newspaper, Daily Courant, was printed on only one sheet. One page had information and the other had advertising, which continues to be problematic even today for the independence and professionalism of all media. This shows that the media are businesses, with the exception of public media, which are funded by citizens.
Newspapers are inevitably heading towards the end, so education should also focus on new media.
Therefore, the need for critical media education is even greater due to the fact that the majority of Kosovo's residents are exposed to media content. According to IWS, more than 80 percent of Kosovars have access to the internet and more than 900 thousand have open Facebook accounts. Although there is no exact data on the number of registered and unregistered portals, their number is over 200. The number of televisions has also increased. Meanwhile, newspapers are certainly heading towards the end. According to ATK data, 1655 employees work in these media, while 430 members are registered in the Journalists' Association.
Why critical media education has been delayed in Kosovo is also explained by the fact that historically we have not kept pace with developed countries, neither in the field of media nor in other fields. In the field of print journalism, we are 234 years behind the first newspaper published in Great Britain. Television arrived in Kosovo 49 years after it was discovered. Meanwhile, portals in Kosovo were born only 17 years after they began to be used in developed countries. Kosovo is not far behind global trends in the field of online media.
Roses and satire were not invented in Kosovo.
George Orwell wrote that freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. The other concept is that freedom ends where the freedom of others is violated, excluding those in power. Our freedom in relation to people who have power and take public money is very great. Journalists can and should write and report in the interest of the people.
As usual, the section that stirs up the most debate is the pink and satire column.
This also happened to the professors of Prishtina schools who were part of the media education. There was a very creative idea. It was a proposal that there should be a state mechanism for controlling each content before it is published in the media.
Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are enshrined in democratic societies, of which Kosovo is a part. And such control can only occur in countries like Russia, North Korea, and Cuba. So, even pink journalism is allowed.
This journalism, that is, the pink one, is not new and was not invented in Kosovo. In the world media, this column flourished before the outbreak of World War II and before the world changed with the advent of the Internet. The fate of each reader is that through education and a critical approach, he or she can easily avoid these types of texts.
Former editor-in-chief of The Independent, David Randall, writes about pink journalism, makes an interesting argument that as early as 1840, The New York Times had a gossip column. He argues that the heyday of the gossip column in America was between 1925 and 1950. He even writes that a radio program on such topics from this field was listened to by 50 million people in a week.
News that arouses curiosity will always be read, but, at least, the reader should know that consuming such content will not help them in their lives, that information will not be of any use to them at all. Therefore, every citizen and journalist in Kosovo should be committed to raising the quality of the media, by selecting texts with professional content. By commenting on social networks, by writing to media owners, by denouncing legal and ethical violations, we also help the media to be more responsible.
Education on and about the media is no longer a luxury nor an issue through which someone can benefit because it becomes part of the entire educational system in Kosovo. So, it is time for educational institutions to adopt the best models in this field, where media education starts with preschoolers and ends with the education of university professors, since, today, you are considered illiterate even if you are not able to distinguish real news from fake news, fact from assumption...
(Faton Ismajli is a lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism at the University of Pristina and an editor at the online newspaper "Gazetaexpress". He is the author of a number of publications in prestigious scientific journals at home and abroad.
Ismajli is a regular columnist at hibrid.info.)