Link between the media, national harmony and intangible heritage

The job of creating a harmonious communication platform of a society depends on its media industry

Reporting a community-based conflict after it occurs or reporting in a manner that is slanted or biased towards one community is the cheapest level the modern global mass communication industry could fall to. We see this kind of slanting either in generalisation or innuendo based language that makes impartiality in the global media industry a farce

By Surya Vishwa

The purpose of this article is to look at the interweaving connection between the media industry, the harmony of a nation and the use of the concept of heritage to keep and promote peace in societies. 

Let us begin with what the media or to put it more accurately a mass media industry should mean to a nation. It would not be an underestimation to state that the world and its much craved for peaceful state hinges solely on understanding and empathy. Understanding and empathy comes through the route of communication. 

The job of creating a harmonious communication platform of a society depends on its media industry. Especially for a multi-cultural country where a populace is divided by the statistical confining of humans into majority or minority, it is vital that each member of the media industry wakes to the fact that there is much more that falls under the industry purview than merely reporting events. 

Reporting a community-based conflict after it occurs or reporting in a manner that is slanted or biased towards one community is the cheapest level the modern global mass communication industry could fall to. We see this kind of slanting either in generalisation or innuendo based language that makes impartiality in the global media industry a farce. 

Humanity exists between the cracks of the worse-case scenario of man-made conflicts in this world. If journalists across the world were more pre-occupied with looking for stories that capture the original essence of the human heart (no baby is born with prejudice), then it is pertinent to state that the media industry alone could single handedly change –story by story – the status quo between peace and conflict. 

Here the story would be not when man bites dog as conventional journalism colleges would teach but when a human acts in a humane manner to a fellow being. 

Last week saw the performance of four world choirs and a large number of international and local Muslim musicians and singers performing in Sri Lanka. How much of in-depth media coverage did this event receive in Sri Lanka, across all three language based media in this country? 

We often absorb stereo typed views of different nations and their people, fed to us by a fatigued out global media industry – we learn that in such and such a community or nation the people are like this – behave like this – and the danger of these stereotypes is that it stays with us more powerfully in the sub conscious, influencing our thoughts and actions. 

Three sets of opposites in the three languages

In analysing the content of Sinhala, Tamil and English language media within Sri Lanka it is clear how divided the society is by the story headlines alone. Most of the time the same press conference is covered in so different a manner that what is featured is often three sets of opposites in the three languages.

In a general sense the Sinhala language media would be pre-occupied by content creation that pitch a seclusion that gets convoluted by various often clouded interpretations of the ‘other’ people and their culture. The English media in Sri Lanka would generally have focus on content relevant to all communities; with more focus on Colombo centric coverages and rare attention to the issues and stories of rural areas. The Tamil media as with the Sinhala language media, would be polarised, often reflecting only the interest of the Tamil community. This writer is well aware that there are journalists in the Sinhala and Tamil mainstream media who are striving to reflect broader humanistic dimensions of interaction between the communities but this number is few and face obstacles at times by superiors as to what is ‘newsworthy.’ 

Without a doubt the entire peacebuilding and peace keeping mechanism of a culturally vibrant nation such as Sri Lanka could be done by a sensitive mass media industry.

The media as a whole around the world have much scope to test the unimaginable potential to be harbingers of peace creation than to be mere bystander reporters of prejudiced statements, conflict and wars. Interestingly few years ago someone in a dinner party quipped that all conflict oriented issues of the nation would stop if the media would boycott and abstain from reporting inane and prejudiced statements by diverse individuals and groups. This observation is certainly food for thought. 

The power of media to influence minds cannot be underestimated. There was a young engineering student who once mentioned that his grandmother who was bedridden changed her hitherto lifelong nurtured political view completely by being given access to a different media perspective than what she was used to.

What if Sinhala media carries more of the hundreds of humanistic work being done by individuals who are fellow Sri Lankans who could be Burgher or Tamil or Muslim? 

Recently discussing with a Burgher author and her manuscript on patriotism of Lankan Burghers during the colonial times, interesting details were provided that completely broke the stereo-type that often holds that Burghers identified more with the British imperialists than their local identity. 

What is history does not become automatically relevant to the modern day. It has to be made relevant. How much do we know of the cosmopolitan attitude of ancient Sinhala monarchs who had within their kingdoms Muslim Unani physicians and Siddha medicine practitioners, treating them equally as they would the Sinhala Wedakam physicians? Loyalty was said to be a major attribute held by ancient Sinhala kings who ruled this country and records show how long staying individuals from other countries were given high positions based on their loyalty to the monarch and land. Hence, when we write about history are we finding these stories buried within the lines of history books?

What if Tamil newspapers seek out and feature the hundreds of stories per day taking place in the country that speak of kindness and compassion?

These stories are the spontaneous occurrences of the lived in experience of society. These experiences occurred 1,000 years ago and will continue to occur in the future. Because it is the salient intangible cultural heritage of the human heart to be more prone to kindness and compassion than violence. 

What we are giving weight to are not stories artificially manufactured in engineered atmospheres. What is being referred to are humane stories found every day in society – in far flung villages and towns where those who have never been taught ‘peacebuilding’ in workshops serve silently to promote harmony and peace in their communities. This page has featured many such stories will soon feature another; where a mid-career teacher in a remote school in Galen Bindunu Wewa in the Anuradhapura district has been relentlessly working to bridge the people based link of the Sinhala border areas with territories of the North through the route of culture, education and within the oasis of freshness of a pure, childlike mind. 

“My mother is 98 years old and she still asks me to get her Murunga from Jaffna,” he quipped. Is this not an ideal headline for a story in a Sinhala newspaper? If someone thinks it is not, why is it not?

These kinds of people and their efforts are countless but almost none of these gets found and portrayed in the media – because if it did we will be seeing that this nation is one of peace rather than conflict.  Why do positive stories bypass journalists? It is because like many NGOs the media is merely complacent reporting conflict. For example there is an international fad in the non-governmental sector of focusing on hate speech thereby giving attention to the negative while ignoring the countless non hate speech related incidents that occur throughout the country!

Preoccupation on what is ‘timely’ and ‘newsworthy’

Where the media is concerned the preoccupation on what is ‘timely’ and ‘newsworthy’ diminishes the value of everyday humanism that should be a goldmine for a nation wishing to give energy to that which is peaceful. 

Here is an incident that speaks of the vacuum in the mind of the media as an industry through the example of a recent discussion with a senior Sinhala language journalist. 

I called him up to ask if he would like to write about a fellow Sri Lankan citizen who has for ten years assisted in facilitating treatment for sight related ailments, working with the Sri Lankan government. When this individual carries out his mission in the South of the country, many think of him as an Indian on account of his attire. He is a Sri Lankan Tamil. 

Having written about him and his remarkable humanistic duty to fellowmen of his motherland and seeing that very few such stories appear in the Sinhala language media, I called up this media practitioner and began telling him about this potential story.

Cutting me short and without allowing me to explain further he immediately queried where the money is obtained to do such work! The tone of suspicion made me hesitate continuing but nevertheless mentioned that it was in memory of his sister and that it began many years ago by the headmaster of his son’s school overseas who had a penchant for creating global awareness by motivating the children of that school and parents contribute to meaningful causes. 

Later in discussing this incident with two Sinhala and Tamil language journalists we decided to embark on identifying and training school leavers who wish to specialise in mass communication by focusing on ‘kindness reporting’ alone, identifying humanity uplifting stories that are around us all the time. 

Compassion is part of the shared heritage of Sri Lanka. It was and is the core of the driving force of the Sinhala people and the crux of the Buddhist Dharma that is to be safeguarded. One of the best ways to safeguard the Buddhist heritage is to seek out the hundreds of Buddhistic messages carried out through the actions of the Buddhist majority in the country.

The media is not reporting such acts because they are not looking for it. A media of a nation is not there to create fear psychosis but to be creators of national harmony between ethnicities diverse groups. The media industry are not buildings and printing machinery. Its main pillar are journalists who are human beings. If these humans become a storehouse of bias or indifference, then we have a segmented and fragmented media industry. A mass communication industry divided on lines of language, ethnicity, race or religion. It requires that this aspect be paid specific attention in journalism training institutions. 

Concept of heritage

The concept of heritage refers to a very wide collective of components. These generally cover a range of identity applicable to a people and geography from which emanate all of culture and tradition. In modern parlance the overarching realm of heritage is divided into tangible and intangible. The tangible to do with edifices and structures such as monuments and the intangible connected with knowledge, tradition, arts or crafts.

Practices, attitudes and belief systems also are part of the realm of heritage and combines with the tangible links such as with the archaeological. Ancient Buddhist Stupas or Hindu Temples or ancient structures and the connected knowledge and attributes passed on as rituals, customs or wisdom based teachings are all inherent part of the heartbeat of a community or nation and represents intangible heritage. 

Art, dance, music and literature are all branches of the heritage of a community or nation is its intangible inheritance. Each work of art or music or literature gets created within the natural and cultural heritage of a nation. This may wary according to differing landscape within a nation. As such the West, North-West, East or South of a nation would have differing styles of art or poetry. This is because diverse terrain and how people grapple with it for survival would differ, influencing in varying manner poetic or literary content reflecting the life patterns of how the natural world would shape and influence such people. How attuned are the mass media practitioners to these differences and similarities? How much of dedication is there to feature these aspects in the media to reflect a closer bond and harmony between communities?

The poetry of the past hundred years emanating from the North of the country and the South for example would differ in content and style.

For example indigenous medical knowledge of the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka developed as part of the natural heritage of the land as did Siddha and Ayurveda in India. This form of intangible heritage was composed in verse form and the medicinal knowledge was as per the bounty of the land. 

 Heritage of a nation is not merely archaeology related. Its most powerful component is the intangible and it is powerful because it can bind people emotionally when culture and tradition based aesthetics or knowledge is used for linking people. Narrowly used, the parameters of heritage could also have an opposing effect where the ‘us versus them’ mentality is inculcated and could be lethal if a media is hell bent on feeding this monster. 

It was mentioned earlier that attributes and attitudes common to a set of people constitute intangible heritage. As such it merits much reiteration to remind that the tradition of compassion and kindness is the endowment of the Sinhalese from the times of its ancient kings and interwoven with the Buddhist heritage of the land. The ancient most civilisation of this land pre-dates the advent of Buddhism and not much of this era is known but collectively what should be sustained is the culture of co-existence and harmony which is the authentic pre-colonial heritage of the country. 

It is this that should be passed down to future generations and for this the need for a new media culture is required.