Mediacritica

Breton Philippe says in his work “Manipulation of the word” that “Manipulation is to break-in in someone's mind to form an opinion or to cause a behavior, without him/her knowing that the break-in occurred. Unlike physical violence, which establishes an explicit interaction, psychological or cognitive violence that manipulation involves, owes its whole effectiveness to its concealment. And technical mechanisms constituting a manipulating message reveal a double concern: to identify the resistance that would be opposed to them and to mask the endeavor itself”.
In the age of communication, when we face a real inflation in information, it's much easier to use the word in the desired meaning.
Michel Montaigne, a Renaissance essayist, said in the “Essais”: “The word is half of the one who utters it and half of that one who listens to it.”
Slander, insinuation remain in people's mind when the place is prepared beforehand.

‘Ethics has always played a “less important role in human history”. It is probably one of the reasons why mankind looks like it looks.’ (Dorin Tudoran)

I was proposed to make a critical analysis of the print media in the Republic of Moldova and to make some recommendations for consumers of print media. Newspapers with their drastically thinned circulations have become a prerogative of some apparent elites, professionals, beneficiaries of advertising, as well as of a small number of subscribers. The print media is also under the press of an ongoing informational occupation, which is absolutely true for the online media, TV and radio. There is a criterion that antagonizes them – the party affiliation.
 
Analysts or political instructors of print media

The media headline is the trigger of the reading act of the following text. In case of good titles, the initiated reading act can lead to good results. A good headline informs, incites and essentialises the text either in a serious, ludic or parodic way.
The headline, if non-functional, seems to suggest an agreement to the reader, by which it claims the “performative value of the promise to inform” [1]. However, the journalist, as a holder of the power to produce headlines, can use it not to inform, but to influence, as he (he or the employer) pleases, the reader’s opinion or action, relying on the language used. While the language can generate confer a huge persuasion potential to the headline.

Since 2009, the media consumer is a Sloshed Citizen*. The new post-communist era brought along pro-European alliances, a wave of new televisions, news portals and other media institutions and the society became significantly more informationalized. At the same time, there are fewer and fewer media institution owners and their interests become increasingly greater. How do we become aware of being manipulated?

How much of what we read is ethical? How many articles and reports comply with the classical rules of journalism and moral minimum? How much manipulation and how much ignorance or malevolence there is?
If a journalist is obliged to get information from multiple sources, audience/reader is also welcome to do the same to have an overview on a subject.
If until a few years ago people could get information just from a single source (and I refer here only to the audience), now, if people want to be informed correctly, they shall consider several press materials covering the same subject.
How we got here?
 
In the 90’ the public of Romania considered Romanian journalism as a “fair”, “honest”, “efficient” one. For several years, the public perception has been absolutely different, i.e. opposed to the perception of 25 years ago: “interesting”, “manipulating”, “wrong”, “far away from citizen”.
 

One of the first signs, based on which we can recognize a manipulating article, is the preference for certain terms and synonyms as opposed to other terms. An example is the news article regarding the appointment of the new Prime Minister, Valeriu Strelet. The news portal Realitatea.md announces: “The nominal composition and the Activity Program for the period 2015-2018 of the new Government obtained the Parliament’s vote of confidence.” (Realitatea.md, June 30, 2015).
The expression “obtained the vote of confidence” is used instead of the more neutral expression “was voted”. Other versions would have been “received the vote of confidence” or “was given the vote of confidence”. Because the Ethical Journalism Handbook recommends journalists to use the active voice when possible, we will not examine the passive forms (was voted, was given the vote of confidence) and will concentrate on the two active verbs used: “received” and “obtained”.

The presumption of innocence is guaranteed by the Republic of Moldova Constitution which provides that every person charged with a criminal offence should be presumed innocent, until proved guilty following a fair public trial, where the charged shall be provided with all guarantees necessary for his defense”.
 
The presumption of innocence, besides being a legal norm, is a journalistic professional norm. Therefore, the Journalist’s Deontology Code of the Republic of Moldova provides: “the journalist observes the presumption of innocence and presumes every person to be innocent until a final and irrevocable verdict is issued. However, reading what many journalists write, we can see that rules were made to be violated.

Rodica MAHU,
Editor, Jurnal de Chișinău

Tatiana CORAI, ”Media Azi” editor

On Thursday, October 15, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, unanimously voted to lift the immunity of former prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (LDPM) Parliamentary fraction, Vlad Filat, based upon a motion by the Prosecutor General. The LDPM MP has later been detained by NAC agents for 72 hours.

On Sunday, after the regular detention period expired and following a hearing that lasted for more than 6 hours, the court ruled that the former prime minister would be detained for 30 days.

How much professionalism did the press apply in this case? We refer here to the press in general and also to the press with an "anti - Filat” reputation.

Properly performed opinion surveys are necessary. These can, for example, reveal the situation in the society at a given time, can identify certain trends, suggest intervention measures to maintain the social balance etc. The bad thing is that we cannot always check if a survey is carried out properly. Much worse is that we usually find out about the results of the surveys from the media, which most of the time present them in a distorted manner.

The entire beauty and ugliness of the world appeared today on Facebook accounts from Romania, proving the huge power of this environment, which we usually disregard.

The fire occurred on October 30 at Colectiv Club in Bucharest killed, until now, 32 young people and caused other 140 victims. The tragedy shook Romania and put it to test in various ways. It tested its health system, its emergency system, the management capacity of civil authorities, and the piety of church authorities. But, most important, it tested the citizens’ humanity and solidarity, as well as their ability to care about other people. The fire occurred on Friday night, when televisions have ended their news programmes and were preparing for the weekend Halloween parties and entertainments.

- What brings you here? Asked the waitress from the restaurant of the hotel from Bistrita. I told the woman that we intend to organize media literacy training courses with high school students from the city - to teach them to understand mass media and to make a difference between quality journalism and entertainment, as well as to recognize manipulation.
- Are you organizing such courses only for children?
- For whom else should we organize them? I asked.
- For people like me, the waitress answered promptly, pointing both hands at her chest, to reinforce her identity.
It was for the first time when such a clear and specifically formulated request came “from the people”: we need such courses to understand mass media. Almost two years have gone by since that dialog and I still owe that woman a course.