The logos project TO CHANGE TV AND NEW MEDIA

presented hereinafter is an initiative of

GRUPPO HANNAH ARENDT

(Hannah Arendt Group)

Turin (Italy)

e-mail: logos@teleion.it

LET’S SET UP A MOVEMENT

- FOR A CONSCIOUS USE OF NEW MEDIA

- AGAINST THE MISUSE OF TV AS A BABYSITTER

- TO SUPPORT AND PROMOTE DIRECT HUMAN EDUCATION (FAMILY, SCHOOL, COMMUNITY) AS NECESSARY GROUNDS FOR OUR DEMOCRACY, FOUNDED ON SPEECH AND DIALOGUE

so that the culture of speech may develop through the image culture

GENERAL AIMS OF THE "LOGOS PROJECT":

CO-ORDINATE EXISTING ACTIVITIES (NUMEROUS YET DISPERSED) IN ORDER TO

- PROVIDE FAMILIES AND TEACHERS WITH SYSTEMATIC MONITORING OF TV PROGRAMMES BROADCAST DURING HOURS IN WHICH CHILDREN MOSTLY WATCH TV, POSSIBLY PROMOTING A SPECIFIC PRESS OFFICE

- HELP THEM TO UNDERSTAND THE SPECIFIC IMPACT THAT CERTAIN IMAGES AND CONTENTS PRODUCE ON CHILDREN AND YOUNGSTERS

- ADAPT TEACHING TO THE TRANSFORMATIONS THAT TV HAS SUBJECTED THEM TO

- TEACH THEM TO KEEP A CRITICAL DISTANCE FROM THE CONTENTS OF TV

- TEACH THEM TO PRODUCE (WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THEIR POSSIBILITIES) ADVERTS, FILMS, NEWSCASTS, ETC., SO THEY MAY UNDERSTAND HOW THEY WORK AND HOW TO EVADE THE TV-VICTIM AND PASSIVE USER CONDITION.

- PROMOTE SUCH COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES – PHYSICAL, LUDIC, CULTURAL – THAT TV IMPROPERLY REPLACES, STIMULATING AND CO-ORDINATING FAMILIES, SCHOOLS, ASSOCIATIONS AND MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES.

ORGANISATIONAL MEANS AT NATIONAL LEVEL:

IN ORDER TO PROMOTE THE CO-ORDINATION OF TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS, PARENT ASSOCIATIONS, CONSUMER AND TELEVIEWER ASSOCIATIONS, OF VOLUNTEER ASSOCIATIONS INVOLVED FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES IN EDUCATION, WE MUST CONVENE A LARGE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF ASSOCIATIONS CONCERNED WITH CHILDREN AND TV,

THAT MAY ELECT A PERMANENT PANEL OF EXPERTS IN EDUCATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS.

SAID PANEL COULD BECOME A REPRESENTATIVE, COMPETENT AND AUTHORITATIVE INTERLOCUTOR OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TV, AND COULD REPRESENT THE SUGGESTIONS AND CRITICISM OF CIVIL SOCIETY,

WATCHING OVER THE EFFECTIVE OBSERVANCE OF THE CODES OF CONDUCT THAT TV COMPANIES HAVE IMPOSED ON THEMSELVES.

IT IS ALSO ESSENTIAL TO CREATE AN INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS CONCERNED IN THESE ISSUES.

STARTING POINT SOCIAL AND PEDAGOGIC ANALYSIS

Today society is facing ever-growing difficulties in forming autonomous and responsible individuals provided with the ability to converse, a critical attitude, historical memory, etc. Up to now this type of education was provided by the family, by child and youngster coeducation, by schools, and by countless forms of direct socialisation, which currently seem to be in decline, at both national and international levels, for various reasons of financial, social and moral nature. Such difficulties are further augmented by the excessive use of “neotelevision” (system of commercial TV companies, financed by advertising and dominated by advertising based programs, operating 24 hours a day with the possibility of recurring to zapping) as a babysitter. This has lead to the spontaneous onset (ignored and underestimated by parents and teachers) of the “tv curriculum” (spontaneous process of education through tv, capable of influencing scholastic learning and social relationships).

This issue affects the large public first of all, and it doesn’t seem probable that neotelevision may be replaced for those that are less well off, at least in the short term, by cable and satellite tv and by other multimedia systems. In the future, when these systems become accessible to everyone, there may be the risk that they as well will be pervaded by publicity and that they lose large part of the individual choice and autonomy stimuli that currently distinguish them.

Of course it’s quite difficult, or maybe impossible, to establish to what extent neotelevision is responsible for the phenomena of human degradation which we observe today: these are related to a long series of economic, technical, social and cultural transformations, and the television phenomenon, with its visibility and pervasiveness, acts, at least, as an indicator, an alarm signal, and may thus be used to catalyse the energies of those who do not resign themselves to assist without reacting to human degradation.

For some time now, many teachers have been reporting the pedagogic risks connected with the excessive use of television by children and youngsters (scarce interest in reading, loss of the ability to concentrate, hypersensitivity or insensitivity to violence, impoverished linguistic, critical and historical memory capabilities as well as a reduced capability of distinguishing reality from fiction, etc.). Regardless of what the positive educational potential of tv and other modern image-centred media may be, their utilisation may be called excessive when it replaces in fact other educational, physical or mental activities, that are however substantially irreplaceable (playing and talking directly with parents and friends, exercise and sport, reading and writing, etc.). These activities are, amongst other things, essential for a correct and positive utilisation of tv itself.

The risks we are talking about don’t only regard the complete achievement of individual personality, but, in the long term, the education, on the whole, of the democratic public opinion. For this reason our appeal is directed not only to the educators and parents of young children, but also to all citizens concerned in democracy.

ADVERTISING CULTURE AND SHOW BUSINESS POLITICS

The advertising culture, besides publicising products, also publicises consumer individualism and the omnipotence of technology (“buy this and it will solve your problem”); it also pervades many tv programmes that are not openly publicity-bound, that act as a setting for publicity; it produces the impression of being able to access, without any effort, the whole universe. Yet such access, through image and not through accurate information and conscious meditation, remains absolutely superficial.

It contributes, together with a variety of other factors, to the erosion of the authority of public schooling (traditional foundation of democratic education) that must not be as superficial and cannot be as seducing and as gratifying. Of course, school isn’t able to be as pleasant on account of its various current defects that should be eliminated, yet it will never go beyond a certain extent since serious work requires effort, and effort cannot be eliminated in authentic education.

At the same time, public education and families are subjected to a series of long term difficulties, aggravated by National budget restrictions in the fields of social security and education and by a general lack of projects in such fields.

In such a context, tv education acquires a particular importance. It contributes, at least to the extent in which it weakens critical awareness, to facilitate the success of show business politics (which uses football or salesman language, which exploits emotions and the charismatic seduction of its leaders) or the return to a simplistic irrationality (racism, integralism, nationalism, etc.).

Democratic public opinion, critically informed and capable of reacting in an intelligent way to political and market proposals, does not exist by chance in our societies, but thanks to certain preliminary conditions in education and in communication. We should thus warrant complete human expansion to future citizens, preserving and renovating the fundamental modes of direct education: family education, coeducation of children and youngsters, school education, education provided by volunteer educational organisations (scouts, parishes, sports and recreational associations, etc.). In doing so we will in fact also warrant the preliminary conditions of democracy (capability to converse, sense of responsibility, critical awareness).

For further information please contact the Hannah Arendt Group (Turin, Italy)

e-mail: logos@teleion.it