Winter Break Study Abroad: Media, Society and Governance in Ghana

By: Maggie Krueger 

In the heart of Ghana’s capital city, Accra, the "Media, Society and Governance" study abroad program will focus on "specialized journalism," the relationship between the media and government, cross-cultural immersion, and coping with limited necessities to achieve a better understanding of a complex global reality. For more information, please attend the informational sessions on Wednesday, September 18th at 6:30 P.M. in Scripps 108 or Thursday, September 19th at 4:00 P.M. in Sing Tao Room 101.

Based at the African University College of Communication in Accra, within minutes of all major media organizations in Ghana, students will have the opportunity to work closely with radio stations, TV stations, two newspapers, two advertising/PR firms, and with a non-governmental organization (NGO). 

In the course of this three-and-a-half-week program, students will earn four credit hours, with the option of satisfying a Journalism Capstone requirement (JOUR 4870) or Tier III requirement (JOUR 4660) for non-journalism majors. Unlike most study abroad experiences, students participating in the program will not immediately pay Ohio University tuition fees for the course credit they earn, but the 4-credit hours earned during the study abroad to Ghana will count towards the total credit hours required in spring 2014. Therefore, tuition fees will be billed with the spring semester course load. Additionally, housing, breakfast, and dinner costs daily are included within the program fee.  

Students will learn coalition-building, cross cultural communication, and problem-solving skills as they apprentice with local journalists and collaborate with local university students. Students will also interact with a variety of Ghanaians through field newsgathering, news conferences, and documentary production while producing an e-magazine and television documentary. 

“Media, Society and Governance” will run from late December until early January. All applications are due Friday, September 27th. For additional information and application forms check out the OU Education Abroad program profile or contact Dr. Yusuf Kalyango (kalyango@ohio.edu).

Program highlights include:
- Travel around Ghana to Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi, Tamale, Manpong, and other sites
- Visit to Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine and interview traditional healers
- Tour of Kakum Forest Park (Canopy Walkway)
- Tour of Elmina Castle
- Visit and interview Regional Governor and Asantehene, King of Ashanti
- Visit to Tamale Centre for National Culture and Tamale market
- Produce documentary in Kumasi

Goodbye Athens!

By Gunjidmaa Gongor (Mongolia)

I didn’t want to say that “Goodbye!” Anyway, I had to leave this small wonderful city in the United States which is quiet, a bit humid and safe. This is all about Athens, Ohio.

Five weeks ago, I have been driven by the white van which has green letters saying “Ohio University” with Michael Wolven, program assistant and Anand Pradhan, journalism professor of India from the Columbus airport. We were the first coming scholars to attend the SUSI program at Ohio University funded by United States Department. This was the first meeting for us. Michael asked some questions about our experience and countries. Today, we all 16 scholars will leave Athens to our last destination in USA which is Washington DC on the same vans with the same drivers. 

Before my travel to U.S. my 6 years old son asked me: “Mom, when will you come back home?” I told him that I will be back in 42 days. Every day my son counts days and waits his Mom.

    

36 days have already passed at E.W Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in Athens. During this time my daily life has been running between my dormitory in Courtyard and my studying place in Scripps Hall. But this time I felt somehow quietness like as living at my home. Just five weeks of my life time; the days in which I got to understand more my job and professional values, seek to get own contribution on my country’s media and society system, have to feel a dormitory lifestyle as foreign students, had my closest best friend from Kyrgyzstan and met my wonderful dearest friends of different countries and also got many good ideas to take away to my home country.

We have a lot of adventures, so wonderful travels to most important institutions in the world last couple of weeks. I have mentioned CNN headquarters in Atlanta; international media networks where journalists’ dream to visit, Google headquarters in San Francisco; the most important helper for journalists in the without border information world, Coca Cola museum in Atlanta; the good example of the best global marketing in the world, Martin Luther King’s National Historic Site in Atlanta; the hero of the Civic revolution known as “I have a dream”.     

After all those fantastic trips I often hurry to return back to my small room in Athens. The Courtyard dormitory seems to be more friendly then I know it; there were my good memories for me and my best friend Gulnura Toralieva. I remember a deer walking around the green forestry, students’ laugh in the swimming pool, quickie raining, WALMART shopping, singing own countries songs and so on.

We were laughing a lot with my friend, sharing food, working on some assessments at library room until tonight, playing the table tennis, running, walking, dancing and chatting to sit on the stones together.

I am going to leave my good memories in here which is my gladness, smiles, belief, weeping to say Goodbye my friend in her early departure. Those days will stay in my mind forever.

I love everyone and everything in Athens. Gunji

2013.08.06   

    

I'll watch your back.

By Sharon Wilson ( Malaysia)

It's the last hotel and the last days of the SUSI programme. Im feeling a little melancholic and i have an unusual feeling of loss. Why so? because for the past six weeks ive had experience living with different roommates, had dinner with almost everyone ( because as a Malaysian, food always brought people together and the breaking of bread is an important element in creating a bond), shot pool with some and shared some deep 3am chats with others.Some I can share on this blog others i will take to grave.

Everyone with a different disposition. Some happy and cheery others quiet and contemplative with some snoring thrown in. No matter what the situation, it was always the need to tolerate and to take some time to understand and learn about the other person.

Over the past six weeks I have learnt to appreciate the different cultures, laughed at the crazy antics of some and given my shoulder to a couple of heavy burdens. It's impossible to learn about a person in six weeks they say but when you live 44 days and an average of eight hours a day with 15 people, you start seeing the real person. After a while, when everything is stripped off, you see the true self of the person and you either appreciate them or you don't. Because of the lack of a constant 'variable' in  ones life, you form a new 'variable'. A support group of some kind.

And throughout this,that support group becomes a part of routine and eventually an extended family.people whom you can count on and trust...goodbye my friends.my family.you accepted me and made me a better person and a blessing to me. Terima kasih sehingga jumpa lagi ( thank you, till we meet again).

"See you" to 15 countries and "I have a dream"

By Seymur Kazimov (Azerbaijan)

I am not Martin Luther King, Jr. But I have a dream. I will back to my dream later.
I am 29. I know, it is not a big life experience, there are some professors, they work experience more than my life age. But my short 29 years full of with contrasts. I was citizen of the most biggest country of the world-USSR, and everybody knew this country. Now, I am citizen one of the most smallest country in the world-Azerbaijan, and not all people know about it. It is my first contrast.
Azerbaijan is an oil and gas country, and this word means the "Land of fire". The capital of my motherland is Baku, and it means, "windy city". As you see, fire and wind, contradict each other... it is my second contrast.
In my county teacher the most respectable profession. When we are talking about teacher, it means we are talking about God. But  unprofessional behavior of some teachers disrepute to the professional. At the same time salary of this profession doesn't reflect respect ness.  It is third contrast.
I can prolong this list, but do not want to annoy you, but I am going to share my last contrast. I have travelled a lot, perhaps 15 countries, but I have never had 15 foreign friends..... now I have, and I am very proud of it. Hope, you are also consider me as your part.
I do not like to give or write sensitive speeches, make tears, whatever. I have a dream, I want you all be happy, because I am very happy, when you are all happy. Life is a strange, 3 months ago I did not know that I would come to US and met you, so, everything is possible.
So...
abar dekha hobe, Shabnam,
milte hain, Anand,
nos vemos, Beatriz,
illa likaa, Sleiman,
nos vemos, Fernando,
nos vemos, Consuelo,
daara uulzaya, Gunjidmaa,
ate logo, Egidio,
sehingga kita jumpa lagi, Sharon,
tizaonana, Carol,
per curan, Antonio,
do pobachennya, Yuriy,
feri vetaula, Eak,
korushobuz, Gulnura,
sizabonana, Sibongile.

The First Amendment in a totally new light

by Carole Phiri-Chibbonta

Attending the 2013 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference  at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington DC has been a wonderful experience. Not only have I listened to several interesting research presentations but have had the opportunity to network with so many great minds all in one place.

Without question, the most meaningful, memorable and educational session for me was the First Amendment Center Plenary Panel ‘Freedom Sings’ presentation. I have attended a number of conferences but never have I come across any session like this one.

Freedom Sings: Music Censorship, Social Change and the first Amendment was a unique and interesting session that featured an all-star live band. The performance featured music that had been banned, censored or had sounded a call for social change at some point in American history. It therefore invited its audience to take a fresh look at the First Amendment, popular music and freedom of speech. The First Amendment gives Americans the right to free speech, press, religion, assembly and the right to petition. I found the plenary presentation to be a fantastic, eye opening show that told the story of how the American government has attempted to limit free speech. The presentation focused on gender equality, sex and drugs.

Music ranging from Jonell Mossers’s  “Annie had a baby”, Tammy Rogers’s “Blowing in the wind”, Woody Guthrie’s “This land is your land”, Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” to Black Eyed Peas “Hump” were played. And as the band played, the music took me down memory lane, in particular, to the music lessons and Monday assembly sessions as a pupil at Nkana Trust School, where I and my fellow pupils sang some of the songs that the Freedom Sings band sung.

I had no idea, up until this plenary session, that some of the songs Mr Jones (music teacher) taught us were actually part of America’s struggle for free speech. These songs include “Blowing in the wind”, “This land is my land” and “Puff the magic dragon”. It was shocking to learn that the songs that I sang and enjoyed as a child were once thought to be dangerous and inappropriate in American society.

As an African educator, I now see the First Amendment in a totally different light and I can’t think of a better way to tell the story of how government has attempted to limit free speech than the Freedom Sings presentation. It was not only extremely entertaining but highly educational.

The good comes with the bad

by Beatriz Lovo Reichmann

It has always been astonishing to me how, throughout history, human beings find and seek creative and brutal ways of destroying, punishing, torturing each other.  So many wars, which, in the name of God, for the sake of pride, in the search for national security, border protection or the need for power have covered our lands with blood, pain and disgrace.

However, it is even more impressive how, in every war, during any fight, there have always been individuals willing to risk their lives for the sake of others, many times, complete strangers, in the search for justice, for the belief of that which is right.

From slavery in the U.S., to civil wars and turmoil all over the world ; from two World Wars to the Civil Rights Movement; from the fight against tyrannical governments in Latin America, to genocide in Rwanda, Croatia...its endless.

I have had a closer look of these special individuals and moments in history. During my stay in the U.S. I visited a cemetery of freed people who escaped slavery through the Underground Railroad in the 1800s. A movement that put the "free" in harms way, but  who still refused to be bystanders in the face of inhumanity and injustice.

It made me think about people like Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan hotel manager who, during the genocide in the 1990s, hid and protected 1268 people when he could have chosen to protect only his own family. Or Irena Sendler, a polish woman who risked her life to save more than 2,500 children from occupied Warsaw during WWII. I think of Henry Dunant, who, concerned with the inhumanities of war after the Battle of Solferino, in Italy, began efforts that culminated in the creation of the Red Cross, now an international organization that aids those in need, during peace or war, without distinctions of ideology, race, language, religion or citizenship. I think about Angel, a police officer from Madrid who, only a few days ago, was unwilling to observe how a 41 year old man be run- over by the subway, risked his life, threw himself to the tracks and rescued a complete stranger.

We all carry with us our own wars and our own turmoil. But we must not forget that there is always someone in greater need, in greater pain. And we can choose to look the other way, because we all have lives to live, families to care for, problems to solve...or we can choose to be the heroes in someone else's story, just once, even for a moment.

In Education We Trust

The real value of a University is hard to overestimate. Its role in the social, political, economical and other spheres of life is tremendous and undisputable. Possibly, these kinds of thoughts forced the founders of Ohio University in Athens to launch a school just a year after the new state was born. At least everywhere in Athens, one can feel the atmosphere of thoughtful fostering of knowledge. For me it started with the red brick blocks that cover local streets and lanes.

I felt the presence of deep historic roots in these two words under my feet – despite the fact that for instance Ivan Franko National University of Lviv was founded in 1661. Some of the OU buildings remind me of fortresses.

Some are a good illustration for Hollywood movies about student life in the campus with all its brotherhoods.

But the spirit of knowledge superiority is everywhere.

And that is the main thing that unites us – despite the distance, cultural differences and historic heritage. Ivan Franko National University of Lviv motto is “Patriae decori civibus educandis” or “Educated citizens – ornament of the Motherland.”

Possibly it means that the founders of our nations and universities had the same vision on the foundations of the society and the individual development.

Yuriy Zaliznyak

For the love of dogs

Living in the US for the past one month has made me realise just how much love a human being can have for one animal – a dog!!! Almost every person I have encountered during my stay (and I certainly have met lots of people) has told me about their dog (or dogs). Even in the instances where a person did not have a dog, the conversation somehow and somewhere along the line drifted to dog talk.

I heard how cute, loving and loyal dogs are such that some people prefer having a dog to a child (some say a child is not only too demanding but expensive to maintain). I also learnt, albeit shockingly, just how profound the love for dogs is for some Americans when one guy at our apartment accosted a colleague and I for talking in the hallway. He said we were disturbing his dogs which were trying to sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was amazed that employees at Google are allowed to bring their dogs along to work every day and that an editor at the Call and Post newspaper also reports for work with her dog each day of the month.

                         Astro's owner takes him to the office everyday

I’m personally not a dog lover, having been bitten by two in my late childhood. Every time I see a dog, particularly the bigger ones, I cringe and think about the evening when two canines sunk their teeth into my leg and butt. I remember vividly how one evening, as my sister and I happily chatted away while walking a few feet ahead of my aunt who was taking a stroll with her boyfriend, a gate opened and two dogs came rushing out and charged at us. Instinctively, we ran, which I have now learned from the dog lovers, was the mistake we made. My sister was lucky and got away but I fell into a ditch and the dogs had a go at me.

The fact that I had to endure 14 injections on my already sore behind, courtesy of the dog bites, took away any love I may have had for dogs. From that time I have steered clear of dogs and certainly don’t see them as man’s best friend as most people I have met in the US do. I must admit that while all the talk about dogs has been great, it has not softened my heart at all. I am certainly no dog lover.

Carole Phiri-Chibbonta

Media owners of different countries

By Gunjidmaa Gongor (Mongolia)

Study of the United States Institute (SUSI) program let me learn about media systems and policies of 15 countries represented here. At here were sixteen different countries’ scholars introduce their own countries media system, journalism practice, political culture and media policies including 45 minutes for SUSI members and international students. That time is good discussion, debate, sharing knowledge and strong questions/answers.    

Anand Pradhan, SUSI scholar from India, he tweeted that “Intelligent and Beautiful media scholars from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mongolia, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Ecuador, Honduras and Bangladesh” and “Smart SUSI Media scholars from Nepal, Ukraine, Romania, Me from India, Mozambique, Lebanon and Uzbekistan in different moods”.

 

It was really useful information to know about abroad countries’ political, social, economic culture and also opened my eyes on the world media development. According to these presentations, most of countries have faced same problems and challenges which are political subsidies, unprofessional journalism, editorial independence, gap between rural and urban media development and lack of media market principles etc.  

Its main reason is politicians huge invest into the media sector with the goal to manipulate the public and to support their pursuit of power. For example, Chilean media is a huge concentration – currently two media groups are main role playing in their media market. Zambian newspapers mixed private and state owned – TV stations all are owned by state. In 2012, the first private TV station was launched in Zimbabwe.  

SUSI scholar Yuri Zaliznyak reports that media ownership in Ukraine is concentrating around one big family and is primarily serving the interests of oligarchs. Therefore “the most of Romanian media is politically connected and media owners often run for office” said Dr. Antonio Momoc from Romania.    

“Malaysian mainstream media is nothing but mouthpiece of government” reports her presentation, scholar Sharon Wilson from Malaysia.    

 In my country, one of the biggest challenges in media market is the plethora of media outlets on such a small market can be explained by the fact that the majority of Mongolian media survives on political subsides rather than on market revenues. Around 70-80 percent of newspapers and televisions are owned by high ranking politicians. Another example is among the media, “gatekeeper contracts” are important sources of media revenue. The goal of the contract ensures that the media doesn’t publish about it when critical stories and controversial issues about any interest organizations.

Today we are all. We have a brain power and same interest to change the current media challenges. This is a good opportunity of the SUSI scholarship program.

Go head to professional journalism and good governance. We can do that together.       

Friendship forever? Or when it is too hard to say “good bye”.

Leaving my new family in US from 15 different countries, I haven’t managed to tell them how much I will miss them all, and how much I love them. I was asked to tell something before my long trip home, but couldn’t tell a word as the feelings were so strong and disappointment was so painful. I have never known that in a month you can really make friends and start trust and love people. 

Sitting in the plane, I started to think that we usually give people our lives and we trust them easily, but when it comes to real feelings we always turn on the logic. Why sitting in the plane, we easily give a pilot a chance to control our lives, we trust him and never doubt his capability to save our lives. Why we easily trust people in a restaurant giving us food, a doctor treating us? BUT we usually doubt people’s capability to love you and miss you after several weeks of real friendship, collaboration, sharing rooms, food, discussions, dreams and home and family melancholy?

We usually say that several weeks is not enough to learn each other and a tiny period to love and miss each other. But the life shows that friends you made in several weeks became the friends for life very often. 

I was blessed and fortunate so much that I met my new SUSI family members. Yes, all of them are very smart and intelligent but most important is that all of them have a big heart and clean soul. 

I learnt to be patient from my friend from Zambia, 

to be sincere from my friend from Honduras, 

to be musical from my Bangladeshi friend, 

to be thoughtful from my friend from Equator, 

to be responsive and helpful from my friend from Chili, 

to be discreet and sensible from my friend from Zimbabwe,

to be open as my friend from Mozambique,

to be generous as my friend from Lebanon,

to be gentle as my friend from Ukraine,

to be trustful as my Mongolian sister,

to be comical as my Nepali friend,

to be kind as my friend from Romania,

to be philosophic like my Indian friend,

to be delicate as my friend from Malaysia,

to be emotional as my friend from Azerbaijan.

I learnt a lot of life lessons. And if my philosophy about leadership is right, then you all, my friends, are true leaders as you all are good people.

I know the moment you go home will be not so happy, as you feel now. The moment you will say “good bye” each other will be difficult. You know that you will meet your family in the couple of weeks but you are not sure when the life will gather together all of us again. BUT IT WILL!

P.S Hope you learnt from me to be optimistic! Love you, all, my SUSI friends!

Whatcha' gonna do when they come for you.

by Sharon Wilson (Malaysia)

For audiences in Malaysia, crime coverage in the United States is foretold by the fiction and reality of the many television programmes. ‘CSI’,’NCIS’, ‘Law and Order’ and ‘Cops.’ These  are amongst the many crime-cop shows which attract a multitude of viewers from around the world. The main players in the show ‘the good guys’ and the men who are suspects and those who are charged -  ‘the bad guys’ are highlighted with a great script, appealing characters and in some instances, fast camera work. This works because these types of television programming blurs the line between entertainment and fact.

 On a trip to San Fransisco and Atlanta, I was not enamoured by the tall buildings and the fancy stores but I was most excited about the sounds of sirens and the thought that the police are on the lookout for criminals and being a crime and media researcher and constantly surrounding myself with crime reporters and law enforcement, I knew something was going to be mentioned the next day about it in the local paper and that had me. To the point that an incident on 16^th Mission street had me pulling out my camera and capturing a moment that I deem the real reality tv.

(Man gets pulled over by Atlanta cops, pix by Fernando A. Venegas Traba)

 

Most crime news sends out the message of blood and gore but the coverage of crime presents crime as an unfolding mystery story, beginning with the main players profiles after which the crime itself (typically murder), the investigations and finally the trial. These true crime stories are presented as dramatic entertainment. The crime drama fits the profile of being dramatic and lends itself to the replays of the gory details of the crime itself. Crime news is inherently dramatic but it is also the case that there are numerous tools used by journalists to create the sense of drama and concern. Crime stories often include powerful visuals, making them resonate in the culture because certain pictures have shared significance and invoke certain emotional responses.

 

Victims, culprits, uneasy scenes, gory pictures, but crime reporting does not stop here. Coverage of rape, murder and other violent crimes has been in our media for a very long time. Although what’s perceptibly different now is the positioning of this news in the past two decades, a new redefinition has risen about what is expected to be an important and suitable subject of discussion for the reporting of news. This change in culture which is tied to the general discussions about sex and violence has allowed the respectable media to report crime news which previously has been deemed taboo. Doing so has now made the reporting more detailed and gruesome.

 

In all forms of reporting, crime is an aspect which has least changed even though debates may have developed and continued from the change in news agenda. Nevertheless, there has not been a news editor who has challenged the importance of a great crime story when creating a list of news for the day and the logic of it is crime sells and there will be a need for crime research and a constant excitement for me.

Call and Post: Blood and tradition

By Fernando Venegas Traba (Chile)

One of the main things that the general public, and a pretty respectable amount of journalists thinks about our profession, is that we have to be objective. We should check the facts, organize the information and communicate it to the public. Well, I have never agreed with this point of view, don´t get me wrong, I believe that we must be accurate, that we must pursue the facts to built a good non-fiction narrative that gives an idea of what is going on in our societies, that we must contrast sources,but I don´t think that objectitivity is possible.

Basically because we are always making decisions, when we choose to cover this instead of that, when we choose to use a source over another one, when we took a photo, we use an adjective or even when we decide the headline, we are, at all time, using our own experience and subjectivity. 

This doesn´t mean that we are blind, or we are slaves of our own perceptions, what it means is that we are always, talking from somewhere, from our experience, culture, religion (or non religion), values and even political point of view. When we acknowladge this, we can start to compromise, to take a stand, not to lie, but to be real honest in our approach to reality.

Constance Harper (Associate Publisher/Editor)

This is what I saw in our visit to the Call & Post, a niche newspaper, founded in 1916 by the inventor Garret Morgan, centered in informing the black community of Cleveland, from a black community point of view, and they are blunt honestly in recognizing this.

As you may have deducted, by seeing the photographies and reading the texts at this blog, we are quite a colorful group, and in the day of our visit, the questions and subjects that we rise were pretty direct, most of them not very politically correct in a society like this one (U.S.), but importants and necesaries to understand the culture and the focus of this publication. Racial issues, editorial focus, salaries, subjectivity and objectivity were discuss by our group and a number of the staff at the Call & Post. It was at least refreshing to see the honesty and how up front they were with their answers. They declare themselves as a commit newspaper, interpreting the reality from an african american point of view, because it is necessary, because the history of the USA has been hard with the black community, and is part of their job to give voice and opinion to those, that in many times, has been abused or forgot by the goverment or the society.

Felicia Haney, Journalist C&P

It was really interesting, and certainlly makes sense that in a place like Cleveland, with a population integrated by a 51% african american, the Call & Post is a very important media. With a circulation of 20 thousand, this newspaper reviews al of the topics that this particular community needs to know, and also, the ones that they are interested in.

This paper is made of flesh and spirit, of real truth, not only the one supported by facts, but the one that is achieved when you are clear in your point of view, in your way to see the world. The Call & Post is ink and blood.

American model of media and journalism or why the "revolution" might not be televised

Living in USA within the last month made me realize how much we, Romanians, still have to do and to accomplish in order to become a modern country: infrastructure, health and education system, corruption are a few of the most urgent problems that we have to deal with in a more effective manner. The streets of San Francisco, the skyscrapers of Cleveland or Columbus, the airports of Atlanta or Chicago, the  facilities and investments made in education and science (that we all SUSI scholars shared at Ohio University) are among  the major differences between the two countries.

But there is something where we, as a country, can compare with the US: the freedom of speech and free media. Romania and USA shared the same position (nr. 47) regarding freedom of the press in the years 2011/2012, as shown in the Reporters without Borders Organization Report.

I could understand the influence of the American media system upon the Romanian media system only after I have watched and I have visited the national and local US media. For sure, Romania, an ex-communist country, does not have community journalism like in the US (see TV stations like KQED). But we do have the same business media model: rating points, target, market are the ones that dictate the editorial content, the prime-time news and agenda setting.

I was convinced about the resemblance between the two media systems after our visit to CNN Headquarters in Atlanta. In the same way like in USA, Romanian televisions may not cherish so much the public interest: the first and foremost important goal for TV News is to reach large audiences. That is why you may watch at CNN for three days in a row the British Royal baby story and, simultaneously, local or regional big political or social news can be ignored.

We have Romanian TV channels which share the Fox News editorial approach. You may find tabloids and gossip press, too. We have also journalists and TV stations that are trying to do an honest job. And the most important thing: we have the pressure of the media owners and their rush to get the profit, the advertising and more dollars.

American media system may not be the perfect one. Romania media system shares the same ultra liberal economic model of press. I do not say that it is the best possible, but so far this media system model was the only one that made possible the dialogue between different parts of society.

In the last years in Romania and USA large audiences shifted from traditional media to the online and to social media. Media consumption trends influenced the business model: While CNN has 2.500 employees at CNN Headquarter in Atlanta, Google has 11.000 employees at Googleplex in California. In Romania internet consumption became more important than print or radio consumption. These are, in fact, revolutionary changes in the media system! These are the reasons why I think it is time for traditional journalists and for media owners to work more responsibly to build their credibility in the name of public interest. If not, the revolution will not be televised.

Antonio Momoc