On Being Convinced

After reading Maja H.'s comment on my previous post (see below) I went on to see what's going on in blogosphere regarding the topic of media freedom in Slovenia.
I am even more convinced that my tactic about writing positive things is correct.
Why? Because from the posts I could understand that there is an ongoing division between those who are seen as leftists and those who are seen as rightists. It seems that whoever writes something positive on journalists is immediately leftist.
Half of commentators doesn't have a clue of what is going on in the media and they keep repeating the same old story about few jouralists that bother them (e.g. Repovž, Repovž, Lorenci). As if those are the only journalists in Slovenia.
Whenever is there a discussion on the state of journalism in Slovenia their names appear and usually they are always being insulted. It seems that those people who insult them cannot even think about anything else.
This is similar as when Drago Jančar, an acclaimed writer, managed to connect the Ambrus story with the events during the WWII.
Repovž and Repovž are representatives of journalists, like it or not. And as long as they are, they are doing their job. Like it or not.
There is lot of maliciousnes in those comments (in the manner: two journalists are going to be fired, it serves them right, more should go). Why those people who think like that even bother to read newspapers and articles written by those journalists? And why do they bother to write comments if they think that journalists in Slovenia are so bad?
There is lot of envy in this country.
At least this blog will try once in a while be positive and optimistic.
Does anyone has an idea how could the story about state of the media and journalism in Slovenia go around without being turned into a duel between so called leftists and rightists? How could it reach people who are not convinced one way or another and help them understand?
Because those who are convinced will obviously not change their opinion...

Disclosure

Some people who read this blog know who I am and what I do for living. Some of them also know what is happening at my workplace. In case someone is wondering why I do not comment directly what's happening, I want to say that the reason I am not writing about it is that I intend this blog to be positive, to perhaps provide solutions, answers, good ideas. I see no point in lamenting, there has been much of it in blogosphere without my piece of the puzzle.
Instead, I will rather write something about the amazing use of internet resources in the many newspaper articles about the massacre in Virginia. I think that in two years since the bombing in London when the possibilites of citizen journalism first became more seen in the public things have changed a lot for the better. The thing that impressed me most was how quick was Wikipedia and how even the less known media used the internet to explain their readers as best as they could. They used video, audio, interactive maps, slide shows. There was even more information than one could handle. Reading newspapers the next day seemed like a disapointment.
I wonder when we will start something like that in Slovenia, too. None of the sites I checked used so many internet resources to present the story. Someone commented that this is not a Slovene story and that is the reason why not. True. But there are other important Slovene stories and none are so resourceful.

A Slow Death

My blog is dying a slow death. I rarely find time to post something and I wander if it makes sense to keep it. However, it seems that the maxim if you are not in the media you do not exist transformed into if you are not online you do not exist. I envy all those teachers and professionals who find time to write their opinion or post important information and are trendsetters in the blog world. I, on the other hand, am not even able to keep reading the blogs that are most important to me.
It's funny, if you think about blogs, how they are bizillion of them somewhere out there, and how on the side, there is no way that people will find or read them. But we still keep writing, hoping that someone will find our words interesting.
For now, I think I will continue to write this blog. I only hope that I will be able to keep it interesting.
And so that this post won't concentrate only on technical dilemmas. I was outraged by the latest commentary by Mićo Mrkaić in Delo. I tried to figure it out if it is worth to write about it. One, because he is offensive and second, because I think he is doing it on purpose. Perhaps not so much because he really thinks what he writes, but rather because he likes to make scandals.
His idea that only people with a degree in economics should write about economy can also translate into that only politicians should write about politics and ministers about their ministries. He mentions that informed journalists could easily figure out that one of the economists writing in the media don't know anything. Does that mean that only those who agree with Mrkaić can have an opinion and relevant as columnists?
Mrkaić obviously doesn't care much about social sciences and humanities; he has already shown that culture means nothing to him. Why does keep writing about those topics, anyway? Just to ignite angry answers?

Round Table on Media in Slovenia

I have just watched some video excerpts of a recent round table about the media situation in Slovenia. It was published by Jani Sever, former editor of Mladina, who started a wonderful site Vest.si. Unfortunately the video is only in Slovene, so the English speaking readers or listeners cannot understand. I wish there were an easy to use tool to translate it. This way, they could hear what is going on in this country.
Excellent Slovene journalists are being labeled as not so good; the irony is that they are good enough for the Associated Press ...
The situation is such that the European Federation of Journalists felt it must say something about it already last year ... According to Slovene Association of Journalists website this year too it has issued a statement, but I cannot find a link in English.
Will things ever change for the better?