In the terms of the exhibition’s “Stages of a Flight” and the whole attempt’s “Living Realities – Changing Perceptions” thematology, a round table discussion with the subject “Changing the Narrative – The Role of Journalism“, took place among specialists from the area of media, and the attending audience at the Municipal Market of Kypseli.
The coordinator of the discussion was Lida Tsene, Communications Expert and Dr on Public Relations & Communicatons. By making a self-introduction and welcoming the other three participants, she made a reference on a researches and articles related to the subject of the discussion, and that was the first step to approach the crucial and topical role that journalism is called to carry against humanist and social issues and crisis that the global society faces. After this, each journalist started introducing himself and talking about his/her experiences, thoughts, and opinions about war, refugees, journalism, media -locally and globally.
Nermin Ismail, a multimedia journalist, author and also co-creator of the photography exhibition “Stages of a Flight” , travelled to Athens in order to participate at the discussion and share her gained experiences through this journey around different European countries, while following refugees on their way for a better tomorrow. Furthermore, she expressed her disappointment about the way that most media treat refugees: “Refugees are humans. Not objects,as media present them. It is important for them to have the opportunity to tell their story, you can’t just go there and say “talk about this”. Everyone has to see them as human beings that have a personal story and the right to tell it.”
Babis Christakopoulos, Head Editor of Publication – Alternativa ΕΡΤ3, was a member of a small group of journalism that tried to make their own newspaper. It was a good effort but it finished because of lack of budget, but they didn’t want to charge and earn for and from the paper. Then “portokaliradio” came up, despite some difficulties that came out at the beggining. As he noticed “The first problem was: How to say to people how to do things? It’s easy to make a post, but there are rules that need to be followed. And when we talk about big media, then the situation is more complicated.” Eventually, they figured out things and Portokali radio has been extended as a medium. An unforgettable experience contributed to make a big personal decision: In 2015 he was in Chios island and faced the first refugees, while nobody knew refugees had arrived in Greece.That summer he was on vacations but he ended the vacations, and decided to write about it.
Angel Ballesteros, Photographer and Videojournalist at TeleSUR and part of the “Muzungutv” cooperativa, didn’t study journalism, but was photographer and story- teller. Despite the fact that he started working with a lawyer,he soon understood that Journalism is a job where people don’t share information, knowledge, or connections. While showing pictures that he captured at Iraq during war period, he mentioned that from the chaotic places he took good things, people there had faith, they were cleaning the place like their home., and underlined that “Sometimes you have to go where you don’t want to go, but it’s important because it is affecting everyone.“
Finally, why media fail is a good question – especially now with the new media’s highly raise. If technology gives us the possibility to post something and people are able to see it, is it a good period for journalists or not? Probably it makes it harder, because no one can evaluate what is written. As Lida Tsene highlighted “Technology is a new era, we have to be skeptical, it needs progress, we have to be careful on how we use it, it’s a tool- not content- it’s a platform, we can do either good or bad. We need young people from schools and universities to learn about journalism.In the beginning, they do not imagine a journalist like Nermin, Angel, Babis. They think of someone behind the TV, an owner of a media, and that perception does not face the truth.”
