The media could become a compelling force for helping usher in a world of peace with justice and prosperity for all.
Barrack Obama’s election as President of the United States was more than a major landmark in American history – it was a trumpet call for change globally. The overwhelming choice by voters of an African-American president for the first time sent a fresh challenge to the world to end divisions rooted in race, ethnicity, tribal loyalties or religion.
Headlines, newscasts and commentaries globally fed the hunger of people everywhere for visionary and inspiring leadership. Mass media which took Obama’s campaign to millions across the country and to billions across the world could and should play a key role in keeping his vision alive.
With Obama’s soaring rhetoric and hopes for an America above race, color and creed, he touched the hearts as well as minds of voters fed up with partisan bickering in a Congress and White House constantly at odds. But obstacles remain. Deep pockets of anger exist in states that supported his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain.
But McCain has laudably summoned all Americans to rally to Obama’s side to help him realize his and the late Dr. Martin Luther King’s dreams for a nation free of racism, one where people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. An America truly united can be that ‘city on a hill’.
From personal experience, I know it can happen. Born and reared in the deep South of America – Mississippi – I had regrettably defended as a journalist the racial segregation that made second-class citizens of African-Americans. They were denied rights whites took for granted. Many were treated badly in many ways. Few voted. Those who did risked punishment that could be brutal, even lethal.
But I changed many years ago after taking an honest look at myself and what I stood for, put right many wrongs in my past and acquired a new vision for my work and life – I began to write to heal rather than hurt, to unite rather than divide, to bring people together rather than drive them apart. The Voting Rights Act of 1964, meanwhile, made possible the massive turnout of blacks for Obama just as it led to blacks in many public and private positions of power today. As important was the massive support he received from people of all colors and backgrounds tired of the ‘old politics’ and yearning for a new day.
Thus when I cast my vote for Obama I felt a magnitude of joy I’d never experienced in a polling place. Here was a man, biracial with a Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas, uniquely equipped to lead America in a new direction, one likely to inspire people everywhere. I had the sense I was participating in a major shift in the course of world history.
But it won’t be easy. Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden must grapple with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They must strive with their allies and other leaders abroad to ease the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. They must cope with global warming, energy shortages, conflicts in Africa and elsewhere and an Iran suspected of trying to produce nuclear weapons.
Whether they succeed will depend on the extent to which we can reach a consensus with our allies and other partners on what should be done. But they’re expected to try hard, keeping in mind that we are, increasingly, one world, one family.
A lot may depend, as well, on mass media not only in the United States but also abroad. As Bill Porter, founder-president of the International Communications Forum (ICF) http://www.icforum.org/, maintains, media may not solve our problems but can help provide the atmosphere in which they can be solved. But it will take media owners and practitioners with a vision. We must be done with the cheap, with obsessing with celebrities and so-called celebrities, with the tawdry of every kind and give vent to our best instincts, natures and values.
That achieved, many newspapers, radio and TV stations may ease their own economic crises. Just as Obama seized on a massive public hunger for change and won the White House, so may media outlets gain from a new vision of how they can become a less destructive and more compelling force for helping usher in a world of peace with justice and prosperity for all.
Robert Webb is a former columnist and editorial writer for the 'Cincinnati Enquirer'. He lives in Alexandria, Va, USA, and now works with the International Communications Forum in the US.
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