A Bird’s Eye View: Ministerial media-mania
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by Advena Avis
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 03, 2009 00:00
We do not want to appear as if we are repeating ourselves, but we will try once more to appeal to politicians of this planet to restrict their public relations appearances and their constant presence on TV or elsewhere. Why? Simply because humanity does not care today and does not watch or listen to them. We shall be more specific.
If one follows the news on TV in many Mediterranean countries, one will see most of the time ministers making daily statements in various events that they attend within the framework of their official functions. Many of these statements have been prepared by others. This situation is more prevalent in Turkey and Greece where the evening news programs last for a very long time. But what politicians should know is that, generally, no human pays attention to what they say except themselves. How many times have politicians been seen watching themselves on TV, their ego fully satisfied?
The average human might listen and watch politicians on the eve of elections to see how they will vote, even though most of them will not be influenced by what they see or hear since they will vote on the basis of political or personal affiliations. The average human will pay attention to a politician if he or she has something important to say, like declaring war or bailout measures to deal with the global financial crisis. But nobody listens or watches news coverage describing the daily activities of ministers. Of course, many politicians may think that at least their prime minister might be watching and impressed by their activities. Here again, they should know better than us birds that even the prime ministers have no time to watch TV and if they do, then they watch themselves in an egocentric way. Nevertheless the prime minister would be happier with his ministers if they would do more effective work in their area of competence, rather than overdoing it with public appearances. Also some prime ministers become jealous of their ministers if they appear in the news more than themselves, thinking that it is a threat to the position of the prime minister. Many ministers worldwide have been dismissed for overdoing it.
Too much coverage
One example of exaggerated media coverage is the French president who has embarked on organizing summits in order to promote himself to the world. However, he could do that more effectively were he to achieve more practical and visible results for his people. Before the development of mass media and in past centuries, the activities of politicians were reported in the newspapers with a delay of a couple of days and were read only by those who were literate. The rest of the population felt the impact of a local politician either from public speeches or through projects or other acts that affected positively their lives.
We had once proposed and we do it again today that if politicians cannot restrict their media-mania, then when a government is elected it should assign the everyday running of the country to a consulting firm in order to allow the politicians to exercise their media-mania but at least someone will be working for the benefit of the citizens.
Ponder our thoughts, dear humans, for your benefit.
The average human might listen and watch politicians on the eve of elections to see how they will vote, even though most of them will not be influenced by what they see or hear since they will vote on the basis of political or personal affiliations. The average human will pay attention to a politician if he or she has something important to say, like declaring war or bailout measures to deal with the global financial crisis. But nobody listens or watches news coverage describing the daily activities of ministers. Of course, many politicians may think that at least their prime minister might be watching and impressed by their activities. Here again, they should know better than us birds that even the prime ministers have no time to watch TV and if they do, then they watch themselves in an egocentric way. Nevertheless the prime minister would be happier with his ministers if they would do more effective work in their area of competence, rather than overdoing it with public appearances. Also some prime ministers become jealous of their ministers if they appear in the news more than themselves, thinking that it is a threat to the position of the prime minister. Many ministers worldwide have been dismissed for overdoing it.
Too much coverage
One example of exaggerated media coverage is the French president who has embarked on organizing summits in order to promote himself to the world. However, he could do that more effectively were he to achieve more practical and visible results for his people. Before the development of mass media and in past centuries, the activities of politicians were reported in the newspapers with a delay of a couple of days and were read only by those who were literate. The rest of the population felt the impact of a local politician either from public speeches or through projects or other acts that affected positively their lives.
We had once proposed and we do it again today that if politicians cannot restrict their media-mania, then when a government is elected it should assign the everyday running of the country to a consulting firm in order to allow the politicians to exercise their media-mania but at least someone will be working for the benefit of the citizens.
Ponder our thoughts, dear humans, for your benefit.