Ethos and modern media.
A few days ago I read an article about Aristotle and his idea regarding the messenger and the message. Please, I am no scholar of Aristotle and my knowledge of Greek stopped short after baklava. Aristotle said that the messenger or bringer of news should have three things namely: ethos, pathos and logia. I understood that who ever brings the message or news to the people or who it is intended for should have ethos or the correct ethics. Without the correct ethics the person bringing the messages loses all credibility. Pathos or sympathy is the part where the listener wants to know if the messenger shares their hope, fears and longings.
Are there “love” or empathy in the heart of the messenger or is he/she becoming just another tinkling cymbal. Logia is the verbal or word part. Does the person have something to say.
Ethos and pathos I see as character qualities. Something we all should have and display in our daily lifes.
This made me wonder how much of this is really relevant in the modern media and how they tell and portray a story to the public? Maybe it is a case that the public has become to “shallow” and selfish to question the credibility of the “messenger”, in this case the newspaper or television. The attitude is “I saw it on television so it must be true”. Personally these days I have very little faith in newspapers or television news. Do they really tell the true story or do they twist it as win over the viewers sympathy? Do Aristotle’s view apply today? I doubt!
people don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care
Ek het persoonlik ‘n groot probleem daarmee… Ek kyk nie TV nuus nie want dit irriteer die dinges uit my uit. Ek lees die koerante online, maar weet om alles maar met ‘n knippie sout te vat, so eintlik mors ek seker my tyd. Bwahahahaha
Ek vind dat alle nuus deesdae baie eensydig is. Dit is meer om die massa tevrede te stel as om regtig die feite weer te gee. Is seker maar omdat geld so groot rol speel.
Dit is bv. Ek het 3 amerikaners vir ‘n week, en toe 2 bulgarians vir 2 nagte by my gehad. En hulle het almal saamgestem, dat soos die media aangaan, hulle verwag het dat daar bendes gewapende rowers op elke hoek en draai is, besig om soos in die wille weste rond te hardloop en skiet.
Dit wil vir my voorkom of die moderne media heel dikwels op ethos faal – hulle is eensydig en soms doodeenvoudig oneerlik.
Dalk sukkel ek op my blog meer met pathos- om te wys hoe die onderwerp die leser raak.
Ek dink nie jy sukkel met die pathos nie. Dit is net dat die meeste lesers op jou blog nie wil weet wat jy sê nie. Die waarheid was nog maar altyd ‘n bitter pil. Dalk is dit hoekom die media nie regtig die volle waarheid vertel nie. Mense wil die nie hoor nie.