How to exploit media influence

I would like to start this article by stating quite clearly that I am not a prude. In fact, I consider myself to be very broad-minded.

However, the other evening, when my wife and myself came home at around midnight, we both glanced at the television which was on at the time. What we saw was quite amazing. Two young boys, playing with a young girl, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. The channel was 49 on cable TV.

The media around the world is getting worse and worse and more and more tolerant to all sorts of sex, drugs and violence. There seems to be a worldwide media campaign to push the moral values of our adolescents to the lowest level possible.

People say that this is not true. Today's youngsters are much more mature than those of 40 and 50 years ago. They accept films, DVDs, home videos and internet as entertainment and try to behave as if they are not unduly influenced by them.

A few days ago, Monsignor Victor Grech said in a homily that two out of five children born in Malta this year were registered with "father unknown". He also said there were 2,000 weddings registered and about 1,250 applications for separation! These figures are startling, especially in Catholic Malta.

Those who say that our children are not influenced by the media are talking through the back of their heads. Of course, they are influenced. The media, properly managed, has an amazing influence over everybody. Television and radio adverts prove this point beyond any doubt.

We, as a country, cannot influence what is produced abroad or what is sent to our shores through TV or the internet but we can control and influence what we allow to be shown in our homes or cinemas, if these programmes are under our control.

Our cinema film censors are far too lenient and they are non-existent in the case of films shown on TV. If Melita Cable has no control over what is piped through the film channels that come straight into our homes, then let each family have the option to censor.

Something must be done to prevent our children being unduly influenced by loads of rubbishy content being sent to us from abroad.

I remember that in the 1960s, all films shown on the cinema screen had to have a good moral ending. The killer got caught and so did the thief. You didn't see naked flesh anywhere. And we still enjoyed the films. I can hear people saying: But that was years ago. Now things are different. We are much more broad-minded. This is 2004.

If this is an argument, what will people be saying in 2010? What will people be seeing? What will people be wearing, or not wearing? The mind boggles!

We, in Malta, seem to have an inferiority complex which makes us want to keep up with the rest of the world even if the rest of the world is doing, or seeing, bad things.

We are at present welcoming many youngsters into our country as students learning English. Why can't we lead the way and show them the decent way of behaving instead of us giving them the impression that Malta is a place where they can do whatever they want.

Gradually, gradually, things have been getting worse and the whole world is accepting it.

We are a small island and we can control many things, and controlling rubbish for the good of our children is not a bad thing. Nor is it a bad thing for our country to let everyone know that we are doing so and that we are proud to be doing it.

Now that we have established the fact that the media has an amazing influence over people, this same media should be used for doing good for our country.

There should be a professional media unit set up in Malta to make and design films, television adverts, artworks, radio adverts, posters and any media material. This unit would also be capable of public relations activities. The decent messages that need to be shown to the people of Malta and Gozo would be produced by this unit and displayed in all the media around our islands.

Good messages about looking after Malta, about welcoming our visitors in the very best manner possible, about looking after each other, about the importance of behaving ourselves. Sound messages that would be conducive to, and then ensuring, our society heads in the right direction for the good of us all.

All media owners in Malta and Gozo should be asked to allow these messages to be aired or shown free of charge as part of their licence to operate. And all well-meaning media owners should do so willingly.

I once owned a radio station and I can assure you that one extra advert each half hour could be very easily arranged. Television stations could do the same. So could magazines and newspapers. So could bus stops and billboards etc.

Media influences people. Ok, let it influence us positively and not negatively. Let us use the influential media for our present and future needs and also for the good of our society.

Mr Salt is a real estate agent and a former chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority's product planning and development directorate.