“If we are forced, at every hour, to watch or listen to horrible events, this

constant stream of ghastly impressions will deprive even the most

delicate among us of all respect for humanity.”

Who said this about TV? Any guesses?

Don’t try too hard. These words were not written about TV. Cicero wrote them about Roman theatre in the first century!

Avoid extremes

The media are generally faced by two attitudes. One looks at them as the solution; a sort of salvation. There is the attitude that “there is a medium for every ill.” Others, on the contrary, look at the media as the root of all evil. The media are a sort of modern day version of the original sin. If there were no apples at the time of Adam and Eve surely TV or the Internet would have done the trick.

We have to steer between these two extremes. This was the advice I gave MPs when I addressed the Social Affairs Committee of the House. Edwin Vassallo, chairman of the committee asked me and fellow academics Rev Dr Carmel Tabone, Dr Angela Abela and Dr Mary Anne Lauri to make a presentation to the Committee about the media and the family. It was a positive experience. MPs from both sides of the House discussed the subject basing themselves on their experiences while reacting to what I and my colleague, Fr Tabone were saying. (The other invitees did not make it to the meeting though my presentation was jointly prepared together with Dr Lauri.)

No beauty and the beast situation

Another extreme position to be avoided is the perception that the media are the beast and the family is the beauty. The family comprises a vast array of realities. There are one parent families, families, families with married parents, others with unmarried parents. There are beautiful families and beast families.

The more importance a family gives to media use the more influential the media would be. Our families give a lot of importance to the media, ergo, their influence would tend to be great. Many are surprised when I reproduce the following statistics which strongly make an important point though they are a bit dated as they are based on NSO press release number 60 of 2003.

* 98.9% of our Maltese homes have at least one TV set.

* More than half have two sets or more.

* 95% of homes have a washing machine.

* 93% have a water heater.

* 82% have a fridge-freezer.

TV is supreme!

The nice and the ugly

There is fantastic media content and horrible media content. There is the uplifting and the degrading. Our children are also exposed to the horrible kind of content. An NSO (2005) study on Internet Use shows that:

* On third of Maltese students are exposed to violent, pornographic and racial content on the Internet.

* Boys (43%) are exposed more than girls (25.75).

* The least exposed to such material are primary students in state schools (17.6%).

* The most exposed students to such material are those attending independent secondary schools (59.5%).

There is a very simple reason for this fact. The same NSO (2005) study shows that students in the independent secondary schools have home access to computers and the Internet much more than students in state or church schools. Consequently they use that medium more.

* Maltese students spend on line average of 5.1 hours a week on line.

* Students in independent schools spend on line an average of 9.7 hours a week.

* Students in secondary schools (not the Junior Lyceum) spend an average of 3.8 hours a week.

These statistics point toward the existence of the digital divide amongst us as students in independent schools generally come from higher income families than students in other type of schools.

Let me point to one very important caveat. Statistics in this area change quite a bit. Internet and the new media are increasing by leaps and bounds thanks, among other things, to the government’s aggressive policy of popularizing access to computer and the Internet, especially broadband internet.

The following statistics speak for themselves.

* Houses having a computer:

* One third (2000)

* Two thirds (2006)

* Houses having the Internet

* 9% in 2000

* 50% in 2005

Internet subscriptions rose from 22,700 in 1998 to 107,000 in June this year! Quite a staggering increase, isn’t it?

Communicating through email or SMS

Families that choose well will, quite naturally, be better off than families that make bad media choices. Choosing well, in my opinion, also includes and means choosing together. The increase in the number of different media in different rooms and for different members of the family can mean that media communications increases at the expense of family communication. Family communication should never come second to media consumption. It would be a sad day when families start communicating by means of emails or SMSs or dialoguing in the cyber space of social networks than in face to face in their own living rooms.

Teaching swimmers

If someone lives by the sea it is better to teach him/her how to swim than to build a wall! Media education teaches people how to swim in our media saturated environment. Together with others I have been working on the subject since 1980. Education not censorship is the way forward. But that could be the subject for another blog.

Till next time I wish you all good bye and good luck.