The Creatively Transcribed Objectivity of the Media Content
László Faragó
Institute of Anthropological and Philosophical Studies faragoradio@gmail.com
Keywords: objectivity of media fantasy, street publicity, redesigned reality, mirror abstraction, screen panic
Post-truth, that is, the space of articulation transcending reality or to put it simply, the world beyond reality or the world after facts – was our most often used expression according to a survey carried out by the Oxford English Dictio- nary1 some years ago.
Post-truth is primarily related to politics, politics is related to power and all of this has directly infiltrated the world of media. The media conveys the messages of politics to the society and individuals. In this sense, the world be- yond reality has a role in reinterpretation of democracy and in works of art as well. By spectacularly reconstructing events that are far from one another in space and time, post-truth has become a tool of the global media (if we can talk about global media, however, in my opinion, we can), and this is not the ac- ceptance, merely a statement.2 No doubt that today screen has become the most often used medium. Just as storytelling (creating myths and ritual space) in the past took place in the family arena or in some community event, later, the scene became the mass media (in Habermasian terms), and now it is the screen that controls everything. On one hand, my goal with this study is to clarify the me- dium of media fantasy and show the conveying tools connected to the formal and street publicity.3 I would like to find an answer to the question why emo- tions and personal beliefs are the most influential in public opinion and how objective facts are eliminated from the interpretation of news. In other words,
1 Word of the Year 2016, Oxford Dictionaries. Online: en.oxforddictionaries.com – December 2019.
2 In her book, Globalization and New Governance Jody Jensen discusses this idea, however, I think it is the global media that can convey messages to regional and local societies by crossing civilisation barriers. Jody JENSEN, Globalizáció és új kormányzás, Mundus Novus, (Budapest: MTA Társadalom- tudományi Kutatóközpont, 2014)
3 FARAGÓ László, „Az új nyilvánosság ellenőrző szerepe a horizontálisan átjárható köztérben”, Re- conect – Electronic Journal of Social, Environmental and Cultural Studies, Region, Environment, Cul- ture Research Group, (3)2011, 4. sz. 40–50. Online: reconect2009.files.wordpress.com – December 2019.
what can be the objectivity of media fantasy. The redrawn reality is character- ized by the fact, that it affects the less conscious cyber citizens: in the factories of fake truths, people, in most cases, consciously make it a point that the post- truth should actually do contain some elements of truth. Therefore, post-truth and reality has some common points, but the two – overall – do not overlap each other and thus conceal one of the tools of influence which is the crudest and hardest to recognize. I will show some examples from the past and present how the process of post-truth influence and the theme system of fake truth work and how the propagation and consumption speed of these can be de- tected. I am also interested why communication that is far from reality evoke more intense emotional reactions, outrage and repulsion among the actors of the virtual connection matrix.
The Reverse meaning of the Mirror abstraction
All pieces of news are from fantasy and the abstraction of reality with no excep- tion. The mapped reality is only an intentional reflection. (Not to mention the fact, that the mirror image is already a symmetrically averted image.) Seizing reality is subjective, even if the producer of the (media) message has only good intentions. However, we cannot conclude that the media content is organically the world after the facts. Still, we can assume that objectivity is like a parabola, that approaches the extreme values of infinity, but never reaches it. The wish of objectivity is so idealistic that we can think of Herakleitos saying we cannot step into the same river twice, meaning there are as many interpretations of the facts as we are in number. The number of fantasy elements is growing in direct ratio with the elapsed time and the displacements made in space. This is also true for the one who sees the series of events with his own eyes and touches the environment with his own hands, but also for the one who was able to rec- ord and attest some part of the event. It is even more difficult for those who must rely on a mediator due to their geographical distance, time or some disa- bility. Constructed reality is therefore not a reflection in a mirror. It is like it…but it is not the original. Elemér Hankiss talks about media as the Sorcerer or the Thimble rigger.4 Still, there is no reason to doubt: mediation facts are pur- posefully objective. No need to argue either that the media message also con- tains a great amount of distorted information, part of which is twisted on pur- pose. Halfway between the two we can find infotainment, the hybrid of inform- ing and entertaining, where media content is aimed to reach more and more people by building show elements into the plot. Notice, when informative
4 ElemérHANKISS, The Toothpaste of Immortality: Self Constructiom int he Consumer Age, (Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001)
infotainment presents objectivity, it can be more easily detected. (There are ex- ceptions, of course, for example the Czech exam film about a fictional animal, called Pacurofagus oxitoxicus, which eats up oil. I will mention that later.)
Infotainment, then, is not reality after the facts, only creatively coloured and imaginative objectivity. At the other end of the fact axis we can find false news with more information which are made for distortion, hate speech or dis- credit. There have been more and more dozens of webpages specialized on false news on purpose. Fortunately, we can also find webpages where news falsifica- tion can be filtered based on different algorithms (International Fact-Checking Network).5
The media arena is turned inside out. Formal media is still present mainly as the articulatory surface of traditional publicity (Habermas)…or rather, it could be present if the authority was not trying to expropriate it every now and then. The latter statement is certainly prevalent globally and has always been returning for thousands of years. By taming the arenas of publicity with orders, it is criticism, the chance of checking that disappears from the process of news- making. I have mentioned how the control of formal media can be taken by the horizontally organized street publicity by showing a peculiar activity in docu- menting the events.
I am calling the new actors of media, who are organized based on a com- mon narrative, street publicity. ‘Besides informing, the events made public and created in this way strengthen social solidarity and have key roles in creating the value system’ – as Dayan and Katz put it in their ritual communication the- ory.6 The ‘networking’ communication among the equal actors serve not only as an arena of conversations for the sake of conversing but also a cultural melt- ing pot and a group organizer. However, do not forget how the eyewitness so actively documenting the event disregards how subjective his viewpoint is when deciding about capturing the details of reality. The media man checks the facts and this kind of editing process (can) lead to objectivity.
On the other hand, however, the actor of street publicity strives the most to satisfy the need of media fantasy and relational community. So, we may turn back to the point where objectivity is only a dedication to good intentions and most often the result can be a fantasized objectivity. The other extreme is the media slave who creates false news on demand based on objective reality but distorts it according to the interests of the authority. Another category is needed to be introduced: the group creating false news for fun who are not led
5 „Itt a nagy átverős lista: weboldalak, melyeknek soha ne higgyen el semmit”, hvg.hu, 19 January 2015. Online: hvg.hu – December 2019.
6 BAJOMI-LÁZÁR Péter, Média és politika, (Budapest: PrintXBudavár Zrt., 2010)
by political beliefs; they just want more and more people to follow their texts, pictures or videos.
Reflecting news with no camouflage of reality is an ideal, meaning the re- verse interpretation of the mirror-abstraction – this concept is still closer to me.
Conveying reality is a moral obligation. Therefore, the basis of reality is the news. There is no order without perfect morals or beauty, so there is no huma- nity without morals either, just as Márai interprets Seneca’s teaching.7
Moral Panic and False Movie Content
It is not the task of the works of art to weigh truths on pharmacy scales. Truth, as I have mentioned before is parabola publicity at the most: an intention, wish or ideal. We do not expect movies, for example, to show the mirror-abstraction of reality. The work of art is more likely to convey a subjective point of view or an odd (subcultural) value system and norms: a chance for identification we like consuming. We also have difficulties in trying to understand reality: no un- derstanding can be due to a mental laziness. According to Machiavelli some people do not want to understand reality, others cannot interpret the pheno- menon because they have some gaps in their capacities. Francis Fukuyama says many people have ‘no time or willingness’ to think about things so they accept whatever is presented to them on screen as truth and reality.8 Taking a look at the lonely people, Eric Berne claims that they spend their time in two different ways; either with some activity or just fantasy.9
Therefore, whatever we like consuming is not necessarily reality itself, but our desires and so it is close to our gravity of fantasy, where fantasy is the cre- ative interpretation of events. Clearly there have always been equivocators and equivocator-consumers, moreover, we can find non-truth or ultimately lie in all communication. In Sherif’s scales of attitude, which starts from threat to safety, we can find the latitude of acceptance and latitude of rejection.10 If the media content is close to our own and fixed attitude, then the messages get to us. In the latitude of rejection, the boomerang effect applies. This way we can under- stand why so many do not want to note that Orson Welles’ The Attack by Mars is only a radio play, a dramatized documentary drama on the radio and not
7 Seneca leveleiből, ford. Sárosi Gyula, Officina Könyvtár 57/58, (Budapest: Officina, 1943) Online:
Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár, mek.oszk.hu – December 2019.
8 Francis FUKUYAMA, Bizalom. A társadalmi erények és a jólét megteremtése, (Budapest: Európa Ki- adó, 2007) 61.
9 Eric BERNE, Emberi játszmák, (Budapest: Háttér Kiadó, 1984)
10 Muzaref SHERIF, Social interaction process and products: selected essays, (Chicago: Aldine Publis- hing Company, 1967)
reality in spite of the fact that the radio speaker said it was a play at the begin- ning, the middle and at the end of the program as well.11
Likewise, viewers also accepted Jan Svěrák’s film, Ropaci as a scientific he- adliner.12 The man, who is one of the most famous figure of the new-wave Czech film generation, won the award for the best young filmmaker of the American Film Academy. The news about the ropaci could have been plausible for so many as in the eighties there was a growing demand to find a way to neutralize natural disasters caused by oil. Information addiction13 can be satisfied with information. Among ‘n’ number of information – ab ovo – there is real commu- nication, if one (the ‘n’) element is missing, fantasy has a role, the order of the pieces of information is important and among the pieces there is/can be false content. The latter two: the order and the non-truth are the most instructing.
Media – (the screen) is a tool of the collective rite: people get into direct contact with symbols, values easier and they have a special demand to be inst- ructed and verified by them. The scenes of social conflicts have oriented to the screen nowadays. The screen only washes in the real space and the cyber rela- tional network.
Incorporated Messages, Norms and Rumours without Checks and Balances Reality is overweight by pressure so long as the creatively coloured cyber space is open for moving around freely. The point of fabulous objectivity says that ‘the user is on the move until he finds’ the most appealing, emotionally closest and the most exciting content. In an unforeseeable number of surfaces, the chance of search and find is also infinite, and this is appealing: another dose leading to addiction. However, this infinite number and extent of content implies that the value system conveyed by the text and the character is not the symbolic expres- sion of the real society but fantasy. It would not be a problem, but as I studied students from primary school or even younger kids swiping the screen, I found that these generations cannot differentiate reality and reshaped truth. Simi- larly, the ‘hidden messages of media’,14 ‘the artificially created world’ becomes identical to the real world: the symbolic world supports their forming beliefs’
about society and attitudes in connection with other people. Since the masses of content get into the mind of young adults (18–24 years old) through different virtual channels without reflection and elaboration making it especially
11 Attack by Mars, CBS, 1938.
12 VASSY Zoltán, „Olajfalók és paraolajfalók”, Élet és tudomány, (51)1996, 41. sz. 1293.
13 ANGELUSZ Róbert, A láthatóság görbe tükrei, (Budapest: Új Mandátum Könyvkiadó, 2000)
14 George GERBNER, A média rejtett üzenete, (Budapest: Osiris, 2002)
dangerous. In addition, the process is unseen, so it is more about ‘attacking and reaching’ the subconscious.
The situation is similar in case of messages with latent lie content. These certainly do not address the youngest screen addicted generation, but the speed of their reception and the lower number of rejections shows the case that I have previously described. Post-truth, or the acceptance of the world after reality lies in the subconscious rejection of elaboration and the organic laziness of human thinking. It is much easier to nod at the thesis-like picture with text than check- ing its reality content and transparency. In case the message and the actors of the picture with text are closer to the recipient youngsters’ fixed attitude and emotion and are found funny, exciting or modern, the viewers will watch the scenes three times, five times or ten times more.
The current increase in the number of available mediums have not created a defensive reflex, either. Instead of checking, people are looking for affirming aspects, so rumours can find their way as easily as before. The social conflicts presented during the media panic do not give new information but provide op- portunities for identification through violation of norms (good and bad, chaos and order, safety and danger).
The Meaning of the World after the Facts
The subconsciously rejected elaboration and the organic laziness of the human mind show how messages with latent lie content, or the world after the facts is accepted. It is much easier to nod at the thesis-like picture with text than check- ing its reality content and transparency. Savvy thinking demands effort. The time factor of consideration takes bigger effort than matching them to fix mes- sages. In case our brain contains similar contents in its ‘storage drawers’, then it is more likely to match them to these. Quasi relaxing and leaving worries be- hind, we have no need to study the text and check its reality content.
The methodology of rumour creating factories include doing everything for the sake of minimalizing our alertness. Our media fantasy – as it seems – is hardly restricted by objectivity in these cases.
Therefore, truth could be and must be interpreted by acting on the given situation. If there is a controlled atmosphere on the net, the image of evil be- comes an integral part of public discourse together with fear. All half-truths in connection with the mood get into the media fantasy which can be objectified.
Reality, then, must be formed in a creative way so that we just add a little fan- tasy to reality, exactly to the point when fear from foreigners and immigrants can be sustained. Festinger claimed that after disasters, fictitious rumours jus- tify anxiety. It is another claim to prove that there is an ongoing demand for
rumours. If that is the case, then it is not by chance that we can so often find providers and acceptors of rumours in the cyber space as well.
The Spreading Speed of Rumours
Umberto Eco gave a summary of the value of information15 by noting that it is essential to study the effect and the structure of the message in the given situa- tion from a historical, sociological and psychological point of view. Our personal interest in the news or the rumour greatly depends on the medium. Let’s look at the community pages as mediating scenes because of their periodical, public and interactively conversational nature.16 In this case, we can see that the spreading speed of rumours is influenced greatly by the relational network. The trust index is high among those who are close to each other in the matrix and the public content can be shared within seconds. Further distribution is up to the creativity of the producer of the news or rumour – how well it is wrapped in a way where reality still shows, and the objectified fantasy does not cause any reception barriers. The more creative the producing cyber hero or citizen is the less rejection the content gets. The spreading speed depends on the public discourse as well: if there are similar abstractions present the actual one can drop. In case of rumours, the series of factual messages can ‘extinguish’ the ru- mour. You see, timing and the actual social environment is crucial.
Based on the above mentioned I believe that the spreading speed is higher in case of post-truth as there is less elaboration and checking in the way of the news. The spreading of pseudo-truth, however, can strike a snag if it gets out from the circle of trust or if it meets an algorithm that can filter the rumour and the suspicious environment. These validated engines check how much the con- tent of the background of the piece of news is relevant. They even convert im- ages to texts and compare them to the content – in each situation they tag the webpage saying how much relevancy they found.
It is probably not much for those who want to believe the rumour accord- ing to their conviction and actual settings. Believing the lie seems easier than finding out the truth. If we accept that other people tell us how to interpret re- ality than we are already in a trap and consumed by the Orwellian world. It is enough to chant: ‘War is peace and ignorance is strength’. Do not forget the sen- tence above the entrance gate of the work camp in Auschwitz: ‘Work will set you free’. Lie is a great temptation and that is how desires can appear.
15 Umberto ECO, Nyitott mű. (Információ és pszichológia tranzakció), (Budapest: Európa Könyvkiadó, 1998) 173–175.
16 FARAGÓ László, „Kultúraközvetítő közösségi terek”, XIX. Apáczai-napok. Tudományos Konferencia.
Tanulmánykötet. Gondolkodási struktúrák és kreativitás, szerk. LŐRINCZ Ildikó, (Győr: Széchenyi Ist- ván Egyetem Apáczai Csere János Kar, 2015) 497–503.
Protection against Messages beyond Reality
First, consider that communication and reception have more aspects. Schulz von Thun calls them ears, for us they are significant because of their role in in- terpreting reality.17 If the recipient notices the different intention as we also do that during Berne’s transaction analysis, the chance of reception with no inter- pretation or without non-truth or distortion is smaller, thus non-truth does not find ‘ears’.
The 5 sides of communication (according to Schultz van Thun)
I call the creators of truth beyond reality media slaves, as they are those who can only partly make use of the available scene of fantasy. Censorship lim- its their overly thematic frame, that expects all messages to reach the effects that serve the interests of the authority – as their timing and intensity prove it as well. On the contrary, the media storyteller expands the scene of fantasy in order to make the media message more consumer friendly. In the latter case, we do not talk about deception, character assassination or scaremongering as they are more typical motivations of making pseudo news. The motivation be- hind pseudo news can be taken as the defects of actual (local) publicity.18 We need to emphasize that even if I used to believe that news is fantasy and the abstraction of reality. Objectivity is only a good intention that can result in fic- tional objectivity in most cases. The difference between objective communica- tion and the world of post-truth is the framework of fantasy. Messages contain- ing lies, in other words, accepting the world after the facts are shown in the subconsciously rejected elaboration and the organic laziness of the human
17 Friedemann SCHULZ VON THUN, A kommunikáció zavarai és feloldásuk, (Budapest: Háttér Kiadó, 2012)
18 BAJOMI-LÁZÁR, Média és politika, op.cit.
mind. It is much easier to nod at the thesis-like picture with text than checking its reality content and transparency. Savvy thinking demands effort. The time of consideration is longer that matching it to fixed messages. So the spreading speed of post-truth messages is faster as there is less elaboration and checking in the way of the news. The spreading of pseudo-truth, however, can strike a snag if it gets out from the circle of trust or if it meets an algorithm that can filter the rumour and the suspicious environment. Besides algorithms, contin- uous suspicion can mean a barrier for the spreading of texts beyond reality. In conclusion, post-truth content is not spreading with the help of broadcasting or streaming mediums but in the virtual network. Also, the world of post-truth can be so influential because the solid message accumulates easier in the narrow framework of fantasy and so the acceptance and reception of the message is quicker and more convincing.
My major publications on the topic:
FARAGÓ László, „Az új nyilvánosság ellenőrző szerepe a horizontálisan átjárható köztérben”, Reconect – Electronic Journal of Social, Environmental and Cultural Studies, Region, Environment, Culture Research Group, (3)2011, 4. sz. 40–50. Online: reconect2009.files.wordpress.com – Decem- ber 2019.
FARAGÓ László, „Mediatizált kapcsolati hálók a 20. és 21. század fordulóján”, in 7. Nemzetközi Balkán Társadalomtudományok Konferenciája. Absztraktok és közlemények, szerk. SZENDRŐ Katalin és VARGA József és BARNA Róbert, (Kaposvár, Kaposvári Egyetem Gazdaságtudományi Kar, 2015) Online: balkan.ke.hu – – December 2019. 85–94.
FARAGÓ László, „Kultúraközvetítő közösségi terek”, XIX. Apáczai-napok. Tudományos Konferencia.
Tanulmánykötet. Gondolkodási struktúrák és kreativitás, szerk. LŐRINCZ Ildikó, (Győr: Széchenyi István Egyetem Apáczai Csere János Kar, 2015) 497–503.
