As a reader (audience), I would like to receive the following from both print and electronic newspapers (media):
1. Objective, strictly factual information.
2. Opinion-forming, unbiased analysis of the facts.
3. Cultured, disciplined, self-critical debate, viewing the other as an equal partner. 

What do I get instead?
Instead of 1: information that distorts the facts, makes assumptions about them, and includes elements that make the facts more colourful, digestible and "sellable".
Instead of 2: analyses that want to influence public opinion, treat the facts with emotion and prejudice, and are full of biased judgements.
Instead of 3: smearing, mud-slinging, discrediting each other.

Regardless of what a young journalist learns at school, life will quickly reshape his/her views if he/she wants to stay in the profession, because he/she will be placed in a context where the trend is to represent the sponsor's interests or to serve the interests of a lowly educated class in order to sell the paper (programme). There has probably never been (and probably never will be) pure journalism that is truly ethical, because journalism and the media have become a tool of power. The rapid flow of information via the Internet has made it possible to influence large groups of people in a short space of time using the media. The people who have power will not therefore give up the opportunity to preserve their own power or the intention to overthrow others, and few journalists are prepared to sacrifice themselves on the altar of truth and morality.

However, the conscious behavior of readers can change the situation. The reader can learn to read between the lines and filter out the inappropriate, misleading or half information, so that to be able to discern the stripped-down facts. The reader can also learn to recognise at what points the journalist has been influenced by his/her own emotions about the facts, what events have provoked his/her passions and judgements from him/her, and how this has distorted the transmission of information to the reader. Since only the mind-consciousness can be influenced, achieving a higher consciousness allows the personality to form own opinion. This is the first stage of distinctive knowledge.

Information of which only fifty percent is true, and we can't tell which fifty, can be considered hundred percent false. In that case, however, we would be left without information, because we could believe no one. So, we have to learn to identify which fifty percent is true and filter out the rest. As long as our filters are not working properly, we will be exposed to political, economic and cultural pressure from the media, which will try to force down our throats a view that is not our own, but which is repeated so often that it slowly becomes ingrained and it is then difficult (but not impossible!) to get rid of.

The media (also) use two basic tricks to influence the masses: one is repetition. The short, popular slogans are often repeated like the mantras. The human mind has a characteristic that the frequently heard words from short-lived memory (operational memory) are transferred to the background storage of the mind, and once they are there, they are recognised as one's own and believed to be one's own thought. The other trick is to make it seem as if the views they present is completely universally accepted, only you stick out of line if you think differently on the issue. This makes the reader (audience) feel insecure, thinking they are themselves the idiot if they disagree with the train of thought. Plus, the many dissenters can't get a say because they can't find a forum. Since dissenters exist in isolation from each other, they know neither about each other nor others about them. This is how a majority opinion can remain hidden or in the minority.

Fortunately, the flow of information does not only take place across media, i.e. on a material plane, but the thoughts of all people form a single common information field. When a thought occurs to someone, it can be felt by those who harmonise with it. The more clearly the thought appears, the greater will be its effect, which will first be hidden and then more and more openly manifested in the consciousness of others. This is how we shape the world with our thoughts. The world around us is nothing but the material embodiment of the collective thought field.

Clear your emotions and thoughts and choose to become a self-aware, responsible person. Follow what your innermost, purest feelings dictate if you do not want it to apply to you:

"Let's eat muck! Millions of flies can't be wrong!"
 

Margaret Rhasoda-Varga
UCCM head-master
(The sky touches the earth, excerpt)