Author: Agnieszka Biczyńska. Source: obliczakultury.pl. Date: 15 November 2013.

Fifty years ago the journalist’s profession was perceived entirely differently from today. It was an important profession, playing a significant intellectual and political role. It was practised by a narrow group of persons who commanded society’s respect. The journalist was a known and admired person — Ryszard Kapuściński wrote. Today it is a mass and also a transient occupation, which one can change at any moment. The work of our greatest reporter was full of life, passion, pride, and responsibility for words. Ethical, marked by personal experience, risks undertaken, and empathy. This Is Not a Job for Cynics is the result of the transcription of three lectures delivered in Italy in 1994 and 1999, workshops run in 2000–2002 in Latin America, and several interesting conversations. Previously published only in Spanish and Italian, they have recently finally appeared in Polish. The author shares his experience in them, offers guidance, and reveals the sins of today’s world of media.

The journalist is always guided by the same goal: to inform, to acquaint the reader with the facts, to show, to educate — so that he can understand the world surrounding him — Ryszard Kapuściński believed. The role of the media in the twenty-first century cannot be overestimated. The problem is that today’s media passionately manipulate information, which carries unpleasant consequences for their recipients — among other things turning us all into hostages of a truncated, impoverished, limited language.

Today power belongs to whoever possesses a television studio, a newspaper, a radio station. In the contemporary world, owning means of communication means owning power. Television networks and media conglomerates are influential enough to create their own world, which has little to do with reality. At present information has become a fine business, and it is thanks to information that enormous capital flows into the media: Today the chief does not ask the journalist returning with material whether the information obtained is true, but whether it is attractive and whether it can be sold. That is the deepest change that has occurred in the world of media: the old ethics have been displaced by new rules of the game. Ethics, indeed, are spoken of in this profession ever more rarely. There is also a lack of the sense of pride in the personal stamp impressed on journalistic work — pride that also entailed the journalist’s responsibility for what he does: the person who signs a text with his name and surname feels responsible for his words. Meanwhile in television and large multimedia networks, as in factories, that individual responsibility no longer exists. Today the mass-media worker is an anonymous person, and the final product is not his authorial work but the result of the actions of a group of persons creating information. And here it is worth mentioning the extraordinary skill — the art of taking up cooperation with people: The journalist must not look down on those with whom he will work; on the contrary, he must be their equal, he must be one of them, like them, in order to be able to get close to them, understand them, and then express their expectations, their hopes. To this is added linguistic sensitivity, so important for the persons with whom the journalist works and whose lives he can destroy with his own words and texts. At this point it is worth drawing attention to the fact that it is also increasingly difficult to find journalists who search for the meaning of events taking place. Most draw knowledge from a selective and superficial discourse that the great media condense into a one-minute pill.

And Kapuściński was precisely the opposite. He was a representative of the New Journalism, representing new values, which carries particular weight, as it is a genre that informs but also explains, comments, compels reflection. In this case the journalist becomes a historian, researches, experiences, and describes histories as they happen — and therefore must be much wiser than the thoughtful reader, must constantly enrich his knowledge as Kapuściński did: Before sitting down to write any of my books, I read about two hundred titles related to the subject matter treated in each of them. In a certain sense writing is the least laborious part of our work. Who works in this way today? This responsible approach of the “Emperor of reportage” stems from his regarding his profession as transparent: [W]e can all be seen as we write — and therefore as we educate ourselves, as we conduct our journalistic investigations, how we think. And every day the reader casts his vote, deciding our professional fate. Not every four or six years, as with presidents, but every day.

Despite this, according to Ryszard Kapuściński, good media have (fortunately!) not died: in the diversity, in the paradoxes of our planet and our times, there is space for very good newspapers, radio stations, and television programmes. A journalist who is conscious of his work must face greater competition than ever before — that is a fact; but I believe deeply that an ambitious, hard-working, and persistent person, capable of treating others as friends rather than enemies, can develop and achieve success. Amen.

The journalism of Ryszard Kapuściński has passed into history and can serve as a model for all. His commitment, effort, and care in creating texts captivated people around the world. His publications became long-lasting because their author was able, through a small detail, to show a universal dimension of enduring greatness and significance. He was a true “poacher across all fields of knowledge,” pursuing perfection each time. He wrote with passion, and he made emotion the force of his own texts — and this is easily perceptible. In the book This Is Not a Job for Cynics he gave us a piece of himself — of how he sees his profession and the values that should guide it. Let us hope that many continuers of his work will appear — who, instead of manipulation, reduction of reality to abbreviated and oversimplified description, routine and ignorance, will embrace empathy, professionalism, ethics, and passion. Because today’s journalism as never before needs new forces, fresh ideas, and imagination. Because although everything we write is only an approximation. The ideal is unattainable (…) There will always remain some sense of insufficiency — Kapuściński’s journalism will remain an unattainable standard for many.

source: kapuscinski.info