Diversity and Technological Innovation

As long as we live in a world with different languages, religions, cultures and geography we will always have a diverse and localized media. Technological innovations in the 20th and 21st centuries – the automobile, the telephone, television, cinema, computers, fibre optics, the Internet and on and on – have indeed contracted our world dramatically, and yet in many ways, the world remains as diverse and provincial as ever. In America, which is undoubtedly the most plugged-in nation on earth, only about 6 per cent of the population possess passports. So, very few Americans actually travel beyond their own borders to see the way other people really live. For all their varied and sophisticated media landscape, I would venture to say that the vast majority of Americans haven’t much more understanding about the outside world than people from other less media-rich societies.

When Johannes Gutenberg invented moveable type and the printing press in 1436, the face of media changed forever, yet the world remained pretty much the same and evolved over time, as a result of a complex combination of factors – social, political, economic, military, agricultural, etc. The printing press contributed to this evolution to be sure but the idea that a medium can totally transform society in and of itself is questionable to say the least.

The media acts as a mirror, catalyst and accelerator rather than as a transformer. In the best sense, the media takes what is already happening in the world and brings people together. The heartbreaking images of starving Ethiopian children captured by the late Kenyan photographer and videographer Mohamed Amin and transmitted around the world through the international media, produced a global outpouring of sympathy and aid which alleviated the affects of this tragic famine. The landmark “Live Aid” concert organized by Bob Geldof, was just one of the media events emanating out of Mohamed Amin’s images. Conversely media can reinforce divisions, xenophobia, and prejudices. Leni Riefenstahl’s astonishing documentary, “Triumph of the Will” celebrating Hitler and the Third Reich could be said to have galvanized an entire nation and helped set it on the road to war.

A quarter of a century ago, the French leftist intellectual Regis Debray said, “The single most significant political development of the post-World War Two era is the resurgence of Islam.” This was long before the media had even picked up on Islam as a force in the world. In our time, the rise of Islamic extremism may have been accelerated by the mass media, the Internet in particular, but the terrifying rift between the Islamic world and the non-Islamic world is the end result of a complex web of historical circumstances that can be traced back centuries. So I would say that we have to be careful not to overestimate the transformative role of global media in terms of actually shaping what is happening to our world. There can be a cross-cultural dialogue. There are sincere attempts at creating bridges of understanding through the media, but most societies are inward looking and too preoccupied to contemplate change based on a media opportunity.

While I’m not at all sure that global media has a direct, transformative impact on the world as a whole, I think one can safely say that in the Arab world the proliferation and diversification of regional media over the last 5-10 years has been a very positive force for change. In the Middle East, the media environment has already experienced a breathtaking transformation since the first tentative steps toward private sector satellite broadcasting and the advent of the Internet in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. Audiences across the Arab world raised on state-controlled media designed to limit the inflow of information and manipulate public opinion now have access to a deluge of information and entertainment opportunities that would have been unimaginable 15 years ago. Broadcast media liberated from state control has an inherently democratizing influence on any society it reaches and this has been strikingly evident in the Middle East.

The overriding aim of setting up a business media enterprise in the Middle East, and, indeed, anywhere else, should be to provide information, insight and knowledge that can empower ordinary people and give them an understanding of how business and economics – which for centuries in our world has been the province of the elites – impacts on their lives. Information and knowledge can change societies by opening opportunities, stimulating entrepreneurship and raising awareness of vital issues that affect the way we live, from inflation and recession to investment and environment to development and innovation. Whether global media can affect change is a moot point at this stage but there is no doubt that regional media has and will continue to have a very powerful impact on the future of the Middle East.

The Role of Public Relations in Interfaith Dialogue

On September 12th 2006, Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech at the University of Regensburg, Germany in which he quoted from a mediaeval dialogue between Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an Iranian interlocutor on the subject of Christianity and Islam. The quote included a passage, which read:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

This backward stereotype of Islam, which was the result of mediaeval Christian propaganda, has long since been refuted (although Muslim extremists today seem hell bent on reviving it). The Pope was unwise to quote from this obscure exchange to underscore the Christian belief in spreading their faith peacefully. His implication was that Christianity as a religion is more civilized than Islam even though there have been as many violent depredations committed in the name of Christianity down through the ages as there have been in the name of Islam. One cannot blame the Messiah or the Prophet Mohamed for the evils committed by misguided followers in the name of faiths they founded.

The statement elicited the usual backlash from Muslims around the world with the requisite rioting, effigy burning and other manifestations of impotent rage we have become so used to. Within 10 days the Pope issued a statement sincerely regretting offending Muslims without directly apologizing.

On October 13th 2006, exactly one month after the Pontiff’s Regensburg speech, a group of 38 Muslim scholars signed an open letter to the Pope in response to his controversial remarks on Islam.

The letter received no response from the Pontiff and made no public impact.

One year later, the Royal Ahl Al Bayt Foundation, patronized by His Majesty King Abdullah and led by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, which was responsible for organizing the Open Letter, issued a second message to the Pope, called ‘A Common Word between Us and You’, signed by 138 leading Muslims scholars, comprising a landmark statement of commonality between Christianity and Islam.

The letter begins as follows:

“Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.

“The basis for this peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbour. These principles are found over and over again in the sacred texts of Islam and Christianity. The Unity of God, the necessity of love for Him, and the necessity of love of the neighbour is thus the common ground between Islam and Christianity.”

The letter was sent to the Holy See. This time, however, to ensure that the letter would not be ignored, it was determined that a public relations campaign was crucial to its success and it was at this point that I was contacted and became aware of the initiative. The aim of the public relations program was to create public awareness of the letter and force a response from the Pope. The UK public relations firm Bell Pottinger stepped in to the breach and organized a campaign to build media awareness of the initiative. The program was an astonishing success, with worldwide coverage and commentary, not only in religious and intellectual journals but on the wire services, in the major American and European dailies and on television. In response to this campaign, 300 Christian scholars from across the US endorsed ‘A Common Word’ in a full page ad published in the New York Times.

On November 19th, a result of the worldwide awareness of the initiative, Pope Benedict XVI responded with a letter written by the Vatican Secretary of State:

Subsequent to this communication, the Pope invited HRH Prince Ghazi and a representative group from the signatories to an historic meeting, which is scheduled to be held during the first quarter of 2008.

We do have a role to play in bringing religions and cultures together and it is an important one. We need to take what we do more seriously and see that the disciplines we are learning are not just about promoting products or spin control but can promote understanding and reduce tensions that can lead to violence, war and suffering.