Journalist’s Day in our country has two important and meaningful origins: First, the journalist may become a victim of “holy ignorance” and the resulting violence, as Mahmoud Sarmi did on the 17th of August 2017. Second, the society needs to pay extra attention to this part of its human, social and symbolic capital.
Today, the importance and sensitivity of the profession of journalism and the institution of media, including written, visual and virtual, has reached its highest historical level. The world, politics, culture, society and even the mediated economy are part of the realities in front of us.
Every area of our life is built with the media and in the media, and it grows and shrinks; The formation of “virtual realities” and how and its dimensions have become the subject of different fields of knowledge.
Attention should be paid to at least three long-term developments that have taken the name of technological and social revolutions. The “Information and Communication Revolution” itself is a combination of these three revolutions: the revolution of social networks, the revolution of the Internet and the revolution of smart phones. The combination of these three has opened a new paradigm for knowledge, civil and political action.
The new paradigm we are in today is the transition from one-way and authoritarian communication to multilateral and voluntary communication. In producing, distributing and receiving information, the role of users has increased many times more than in the past.
New opportunities and capabilities cannot be compared with previous periods.
The new conditions have been able to create unique opportunities in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, and in case of undue restrictions and incorrect and irresponsible use of this situation, it has created serious risks and threats.
The question facing us today is how to use media capacity in forming public opinion and the ability of journalists and media activists to increase the power of selection, participation, monitoring, criticism and guidance of social, civil and political activities in the society.
Experience has taught us that the media can be both a field of dialogue, criticism and free flow of information, and a source of disruption in dialogue, promoting violence, spreading hatred, falsifying information and news, and destroying moral foundations.