Journalism can promote peace, love and understanding

李慧如
Global Times, April 26, 2011

 But where do our biases come from? We are not born with them. When we are little kids, we are always warm and friendly. But when we are grown-up and being informed by the mass media, we become suspicious of other people. Our biases and suspicion of other people often come from the mass media.

A genuine free press and good journalism is characterized by a free flow of information between you and the people or the culture you don't like.

The point of such journalism is to follow the thought and the logic of your imagined enemy through the mean of communication to discover new facts and new thoughts.

There should be a variety of news products and viewpoints appearing in the same newspaper or the same satellite channel rather than on different media platforms. Only diverse and opposite viewpoints appearing in the same media can help societies, nations and the international community live in harmony with differences.

Good dialogue requires that the media and the journalists patiently listen to and report completely the voices of the people they don't like.

You cannot have a genuine dialogue until you live in harmony with the people who think and talk differently from you. As Confucius said, "Honest people live in harmony with different values while dishonest people live in conflict with the same values."

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