Power of Media was one the four main topics of the Project “Our Future Europe” that we were discussing during our study visit in Belgrade. Yes, we discussed how media could, can and how it really influences on our societies. The influence can be positive and can be negative. It can help society to grow and to become open or to become closed one and to trust none. We were talking about responsibility of the media, whether they have it or not, and especially the responsibility in the 21st century because of the Internet and the fact that now every news, line, picture, short video can become viral in a couple of seconds and to form an opinion on specific subject. It was educational but I couldn’t see the role, media responsibility on a local level, in my everyday life where I can choose what to see, read and hear. Now I am not afraid to say again: “I was so wrong!”
While we were in Belgrade, walking round and showing to other participants the city, one participant from Kosovo asked me if she can speak with her friend in Albanian for a while. I was surprised but then she told me that she wasn’t very comfortable speaking Albanian because someone might hear her and attack her saying that she heard it might happen from the media in Kosovo. Later that evening I started thinking about it and how would I react in Prishtina, would I be free to speak Serbian without consequences because in Kosovo is practically , unofficially, forbidden to speak Serbian, at least that is the impression that media in Serbia serves to us. For the first time I saw the role of media in a society and their power to shape it. What kind of information do they receive everyday to form image that someone will attack them in Belgrade because they speak Albanian? No one in Belgrade even knows how Albanian sounds like! And what kind of information do we receive about them? Those questions motivated me to do a little personal research on how media in Serbia presents us Kosovo. From a very wide range of newspapers in Serbia all of them showed or are still showing pictures of war, soldiers with guns, tanks, ruined religion buildings, civil buildings, riots, angry mobs are everywhere or if you lucky you could find pictures of cities, Prishtina the most, in gray, with black clouds and no sun, trees without leaves depressive almost apocalyptic scenario and only thing that is kind a coloured is the “New Born” monument in Prishtina. Stories about Kosovo are nothing better because people from Kosovo live from selling drugs, organs and doing trafficking. Nothing is better when I googled “Kosovo” from Serbia: a lot of provocative flags, nationalistic pride, a couple of images of ruined churches and houses. I just want to say that if I google the Netherland, Google shows me sun, sky without clouds, no rain, happy people, beautiful buildings, nature and fields in rainbow colour. It is practically the heaven. I don’t want to say anything negative about Serbia, Kosovo and the Netherlands but consequences of those images and stories could be great. In Serbia is ok then to hate Albanian, especially if he/her is from Kosovo, because they are not humans, or they are somehow but they brain is the brain of a blood-thirsty animal so they are highly dangerous to us humans. I know that someone would think that I am exaggerating but, again, look at the pictures of the Netherland and Kosovo on the Internet. Even worse is if the media in Kosovo shows same pictures and tells same stories about people from Serbia! It is ok to hate Serbs because they are animals, they are not humans, and they are a threat to us then. It is similar to a never ending circle of hate and mistrust that can only do harm to our societies and alienate us from each other even more.
I would like to use closure of my essay to invite others, students, youth workers, pupils to apply for the programme “Our Future Europe” next year. You, yes you who read this, you will benefit in so many ways that I am still unaware of its benefits and still exploring. You will get in touch with some great people that you will laugh with make beautiful memories and have fruitful discussions. You will see that there is no big difference between youth in the Netherlands, Kosovo and Serbia. We all have same problems and we all can help each other as a team to solve them. You will visit countries and cities you have never visited before. But the most important of all, you will grow as a person.
