Mess Media

 One of my daily joys when living in Russia was listening to BBC World Service.  It broadcast on an assigned AM station at 666, which as every Russian knows is the “sign of the Beast” from Revelations.  I didn’t mind the connection to the Devil.  There was interesting programming, although I was perennially confused by cricket scores.  During three-day matches there were centuries and references to negative bowling, perfume balls, donkey drops, sticky dogs, and dibbly dobblies.   I didn’t have the faintest idea whether a 5-wicket haul was good or bad, and didn’t know if I should be impressed by 50 overs per inning.

Oh well.  BBC World Service is no longer on Russian radio.  Neither is Voice of America.  The VOA website says “VOA Russia adopted Internet only programming in 2008 when pressure from the Russian government forced VOA’s radio and television affiliates to stop broadcasting VOA.”  The BBC website doesn’t have a similar statement, but neither does it list any Russian stations. 

Since we have Internet service I could tap into online broadcasting, but it would be very expensive.  We pay for Internet usage by volume here.

Not to worry.  Russian media report on what the foreign press is saying.  The only problem is that it’s a wee bit skewed.  Slava told me about what the London Daily Mail said editorially  about a recent scandalous court case in Russia.  Foreign media agree with the Russian judge, Russian readers were told. But if you read English and do a Google search for the original article, you find out differently.  There was an op-ed columnist who didn’t address the sentencing, just the behavior of the defendants.  Maybe the Russian translators simply made a mistake.

Last night we watched on television part of a movie about Marilyn Monroe.  Like all American films on Russian TV it was dubbed.  I didn’t pay enough attention to decide if this particular movie had been pirated, but the quality of the dubbing is usually a give-away.  Ironically the wide availability of pirated American movies on television and on DVDs has severely hurt the Russian film industry.  When nobody has to pay for an American block-buster, they’re not inclined to pay for domestic films.

I have a proposal to make to the U.S. Department of Commerce: Place a multi-lingual couch potato in the embassy of every country where intellectual piracy is a problem.  Give each couch potato a TV remote.  Have these couch potatoes note every instance where there should be a cease-and-desist order.  In short order many countries would find gaping holes in their television schedules.  And now comes the good part…

Be ready with films and television series that are more than mindless entertainment.  Foreign audiences typically go for action and violence because it’s easy to understand.  Their impression of America has been skewed by what they see on television and in movies.  So change what they see.  Have Voice of America work with commercial products that show American values.  Show a defendant in court able to call witnesses and cross-examine others.  Demonstrate that the defendant is regarded as innocent until and unless proven guilty by a jury of his peers.  Indicate that a defendant has a right to a speedy trial and may be free until the court date.  Show that the defendant is not put in a cage while in court.   

The medium is the mess-age.