The international media network TV Brics presents the “Global Media Meeting”, a special project in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Brics. The initiative features comments from important experts from the main media outlets of the Brics+ countries and media network partners on issues related to the formation of a joint global agenda, the construction of a multipolar system of global media communications, current trends and the main events of the last 20 years for the advancement of media discourse, as well as predictions about the evolution of the media space.
In an exclusive interview with TV Brics, Sebastián Salgado, programming director of the Extra! TV and director of the international information agency Data Urgente shared his vision on the transformations that international journalism has undergone, the perspectives for communication in the coming decades and the importance of preserving and promoting the cultural expressions of people.
TV Brics: how has international journalism changed in the last 20 years?
Sebastian Salgado: The way of accessing information has changed considerably with the expansion of the digital world and social networks. A significant portion of people with internet access began to adopt new ways of consuming content, especially among younger generations.
The traditional structures of television news and large corporate media outlets had to adapt to these new habits. Younger generations no longer depend on fixed schedules to get information and, in many cases, they also do not follow news in traditional television formats.
In this context, social networks perform a double function. On the one hand, they have become practically indispensable for media outlets seeking to reach younger audiences, even when they maintain traditional formats, such as 24-hour news channels. On the other hand, they enabled the emergence of a multiplicity of voices, allowing the production of content without the need for large media structures.
What will the future of communications look like in the next 20 years?
I believe that the formation of Brics is opening up new possibilities for the development of the communications sector. Today, we have already naturalized access to television news from Russia, China, India, South Africa or Brazil, and this represents an important step towards greater diversity of information sources.
In this sense, it is essential to ensure that corporate interests do not override access to information as a human right. It is also important to maintain State support and funding for projects aimed at expanding the diversity of the information space.
I consider it important that the Brics countries develop their own social networks and platforms, with algorithms designed according to their own interests. From there, each person could decide whether they want to be part of this digital world of multipolar communication driven by the Brics and Brics+ countries, or whether they prefer to remain in the communication models that predominated during much of the 20th century and the first years of the 21st century.
Therefore, creativity will be essential. It will also be necessary to develop symbolic elements and mechanisms for linguistic rapprochement between our languages. I believe this will be fundamental for the world to come.
What should the common global agenda include?
Above all, it should contemplate the authentic cultural expressions of the people. When we talk about this, we can think of areas such as music, visual arts and gastronomy. It is important to recognize the potential of culture to create bridges between peoples who consider themselves part of a multipolar world.
Culture is, in fact, one of the fundamental tools for bringing people together, creating bonds and finding points of convergence. Most Latin American music, for example, has roots in African rhythms. In Uruguay, candombe represents the continuity of this living culture, present in the roots of the Rio da Prata.
It is important to value these connections, both in the present and by recovering elements from the past. If more people knew, for example, Anton Chekhov’s stories, many could identify with these narratives, which give voice to small worlds that we never had access to because they belong to another time and place.
However, writers and artists have bequeathed to us, through their works, the possibility of knowing these worlds. These initiatives are fundamental to making culture available to everyone. We must understand cultures simply as human expressions, through which political ideas and different ways of understanding the world can also manifest themselves.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
