The Role of Mass Media

The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy cordially invites you to attend...

The Role of Mass Media in Influencing European- Russian Relations

 

Thursday, 30th April (18:00), Amerika Haus Berlin

 

The expansion and development of the mass media over the last decade is a process that has been well documented and widely acknowledged. The impact and influence these changes are having on international relations and international public opinion is a more controversial subject that has risen to the fore since 9/11. In The Role of Mass-Media in Influencing European-Russian Relations controversial journalist and politician Guilietto Chiesa will apply a critical perspective to media coverage of international events over the past decade that have been key in shaping European-Russian Relations.

18:00     The Role of Mass Media in Influencing European-Russian Relations

                (Lecture)

Giulietto Chiesa, member of the European Parliament and journalist.

Event Review

During the evening of Thursday, March 31st the ICD hosted the influential, controversial, and world-renowned Italian journalist, film director, and politician, Mr. Giulietto Chiesa MEP.

Mr. Chiesa began his lecture by warning the audience that they should be prepared to hear something they have not heard before, having opened with the words “We know nothing”. He then proceeded to outline his argument that the media had changed unrecognisably since he was young, and that the large volume of pictures and video clips thrust in front of us during our daily lives did not encourage critical thought and were influencing is in ways beyond our control. Mr. Chiesa then expanded on the danger he saw in the media by claiming that the media was controlled by an elite group of individuals, predominantly from the private sector (the examples he gave included the pharmaceutical industry, the automotive industry, and the financial services sector), who had a dangerous control over the content of media stories across the world.

Given the controversy surrounding his film Zero, his participation last year in a debate about 9/11 that appeared on Russian television, and his views on the Russian-Georgian conflict, the speech provoked a large number of questions from the audience, which Mr. Chiesa fielded skillfully. An individual who can be seen to have a polarizing effect on people, the Amerika Haus audience was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet and discuss with Mr. Chiesa in person.