What is Diversity?
The Role of the Media
(c) Rolland G. Smith. Reprinted with permission.
(we also encourage you to look at Rolland's
Web site)
Diversity is the quality of oneness while being different. Too many people today think diversity is the self and the other. Too much emphasis is placed on the di of the word, the separation of the oneness into parts, rather than on the verse of the word. Verse is the poetry of life, the rhyme of reason, the sonnet of similarities, and it is the meter of the media. Language, as it personifies origins and identities of our diverse cultures, and as we comprehend it, is probably the largest contributor to the "DI" of separation, rather than the "VERSE" of inclusion. If we do not empathize with another's culture and traditions, if we do not take the care to understand the meaning of anothers' words, we cannot appreciate their "verse" of living....
Comments about Diversity are abundant these days. There is a series of motivational cards and plaques circulating throughout the business community. You may have seen them. [I have] one entitled "diversity" and authored by Gene Griessman:
"I believe that diversity is a part of the natural order of things -- as natural as the trillion shapes and shades of the flowers of spring or the leaves of autumn.
I believe that diversity brings new solutions to an ever-changing environment, and that sameness is not only uninteresting, but limiting.
To deny diversity is to deny life--with all its richness and manifold opportunities. Thus I affirm my citizenship in a world of diversity, and with it the responsibility to...
Be tolerant. Live and let live. Understand that those who cause no harm should not be feared, ridiculed, or harmed -- even if they are different.
Look for the best in others.
Be just in my dealings with poor and rich, weak and strong, and whenever possible to defend the young, the old, the frail, the defenseless.
Be kind, remembering how fragile the human spirit is.
Live the examined life, subjecting my motives and actions to the scrutiny of mind and heart so to rise above prejudice and hatred. CARE."
.....Dr. Mary Catherine Bateson, a professor of Anthropology and English at George Mason University, says in her new book, Peripheral Visions: "...because we live in a world of change and diversity, we are privileged to enter, if only peripherally, into a diversity of visions and beyond that to include them in the range of responsible caring."
Privileged to enter yes, but does the television medium portray the "diversity of visions" in a context of responsible caring? Collectively no, and sometimes individually yes.
Collectively, the television medium has little perspective on what diversity means within the context of story selection, length or content, which can translate into responsible caring.
The electronic media tends not to cover stories from a diversity viewpoint. The reason may be a concern of offending the sensitivities of some intolerant viewers, and the belief by some news executives that non-conflict complex stories on cultural diversity and of things spiritual, are not of general interest and therefore are a ratings downer.
I think that is an erroneous assumption.
Market researcher, Daniel Yanklelovich, says 80% of the American people are seeking more meaning in their lives. He reports they seek ways to emancipate their creativity and serve a higher purpose. AGAIN the "Verse" of living.
My years as president of the Foundation for Global Broadcasting has also led me to believe that the desire to serve a higher purpose and to acknowledge the diversity of the human race is just as important to a global citizenry, not just Americans.
John Naisbitt, in Megatrends 2000, states that at least 25% of the population is involved in activities with a global perspective, and seek non-traditional - diverse - alternatives to the existing state of affairs and he suggests the media of the middle to late 90's must serve the needs and wants of an increasingly holistic populace.
Currently most electronic media stories dealing with cultural diversity are superficial in content. We have not consistently informed viewers of the underlying origins of the religious and ethnic conflicts on the thirty wars currently going on around the world.
There is, seemingly, a pandemic fault that afflicts the global media, both the government controlled media of other societies as well as the entrepreneurial broadcasters of the United States and elsewhere. The fault is this: The electronic media does not have, nor does it take, the air time to explain, in full detail, the origins of a belief system, the nuances of a culture or the historical diverse context of a conflict to the viewer or to even look to the positive and celebrate the diversity of excellence.
Therefore, viewer impressions are formed and conclusions drawn from incomplete information. Media omission leads to erroneous, inaccurate and misleading assumptions that create and even encourage prejudicial separation. ---rgs