(source: Sme archive)
Some stories are deeply personal and non-transmittable; each reader has a unique experience.
But many stories of hope and despair, failures and remedies, losses and gifts, crooks and heroes, frustration and enthusiasm share something in common because they exceed the limits of our ego, our family, our town, and sometimes even our nation.
Good journalism helps us understand that an individual is not just a negligible part of a large puzzle, that the world we live in is interconnected through sometimes surprising links. And the better we understand those links, in a picture that is much more than a mirror reflection, the better we will be able to make the right decisions. Not just for ourselves, but also for others.
Media often dissolve indifference, and direct emotions to where there is a need for will, anger, or compassion. Of course, serious media do not toy with the emotions of the reader, because they are likely to be met with apathy.
