Can Media Change the World?

The media – for some people, it is just an abstract concept or even a force beyond our control that feeds us with news, opinions and scandals on a daily basis. For others, it is something they actively use not only as a source of information, but also as a means of communication. One thing is certain: “the media” encompasses a huge field, it fulfills many purposes, and it is powerful.

For InterNations member Jeremy, the omnipresence of the media in our lives also indicates a huge potential, and so he set out to explore ways of creating positive change through the use of media…

Transformational Media: Writing a Better Script for our Planet

Transformational media describes media that has the potential to create positive change. For example, transforming conflict into peace, or exploitation into a harmonious relationship with the planet. Key to transformational media is the intention behind it, and the result is media that helps us understand our true nature and potential, and the nature of the world we live in.

This year in particular has seen increased scrutiny of the media with events surrounding the Leveson Inquiry, and the Facebook IPO (Initial Public Offering). Our media seems more than ever to have an ubiquitous influence in our lives, yet how much of it is for good? This is the question that a group of inspiring pioneers committed to creating media for positive change will seek to answer at the inaugural Transformational Media summit in London this September.

The event will explore how emerging trends and media created with wisdom and
compassion can produce meaningful content and contribute to peaceful prosperous living. I founded the summit in response to a feeling of urgent need for our increasingly omnipresent media to be a force for good.

In organising the summit I sought out inspiring leaders working in media from across the globe: journalists, news reporters, film makers, explorers, entrepreneurs and musicians.

The diverse group includes Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey, first Polynesian Explorer and female Fellow in the history of the National Geographic Society. She will be speaking on the emergent field of Cultural Intelligence, a dynamic holistic system of knowledge based on indigenous science. Elizabeth is currently working on two books, including a collaboration with award-winning photographer Lisa Kristine, that chronicles their year-long journey in search of vanishing wisdom from the world’s most remote cultures. The two women will travel from caves in China, where a vestige of chi kung grandmasters still live, to the People of the Veil, a group of nomadic Kel Tagelmust elders in northern Africa. She believes that keeping the voices of the ancestors alive and bringing them back to us, the wisdom of these elders will help return the world to balance.

Another pioneer, Gilles Vanderpooten, has a different approach – to create positive stories that focus on the solutions. Gilles is Managing Editor of Reporters d’Espoirs, an NGO founded in France in 2003 to help journalists and media focus on solution-based information. It groups together journalists, leaders and professionals working in media who look for solutions to economic, social, environmental, and cultural challenges. Gilles also founded the French film festival of environment and sustainability and cofounded Indibio – the Institute for biodiversity with French explorer and novelist Jéromine Pasteur. Still only 26 he has also found time to write an international best seller Get Involved! with French diplomat and hero of the resistance Stéphane Hessel.

Also joining the summit will be Dara Marks, recognised as Hollywood’s #1 script writing consultant by Creative Screenwriting Magazine, who has developed her own innovative approach to script writing. Her work focuses on the transformational arc or inner story. With her approach the external action of the film has a profound connection to the inner transformation of the character in line with the overall theme of the story. The result is a plot that gives the film real meaning, richness and coherence. This is also a more accurate reflection of real life, and illustrates that heroes are not born, but they are shaped by their response to life circumstances.

All of these pioneers work in different disciplines, yet they all have a common thread. They are all committed to exploring a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world we live in through their art, and to also serve as guides on the journey to reach our full potential and live in harmony with the planet.

The theme of media for positive change runs through the Transformational Media summit which will take place this September 27-28 in London. To find out more about the speakers and to take part in the summit please visit www.transformationalmedia.org.uk or follow me onTwitter @transformingmed.

“The Media” original image by David Shankbone.