MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA

MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA
Particular attention is paid to the construction and detection of our
own stereotypes and prejudices, which we could not live without, as
they play an important role in the structures of our personalities, when
it comes to values. This is also why we are engaged in the description
of indings based on the quantitative anthropological and pedagogical
research of value-orientations of students; and of other indings based on
quantitative analyses of the presentation of the “different” in Czech news
media. In the centre of our attention, however, remains the relationship
that participants in the educational process have with tolerance towards
difference and with intercultural communication.
During the nineties, we witnessed a liberalization of the post-socialistic
societies, which resulted in the emergence of ethno-politics, or identity
politics, in these regions. We may see the reasons for this in an increasing
need for societal solidarity as a result of a rapid social stratiication, or
perhaps in a negative reaction to this stratiication in the sense of a
heightened sensitivity towards “the others”, especially manifested in the
Czech Roma minority. The so-called “Roma issue” is multiculturalism’s
most debated topic in the Czech environment. Problems associated
with the Roma minority, be it their social and spatial exclusion; or the
emergence of community schools, which many consider to be the best
possible way of integrating the Roma into the majority, while others
see it as the beginning of a segregated “ethnic” school system; or higher
criminality, manifested especially among the inhabitants of Roma
ghettos; or that many Roma families are considered to be living “at the
expense of society”, as seen in their dependency on government support;
or failed attempts of governmental and non-governmental organizations
alike to change the given situation, are all undoubtedly grave problems.
However, in the context of the issue of multicultural co-existence of
citizens of Central European countries, especially Czech Republic, the
problems of racial inequality should not overshadow other, often more
important problems. Fixation on the so-called “Roma problem”, or its
excessive accentuation, devaluates the goals of multicultural politics as
well as education towards the values of a pluralistic, modern, democratic
society striving towards a transcultural dialog and multicultural
coexistence.
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