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People in the critical swath of the globe, unable to properly address their problems caused by the chaotic socio-economic environments they are in, tend to increasingly submerge in despair.
But media in the so-called global hotspots could play a significant role in restoring the public to life from the abyss of despair by fostering collective hope.
To do so, the media in the critical regions first have to feel responsible to develop appropriate social imaginaries, what described in the words of Greek-French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis, as 'the laces which tie a society together and the forms which define what, for a given society, is 'real''.
'Hope constitutes a large part of social imaginary,' said Mohammad Mahdi Mojahedi senior Iranian university lecturer in political theory, human rights and methodology, during a recent roundtable discussion on hope and resilience and responsibility of the media persons held at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tehran.
'In fact, hope is the precondition to survival of every society,' Mojahedi stressed.
He said that the media persons in a society urgently need to develop a good understanding about the realities and issues in their society, despite the fact that they are hard to digest or impossible or very difficult to address.
Unveiling realities of the society and especially notifying those in the power structure of them is a responsibility that the media persons should shoulder, he added, urging that to depict the realities they should avoid fabrications and distortions.
The Iranian university professor went on to say that the concept of hope is becoming growingly critical and this is very crucial as such a trend is going to affect other areas of social life in the society, turning them into critical spots as well.
Social imaginaries emanated from unrealities or misinformation, push the public and policymakers toward assuming that they primarily could not expect their efforts to improve things or foster hope bear any fruits, though they use all in their capacity to achieve their desired goals, he said.
Believe it or not, hopelessness in a society, though having its roots mainly inside, is also the outcome of what could be described as the 'media war machine' of those hegemonic powers that are after imposition of their will on the global public.
Under the pressure which is in a way bolstered by the mainstream media, people and politicians in the developing and under developed nations, gradually forget about their ideals, hopes and imaginations to change their conditions.
'Without the motivation for imagination and usually faced with rampant corruption, they, swaying between fear and hope, are little by little convinced that they can do less and less to improve things,' said Mohammad Fazeli an Iranian sociologist and assistant professor at Shahid Beheshti University in the Iranian capital, another speaker who also briefed the participants on the concept of hope, resilience and media responsibility.
And the monstrous pressure at all levels, is already building up: from Afghanistan to Syria and even beyond to Africa. Countries are embarking on herculean efforts to address or reduce the effects of such pressures.
Now, the hard warfare waged by terrorism and its regional and extra regional supporters, along with an unending soft warfare targeting values and imaginations of We the Peoples, are eroding collective hope of a massive number of global community members.
This again makes the role of the media in the countries that are under pressure much more vital as the main focus of the media is the masses.
'The media could help the masses develop their imaginations and uphold their real values and offer the public a long-term prospect,' Fazeli said.
With the media in a country appropriately functioning, those who are hopeful will not feel lonely, he added.
Yet, he emphasized that hope is not an imported commodity.
'Hope is the outcome of struggle,' he added.
*Reza Bahar is on the editorial staff of IRNA English news
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