School – Community – An Island of Ethos (Reflections of a Teacher about the Laboratory of Reportage)
School – Community – An Island of Ethos (Reflections of a Teacher about the Laboratory of Reportage)

Author(s): Piotr Wojciechowski
Subject(s): Cultural history
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: media; reportage; myth; mythotronics; media ecology
Summary/Abstract: The text presented here is a literary essay rather than a scientific paper. The author shows how fruitful it was to use the metaphor and the wisdom of myths when working with the "Laboratory of Reportage" students. He points to the fact that myths are not merely a part of social group identity, but that they can also be used as artificially created tools able to manipulate the identities. Beside classical myths developing naturally and making a lasting contribution to the culture and spirituality, there are myths constructed currently. The myths of our civilization are being built and spread with the conscious purpose of manipulating politics and markets. The "Laboratory of Reportage" refers to such activity as “mythotronics” – the purposeful influencing of the individuals and social groups by using the artificially constructed mythology. When we deal with the idea of the polyphonic documentary novel, we conform with two parallel goals: reporting objective facts and showing the events as the revelation of a myth. The “hidden narrator” – the one who edits the polyphonic documentary novel – always works under the “mythosphere” influence. Thus, we could call his work“ a mythotronic action”. Moreover, the text includes the discussion relative to the nature of facts populating and creating the world of media. The author underlines the importance of media ecology meant as a critical evaluation of economy, politics and cultural environment determining the media content.

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