site.btaLIK Editor-in-Chief: Media Belong to Culture, Shape Our Understanding of the World

There is nothing accidental about the fact that media issues are part of the content scope of BTA’s LIK magazine, which includes literature, art and culture, said LIK Editor-in-Chief Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov at the presentation of the magazine’s February issue, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). 

Lozanov noted that there is a view that the media are “something that both belongs to culture and is not fully connected with it."

"The reason is that when we speak of culture, we understand lasting messages that endure over time, while journalistic storytelling is a fast-paced narrative. There’s nothing older than yesterday’s newspaper, which constantly seeks something new, and everything is open to debate, with no final truths. Every new truth is part of a process of pluralistic thinking," Lozanov said. 

"With this issue, we are discussing BNR specifically and very briefly its development, but we are also saying that the media belong to culture. They belong to the essence of culture," he added.

Lozanov quoted Veselin Dimitrov, the former dean of the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications at Sofia University, who stated that the radio, especially when initially led by Sirak Skitnik (the artistic pseudonym of the Bulgarian writer and artist Panayot Todorov Hristov), was a very important step in the modernization of Bulgaria. According to Lozanov, this is a true cultural example: "Mainly through their own information and journalistic policy, the media participate in the essence of culture because they shape our understanding of the world, even more so than literature."

"There is now a big transformation in our understanding of the world, where it is the media, rather than literature and art, that contribute to the transformation of our social perceptions. Understanding the media as part of culture and cultural identity, which define who we truly are, is the key feature. In this regard, the radio is a very fortunate medium because it has lived through the entire 20th century, through all the internal twists of that century, and has managed to hold its ground. Overall, the media outlet which has handled historical challenges with dignity, is BNR," Lozanov said.

In his view, if journalism is to be culture, it must be original. And for it to be original, it must be the result of the author’s will: "In other words, there is no such thing as dependent journalism. If something is dependent, it is not journalism. If it is independent, it is journalism, and then it is a very important voice in contemporary culture," Lozanov added.