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in the Balkans."

Kaplan's bold statements were based on travel, observation, and analyzing events from history. In his journalism, he digs through history and pieces together a picture of the future based on the past. He dares to suggest that the past affects the future, and that seemingly unrelated incidents are interconnected. This future was fulfilled in the ensuing breakup of Yugoslavia, and years of ethnic cleansing' and bloody war.

If Robert Kaplan had simply reported on obvious news events, no doubt the articles would have stayed on the economic reforms Reagan influenced in Yugoslavia, and Slobodan Milosevic's push for Serbian dominance. There would have been stories on ethnic tensions in villages, but without an understanding of history with which to interpret events, this kind of reporting is mere disjointed information and of little use for understanding our world. For what is the present, without the past and the future?

Not only questions of time, but questions of the interconnectivity are key. Did the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, spark World War I? Will global oil demand effect conflict in the world's oil producing regions today?

An article from February 3, 2003 on CNN.com shows mainstream media awakening to the truths of time and interconnectivity:
Civil war. Mutilations. Threat of nuclear deployment. Human trafficking. Starving babies. Those are some of the seeds and harvest of conflicts in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

Neglecting these conflicts is dangerous, said Arthur Helton, director for peace and conflict studies at the Council on Foreign Relations...
Most regions in conflict suffer from long absences of international attention until overwhelming bloodshed or combat renews interest, Helton said, adding that the cycle of atrocity, shock, atrocity should be a wake-up call to seek lasting solutions.

It is generally acknowledged that media's responsibility is to report news as it happens, and that truthfully. But the present depends on the past, and the future, for its meaning; "here" depends on "there" for its meaning.

Not all responsibility for this meaning lies with media, however. A short news story or television program cannot realistically include all the history and interconnectivity necessary; often, media's practical limitations can merely give leads to the audience. It is incredibly tempting to abdicate our responsibility as an audience, blaming "the media" for withholding insight and information. An intelligent audience must face its responsibility for using critical thinking toward what it receives from the media. It is easy human nature to look at what is most exciting at the moment; it is deeper human intuition, logic, and intelligence to look for what lies beyond.

A couple hundred years before the age of television journalism and soundbites, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe summed up media's tension well: "The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish; the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul. Thus they are easily led by the opinions of others, are content to let their impressions be shuffled and rearranged and evaluated differently."

Is it the media's responsibility to go beyond what's happening today? It is the responsibility of all thinking people in all roles in society to "go beyond". Only then (borrowing from that Olympic spokesman) can media say, "We are 'media'. We have finished our part of the work. The rest is in the hands of...you."

Learn more about this author, Hannah Kempf.
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