Recommendations for counsellors regarding the use of mass-media resources
Statistically it has been found that radio and television are preferred by most clients
regardless of gender and age, which can be explained if we take into consideration the
psychological principles of associating perceptive stimuli in information reception. The
consequences of such simultaneous perceptions of information are beneficial for
memorizing and learning, but certain undesirable effects of reception through combined
channels (audio-video-digital) cannot be neglected. In such cases:
- information directly penetrates the subconscious through subliminal stimuli;
- information is not always pre-verified (for accuracy, completeness, actuality),
which gives counsellors the supplementary role of “filter” in relation to their
clients; - media communicators (journalists, reporters, editors, anchors) should know
the field at least broadly, or be part of the network of counselling
collaborators, together with psychologists, doctors, teachers, parents, legal
advisors etc.; - the tendency of very young generations to neglect the written press or even
the traditional audio(visual) one (radio, public TV) in favour of the electronic
press stimulates the counsellor’s role as “advocate” of these media types in
counselling. “The role of leader no longer belongs to the written press. It
undergoes a reduction of influence over the younger generations who prefer
video games, chat, mobile phones. Pupils and students no longer read
newspapers, they read e-papers” (Prof. Dr. Otto Altendorfer, the president of
the Multimedia Communication Academy in Germany, in a TV show of
December 2004); - counsellors have the mission to counteract the tendency to “hunt down
information”, superficiality and glossing over details – especially by children
and adolescents – in contact with the electronic media; - in close relation with school and family, counsellors have the responsibility
to warn, prevent and fight the dependence on video technology apparent
through attention inertia, passiveness, quick relaxation, “presentism” (action,
live the moment, the visible, the sensational), aggressiveness, occasional
violence.
In a word, counsellors must assist clients to make their way through “the informational
thicket” and find a path through the multimedia jungle (Gheorghe, 2005).
Exploiting the incontestable benefits that the media currently offers to the counselling
services, practitioners should not forget that media remain “valuable sources of mass
information and communication” and that individualized, specific assistance is their
mission.