The mass media can play a significant role in encouraging people to read books, said Seyed Abbas Salehi, deputy minister of culture and Islamic guidance for cultural affairs.
“A nation’s reading habit is a reflection of its cultural, scientific, and social development,” he said, addressing the closing ceremony of the 13th festival on Books and Media, Mehr news agency reported.
The contribution of the media is necessary to enhance the reading culture, the official said and called on the media to shift their focus “from politics to the field of publications.”
Journalists can change the mental perspective of both the authorities and the public about the culture of reading. “They can encourage people to feel the necessity to inculcate the reading habit, exactly in the same way that they are habituated to the need for food and water for survival,” he added.
In a bid to strengthen the role of the media in encouraging people to read books, the culture ministry has taken some measures like sending reporters to book exhibitions all around the world, Salehi said.
“We have sent reporters to the Frankfurt Book Fair, for instance” he said, calling for greater participating in such events, “as a solution to increase media contribution in enhancing book reading among the masses.”
New Ideas
Book publication can also be viewed as an income generating activity, Salehi said, pointing to the role of the media in creating an approach at the macro level in this field.
Brand new ideas can enhance the publication industry and this was reflected at the festival which had participants from “60 cities and more than 100 villages.”
Electronic and cyber space should also be considered by journalists when it comes to the field of books and publications, as “new technologies can create a revolution in the field of publications,” he observed.
Media should also serve a role to bridge the generation gap, and “one such interconnection between generations is needed in the field of publications.”
