The New Media and Retired Journalists

September 18, 2010

The issue of the new media — restated — Sakmongkol AK47

I have been meaning to write on this subject a long time. I have been a keen observer and, at the same time, also a participant in the clash between old and new media. The new media, brought about by the onslaught of the digital revolution, has proven to be a powerful tool, in shaping people’s opinion. The efficacy of the new media however depends heavily on whether we appreciate and understand the new media and more important, in the end, know what is required.

So when I read the PM has inducted new faces into his communications team and refurbished the appearance of his online portal, the time is right for a comment. We need to evaluate whether that initiative was undertaken on the basis of appreciating, understanding and knowing what is needed to capitalise on the new media. Otherwise, that initiative will just be another effort to show something is being done if nothing else. Not to mention, the additional budget and a further fattening of self-importance.

But at least the PM realises that the new media sells news and people better than the old media. By old media, I mean conventional papers. Conventional media could not sell a candidate as well as the new media.

But do get things done right in the first place. Can we further the cause of the new media and leverage on it if people with old-school skills are inducted into it? More likely, the new media will be coloured with old lenses. You move one step forward, but then you step back two paces.

So when the PM inducts Datuk Khalid and another person from Reuters, we are not sure whether he has got the right material.

Sometimes I envy retired journalists — they get to have a second lease even though they prove in the end to be just paper tigers. The assumption being old-school expertise is transferable in a new environment without undergoing reconstitution (maybe I will use this angle when analysing why NST’s circulation has dropped below 90,000 in the next article). I just hope Najib’s communications outfit has got it right this time.

So when old-school practitioners get into the world of new media, what is the objective? Old habits die hard. Is the objective aimed at revising the new media so that it becomes mainstream again? Then, we have got it turned on its head — we think taming the new media and thereafter neatly packaging and doing slick presentation of programmes and personalities will sell a candidate. In other words, the infusion of veterans with old habits brings with it the danger of retrogression. You actually set things back.

Which ultimately means undue reliance is placed on the form rather than substance. So we tell people through the mass media, believing that people will vote according to what the old mass media tells them to.

If the infusion of old-school media practitioners leads to the tabloidisation of the new media, then Najib’s initiative will fall flat on its back.

That is precisely what ails the old media. It functions reasonably well when the flow of interaction is one way and more importantly, the mentality of the audience is simple. Hence, important and weighty issues are trivialised and represented by gross oversimplification.

The media tells the public, in sensationalised and highly condensed form, about some substantive issues; the public accepts, having no choices to verify or disprove what the media tells them. In that regime, the old media reigns supreme. It rules and shapes public opinion.

If that is the premise on which Najib’s new media initiative was undertaken, then it signifies a failure to appreciate and understand the power of the new media. The new media changes how the game is played. It has empowered us all to be story tellers. The information monopoly of big media institutions, such as newspapers and TV networks, has been broken. We are all publishers now.

But it is also true that thus far the big winners in this revolution seem to be governments and big corporations that now have much more potent ways to control information, as well as fringe political groups that can now spread their “lunacy” to a vast new audience.

So what, we cynically ask? So for Najib’s communications outfit to be effective it must acquire potent ways to control information. How can it accomplish that? By engaging in mature discourse with the public and not wielding the club of censorship on others. Worse, by tabloidisation of key and important issues.

The key word here is engaging in mature discourses. Can the infusion of new blood into the communications outfit accomplish this? Otherwise, the reading public will prefer the new media because the communications outfit or even the Ministry of Information cannot control information.

Consider this. The implosion of the traditional media in the midst of the digital media revolution has caused news organisations to do two things: drastically reduce the size of newsroom staff and demand that the remaining reporters adapt to the web- and cable-TV-driven news cycle.

Could it be that the induction of new faces and a reconstituted online portal managing the PM’s presence in the new media represents an attempt to adapt to the world of new media? And the induction of old hands of the media is relied upon to streamline the new media practitioners of the PM’s communication outfit?

Why is that a problem? Perhaps because, the problem is with the product. You see, the PM’s online portal operated by all those reporters frantically tweeting and facebooking and churning out twice as many stories may actually NOT pay off in terms of engaging the public in mature discourse. Trading quality and depth for speed and story counts means news organisations are giving away the power to effect the public agenda. Politicians, bureaucrats and corporate leaders will find they can easily ignore a neutered communications outfit.

So in order to make the PM’s communication outfit take advantage of the power of the new media, even old hands in the science of the media must jettison old habits and adopt new skills.

It has to be mindful of the fact that independent bloggers have popped up here and there to fill the gap of credibility. Without the new skills, even with the backing of institutional entities behind them, these eager watchdogs in the PM’s communications outfit will lack teeth. Who will listen to them? Because to the reading public and adherents of the new media, all those chihuahuas yipping about on far more engaging things are making far more useful noises.

As the digital media revolution progresses, new formats may well arise in which powerful journalism can thrive. But that outcome is not guaranteed. It seems equally possible that journalism will be trivialised and marginalised while the dominant voices will be those of bilious and defiant bloggers.

Let’s see what stuff is the PM’s communication outfit made of. —www.sakmongkol.blogspot.com

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