Is the Media Their Own Worst Enemy?

At the conclusion of the SALISES Forum on 'The Role of Social Media in Elections in T&T' I was uncertain of whether I should applaud the panelists for their contributions or confer with an "Amen". That isn't necessarily because of the quality of the presentations, but rather because it is quite difficult to find persons delivering that level of self-aggrandizing inanity as fact outside of a church environment. Aside from Dr. Ghany, whose sole function was moderating the event, and Dr. Scott Timcke who cleverly avoided the mistakes of his co-panelists by remaining steadfast to academia, both Mr. Curtis Williams and Dr. Indrani Persad-Bachan found themselves far adrift during the public discussion segment as a result of their misunderstanding of social media and its influence. Dr. Persad-Bachan in particular was challenged repeatedly for her assertion that because the amount of additional voters that participated in the 2015 general elections correlated with the number of millennials who cast their ballots for the first time, somehow this proved her theory that social media was a heavy influence during those campaigns. It then became apparent as the proceedings continued, based mostly on the repetition of her rigorous answer, that Dr. Persad-Bachan was neither familiar with nor bothered to research the topic which she was presenting as a UWI expert. But that raises the broader question of whether or not there are any is any real expertise on the social media phenomenon, especially when it relates to a developing nation such as T&T.

To be fair to Mr. Curtis Williams, his presentation was the most relevant to the forum and did carry an innate sense of cogency if only because news media is the neanderthal to social media's homosapien. Just as in the case of our own evolution, news media now faces extinction in its current form and is therefore desperately attempting to derive its own way forward. Where Mr. Williams stumbled however, was in two separate assertions which cannot exist without either compromise or collusion. The first being that the media currently uses social media to find breaking news which they then report on, and the second, which is that the news media must operate independently from social media if it is to maintain its credibility. 

I hate to beat a dead horse, but Mr. Williams did cite the case of Ms. Nafisah Nakhid in his presentation, so I will use to it to further elucidate my point. Mr. Williams explained that prior to social media, the only way that Ms. Nakhid's case would have gotten any media attention would have been for her to approach a reporter directly, and then the matter would be investigated before it could be published. In today's culture however, Ms. Nakhid was catapulted into the news by the popularity of the video she uploaded to social media. What Mr. Williams failed to touch on however is the fact that following the initial reports which all leaned towards sympathizing with Ms. Nakhid based on her own details of the situation, facts have since emerged that conflict with her own feelings. As such, many persons have already formed their own opinions on the matter based on Ms. Nakhid's testimony and biased reporting from the mainstream news media based on the popularity of her cause, therefore negating any further information that may arise to contradict her account.

If mainstream news media wants to maintain any credibility, then they need to separate themselves from social media completely despite whatever initial damage it may create on their brand. Journalism should not yield to mob mentality in order to remain relevant. As much as I am both a proponent and product of the social media machine, I believe that freedom of the press should mean freedom from online manipulation as well. The truth is that while social media can discredit mainstream news, it is the news media that has given the most amount of credibility to social media when they present these posts and blogs as facts. The only way for the news media to return to the glory days of yore is to distinguish themselves as separate entities and reclaim their integrity, otherwise their end won't come with a triumphant bang but rather a doleful tweet.