Emilly C. Maractho (PhD)
Those of us from the ancient world still love to quote others. I like how a book by Henry Timms and Jeremy Heimans, describing new power and how it is changing the 21st Century begins on page one.
It says, ‘Power, as philosopher Bertrand Russel puts it, is the ‘ability to produce intended effects.’ That ability is now in all our hands. Today, we have the capacity to make films, friends or money; to spread hope or spread our ideas; to build community or propagate violence - all on vastly greater scale and with greater potential impact than we did even a few years ago. Yes, this is because technology has changed. The deeper truth is that we are changing.” In the past that ability lay elsewhere, a preserve of a few gifted people.
There is nothing more profound than to recognise the truth of these changes. I have referenced this book before, because it speaks of our times and our inability to recognise the extent of the changes we are dealing with.
Most of us stick to the idea that because we have some power, we can produce whatever intended effects we wish for. As I read the newspapers these days, I think of just how much we are changing as a society. Yet, the behaviour of most people suggest that they have not appreciated these changes. Many people still think they have a lot of power as individuals because they hold some positions, when the very definition of power is changing and the people they lead are changing even more.
We may wish to see this so-called new power as just a quiet current of invisible influence flowing through those who did not have power in the past, who now do. The people with the ability to make a difference need not endure violent dispersion of crowds with teargas anymore, but in the comfort of their space, use the means available to them to cause conversations we would have missed in the past. The ability to recall what was is far greater.
Our ability to close off spaces and create boundaries of topics that can be discussed or not is fading fast. It is possibly the most challenging time to be a leader. The very meaning of representation is changing because people want more substantive representation. The nature of politics will not remain the same, even in the poorest countries, where manipulation of the oppressed seemed easy in the past.
News media organisations still lost on the precincts of old power will soon find themselves in difficult places as ordinary citizens with information tell compelling stories of abuse of power, once a preserve of the real gate keepers. Most people with as much power as to close news media organisations, will soon learn that there is nothing to be gained by threatening journalists, that they are facing something larger. In fact, they will miss the journalists who for fear of being shut down, could apply caution and apply 360 degrees look at every ‘sensitive’ story, and give up some stories for the sake of peace in the media-state relations.
It is a very good season to study the power or lack of it within media too. Most people still assume, when they speak of media, that they are talking about the news media. But there is so much more to the media than some naughty journalist. The power to ‘buy off’ journalists is diminishing too.
Those who imagined that the power lay in owning a radio station and propagating your own truth will soon find that their radio means little in the larger scheme of things. Those who believed in deploying huge resources in public relations to cover up their tracks will soon realise its cold comfort.
There was a time when our deepest fear was the viability and sustainability of the media. And it seemed then that media relevance and survival of journalism was far remote in this country.
Yet, there is hope. As old-style civic activism loses the centre a little, digital activism is taking shape in many places and the good old newspaper is also reinventing itself one day at a time. When things change form, it is not that they will stay forever in limbo if you work hard at it.
Hopefully, journalists can reinvent themselves and reclaim relevance. Journalism can raise the bar for news reporting a little higher, redefining power for the people, absorbing the people into journalism. Platforms will remain effective vehicles with more choices for access to the people.
The writer, Emilly C. Maractho, is an academic. [email protected]
