The Author
Remarks by Columnist Joe Bartuah, Chief Editorial Officer of LIB-Variety.org at the Annual Convention of the Association of Liberian Journalists in the Americas (ALJA). Trenton, New Jersey. September 25, 2021.
Due to an acute time allotment, I’ll begin with the bare minimum. As I see it, there are three steps towards sustaining the independence and integrity of the traditional media in Liberia and probably around the world. That is: (a) the quality of our work, because our professionalism will be the pivotal foundation for sustaining traditional journalism; (b) mainstreaming media consolidation and cooperatives and (c) establishing a permanent free media endowment fund.
In his resourceful paper, Dr. Sam Wai Johnson cites a recent report by the Reuters Institute about how 21st-century media technologies are gradually tilting the contemporary media landscape. That is, the polarization of traditional media audiences and also how the proliferation of unorthodox media is eroding the basic revenue-generating capacities of traditional media outlets.
In other words, as more and more people continue to access media technologies, many of them typically resort to practicing “citizen’s journalism”, or amateur broadcasting. For many people, mobile technologies tend to appeal to their sense of creativity, hence the proliferation or multiplicity of social media outlets on multiple social media platforms. However, it would be naïve, or somehow
disingenuous for one to assume that it’s only “creativity” or natural love for the media profession that is accelerating the swarming of the various social media platforms.
In the specific case of Liberia, Dr. Johnson adds, “Between 2019 and 2020, mobile phone connections in Liberia increased by about 2,799 (i.e. 0.5 percent)1, an increase that has been due primarily to the liberalization of the technology market in the country.” As I perused Dr. Johnson’s paper, I was reminded of the rudimentary characterization of “news” in freshman journalism class as a sort of “Man bites dog” scenario. Obviously, when it happens the other way around, that is, when a dog bites a man, that’s a mere piece of information, not news.
Now, with the proliferation of social media platforms, it seems that the proverbial man is not only biting a dog, but we’re also beginning to witness the dog biter attempting to also bandage the injuries he has inflicted on the dog. I think Dr. Johnson best captures this bizarre scenario when he writes, “Governments have joined the growing number of people using social media as a source of information…”, and he adds that, “controlling, manipulating, and distorting contents” of news articles appear to be the ultimate goal of such governments.
Here in the U.S., a certain political operative with no known credibility once tagged this phenomenon as an “alternative fact”. The truth is that many people in privileged positions, many governments are bent on cunningly manipulating some segments of the populace, and thereby confusing them, or further compounding their gullibility.
If one can put it in Liberian a parlance, is it not “fishy?”. Is it not suspicious, if not mischievous that governments, which are traditionally the biggest news makers, have now enthusiastically joined the social media proliferation bandwagon, profusely blowing their own trumpet? Again, to put it in a typical Liberian way, have you ever heard a market woman saying, “My bunny is rotten?”
One of the dismal results is that the distinctive lines between “alternative facts”, or fake news and traditional news are increasingly becoming blurred. In other words, professional whitewashers are now swarming the social media platforms to inundate our people with alternative facts or fake news. Against this backdrop, the onus is now on all well-meaning journalists to do our due diligence, to redouble our efforts in fiercely defending the decency of democracy. We must exert every effort to thoroughly investigate and meticulously analyze issues so that our people wouldn’t be hoodwinked by artificially orchestrated euphoria.
For example, in contemporary Liberian political lexicon, what does the word “pro-poor” actually mean? Does that mean pursuing policies that lift the people out poverty, or perpetuating practices that continue to further pauperize the very people? Does that mean prudent policies that minimize corruption, or callously swimming in a pool of corruption to further exacerbate the people’s deprivation?
As we gather here today, the key question is: amid multiple assaults against professional journalism on multiple fronts, how can we sustain the continuity and integrity of the Noble Inky Fraternity? In other words, how can we set ourselves apart or distinguish ourselves? As I see it, we can set ourselves apart by going beyond the shadow of superficiality; by persistently and consistently probing, inquiring, by seeking answers to pertinent questions, because the people want to know.
When lying becomes a commercially viable, profit-making industry, we must stick with the truth. We must strive to remove all modicums of equivocation or ambiguity on rhetorical sound-bites and public policies. When government employees’ corpses are found in a vehicle on the streets of Monrovia, Liberian journalists must ask, because the people want to know the actual perpetrators of such dastardly, horrific acts. When the Liberian Government issues a press release, claiming that an elite presidential security officer traveling with the president had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head “three times”, the press must ask, because such possibility is almost non-existent.
When Zeyu Miller, a young and seemingly healthy journalist is cruelly brutalized by presidential security officers, leading to his death three weeks later, Liberian journalists must ask, because it’s a dreadful human rights violation. We’ll set ourselves apart; we’ll stand out among the whitewashing professionals, among the lying-for-profit operatives based on the sheer quality of our work.
Closing
Now folks, let us all remember this: There are millions of people around the world who know how to cook, but not everyone who cooks is a chef. Likewise, if I can ask: How many persons in this room have a driver’s license? If you have a valid driving license, will you please raise your hand?
Now, I have a follow up question: How many chauffeurs are in this room right now? Are you a chauffeur? It goes without saying that just as not everyone who cooks is a chef, just as not everyone who drives is a chauffeur, so too, NOT EVERYONE WHO WRITES A PIECE OF INFORMATION IS A JOURNALIST.