The Tribune

“THE BAHAMAS has a proud record of press freedom and deserves our highest commendation in that regard. Public discourse, vigorous and open discussion are essential to the preservation of your thriving democracy.

It is well established that the press, the Fourth Estate, plays a unique role in the promotion of human rights, our fundamental freedoms and is essential to engender good governance, public accountability and transparency.

To perform this task, it is entitled to ready access - not as a favour, but as a right. Without this, it is prone to leaks (often unreliable and self-centred) or speculation which could prove harmful to the national interest.

The great number and range of Bahamian media outlets that provide citizens with news, information and entertainment is truly impressive: The Nassau Guardian newspaper has been in existence since 1844, The Tribune, Freeport News, the Bahama Journal, the tabloid Punch; all contribute to your vibrant print media sector.

Many of your media entities have digital components where audiences access media content from anywhere in the world. In one form or another, Bahamian media, including digital media, reach all Bahamian households and engage with audiences across the globe with stories and messages that inform, educate and entertain. This is an impressive achievement on which you must build in a global society that is increasingly knowledge-based.

But that’s not all. Some of the stories have played a role in the final outputs which have helped to shape public discourse and managed to influence public policy and sound governance. These accomplishments are necessary and important media requisites in an enduring democracy.

A significant number of citizens, especially our youth, are active social media participants who create, share and consume a wide array of information among themselves and across the entire world via the internet. Over 50 per cent of the world’s population is less than 30 years old. Almost all millennials have joined social networks. Online news sources, social networking websites, YouTube videos and blogs have joined television and other traditional media as the main sources of public information and are connecting citizens who share similar views. These citizens are influencing each other directly, bypassing traditional media and other intermediaries. More than half of mobile non-voice traffic in the Caribbean is for Facebook. Twitter now impacts all aspects of life including cultures and national elections.

Advancements in technology are expanding the reach and influence of traditional media among all audiences and increasing the power of social media. These have facilitated a move away from a world in which few institutions and individuals create media content to one in which everyone can produce content that influences and creates a stake in our culture and future.

But all social media or all media content are not equal. Attractively packaged and effectively distributed, shared information is not of equal value or equal worth. Some is problematic and dangerous. As a result, some technological changes employed by social media have major implications for the historical roles and responsibilities of traditional media.

A decade ago, political candidates largely depended on traditional media to tell their stories, to sell their candidacies. This is no longer the case. Political candidates are exploiting new media, which have rallied some of the largest populist movements the world has ever seen, including the so-called Arab Spring. In the world’s largest and most robust market of America, we witness a fundamental shift in content creation and media consumption.

Eight years ago, Barack Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ campaign used social media platforms to rapidly stimulate political activity and community activism. More recently, Donald Trump used social media to rally a populist movement that challenged established terms of political engagement and stoked controversy.

New communications technologies empower individuals and groups to do democratic things. They provide platforms for the rapid distribution of material that can undermine democracy and yield problematic outcomes. They rapidly and frequently disseminate falsehoods, slander, intolerant views and hostile ideologies. Communities, nations and the world have become more connected yet more complicated, more social yet more individualistic.

While technology creates the vehicle through which people assemble ideas, the need remains for the audience to be engaged, to be influenced, to be persuaded and convinced.

In this age when everyone with a computer can create and publish news stories, parade as journalists, you as professionals have to clearly demonstrate that you offer something of lasting value; something that differentiates your outputs from the false pretenders.

Why should professional journalists take the profession’s ethical mandates - respect privacy, embrace public accountability, give voice to the voiceless and protect the vulnerable - seriously when others are not constrained by such old-fashioned notions?

In the highly competitive media industry, speed to publish and speed to hit the send button are often perceived as the only goals, so why concern oneself with other objectives that appear archaic? Why bother to be accurate when sensationalism sells? When trivia trumps analysis and investigative stories prove more costly?

Being right and being credible to warrant trust are more important attributes than being first.

Amid the noise of information overload, the triple goals of credibility, accuracy, trustworthiness, still constitute the mandate for a free press in a democracy. Professional journalistic courage and telling the truth are values that have withstood the test of time.

Responsible media can help consumers discern fact from fiction; truth from falsehoods; valid arguments from those that are fundamentally flawed. Responsible media must help citizens develop the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media - from social media content to musical lyrics and videos.

The original progenitors of the Bahamian media and even some of the most senior among you would be bewildered by the face of the new media landscape. But even in the light of the cataclysmic changes you can never relinquish the duties of the Fourth Estate to inform and educate.”

This is an edited extract from a speech “A responsible press” by P J Patterson, Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1992 to 2006, at the Bahamas Press Club Awards on Saturday night.