Lies, propaganda and hate - the vital connections

Among the more important imperatives of modern day journalism is exposing the people and agendas devoted to undermining trust in what now operates under the moniker of the “mainstream media.”

The difficulty with this though is that systems to unearth untruth and malpractice in the media are, at the same time, absolutely necessary in modern society to ensure that vested political and commercial interests do not prevail at the expense of the public interest.

This is why people are so attracted to the so-called “fake news” phenomenon as worthy of consistent vigilance and as a default when confronted with news and information that does not ring right with the status quo or does not conform with their belief systems.

It is also, at the same time, understandable that people in all their social and political spaces and environments should be concerned that lies and propaganda do not gratuitously enter the sphere of mainstream public communication. Though all of this is not new, what is different are the newer, infinitely more ubiquitous platforms, the growing sophistication of propaganda campaigns, and a catchy oxymoronic tag.

I have used this space before to help people identify the symptoms of this contrived malady and how we can easily identify its purveyors. In many instances the undermining of trust becomes a concerted focus of the most untrustworthy. The signs are relatively easy to pick up and essentially comprise a lack of accountability and transparency alongside clearly identifiable partisan agendas. Think of the last time you saw someone pronounce “fake news” on something and who is offering the assertion.

There is another, equally evident, feature of this: the propagation of expression designed to both defame and to promote hate. In social environments elsewhere, science and measurement are being applied to determine the connection between political and sectional survival and the employment of hate speech. No such compulsion here.

I spent two days in Jamaica last week examining this discrete component of the disinformation agenda. For it will help advance the cause of those concerned about the use of lies and propaganda to understand how promoting hate against individuals and groups feeds into the process of gaining sectional advantage.

It was generally agreed that the entire media industry, in all its facets, focus on actions to ensure that the promotion of hate – expressed as racism, sexism, xenophobia and discrimination against identifiable, vulnerable groups – does not gain traction within the body of mainstream media content, as indeed it sometimes does. It is a sad admission to make as a journalist, I must tell you. But it is the exception rather than the rule.

It is important, we who attended the Public Media Alliance workshop in Kingston last week concluded, that journalists and others operating in the sphere of public communication know how to identify what constitutes hateful content.

This becomes easier if there is, at first, a commitment to treat all groups and individuals with dignity and respect. Now, examine those recent social media posts about the demands of the LGBTQI community to be embraced by the universality of the human rights from which we claim to benefit. Think about the ignorant stereotyping of immigrants and why the disabled are yet to achieve social and economic equity.

There was also acknowledgement of the special status of children. I was quick to add this comes with astute disregard for how children look or behave. In the midst of the violence and mayhem, it has become far too easy to forget that our children require a special level of protection and are, in fact, protected by global convention and national law.

There has also been a tendency to assert cultural specificity on the question of human rights. Yes, we sometimes hear, "there are human rights, BUT what about our small size? What about cultural antecedents?" These are, of course, all entirely false and mistaken assertions. It is amazing that I once had to fight this point with a senior state official in the communication sector.

So, along with “false news” declarations and the hate, comes a declared disregard for human rights. These are all symptoms of a disease that has increasingly become endemic in the body politic. We so frequently point to more developed jurisdictions so afflicted but appear blissfully oblivious to its manifestations among us all.

First published in the T&T Guardian - August 15, 2018

Eyes Wide Open for Disinformation

Disinformation and propaganda disguised as truth constitute more than a minor threat to social and political stability. This has been found to be so everywhere such practices are evident.

Responsible authorities and non-state institutions have been keeping a sharp eye on this, within the context of the use of new and social media, for about two decades now. Free expression rapporteurs from the United Nations, Europe, Africa and the Americas have issued more than one joint communiqué on the subject. There is also a lot of literature on traditional propaganda campaigns and how they work.

In the meantime, there is a growing body of direction on how this problem can be significantly dealt with – particularly when it comes to addressing the quality of traditional and new media audiences – without substantially threatening free expression.

The basic modus operandi behind the most recent versions of this phenomenon are now well known and understood and the direction flows of such information are becoming easier to track.

We know that both elements supportive of governments and those in opposition are routinely co-opted to facilitate and to enhance flows of disinformation. There are also non-state private actors that may for a number of reasons attempt to sway public opinion on a variety of matters, some criminal in nature.

I have repeatedly argued in fora examining such issues that a primary, durable intervention would be to focus on improving the discerning eyes and ears of receivers of news and information. “Media and information literacy” is the fancy term employed by development people nowadays.

Let’s break this down a bit and assume someone in a Whatsapp group posts a social media message ostensibly emanating from a senior police officer.

Let’s also say there is reference to a “Home Affairs” department of government and “upcoming elections” in the country.

What we would need are people to start asking some basic questions and to apply a more naturally sceptical pre-disposition. Firstly, do we have a “home affairs” department in T&T? Secondly, what “upcoming elections”?

Then, armed with an abundance of scepticism, portions of the message from your inbox can be entered into a search engine or one of several websites now used to identify “fake news.” Snopes is an easy one to use.

Voilà! “Home Affairs” and “upcoming elections” together with other key terms used in the Whatsapp message will yield an October 17, 2017 missive from South African officials regarding ANC leadership elections there last year – replicated almost word for word in the Whatsapp message. Takes a few minutes.

The next, slightly more difficult exercise, would be to work out ‘who’ might be behind what appears to be a coordinated effort to generate panic and concern about a visitation from some “home department” to verify elections-related information.

Many times, the person who innocently posts clearly bogus information on the group, would try to later diminish the potential harm by stating that such information can serve as a useful warning about the possibility of fake state operatives making the rounds.

Inquisitive sceptics (a condition to which some journalists are prone) would then position the finding alongside prevailing disinformation on, let’s say, the application of the property tax - to cite one possible, non-exclusive lead - and a variety of complementary online resources, including shady “news” outlets and supportive Facebook groups and pages.

Now, be clear, there is an essential difference between misinformation and disinformation. What online propaganda campaigns do is promote intentionally false (and often malicious) information through the use of people and channels that have the potential to innocently disseminate false information to wide and diverse audiences.

Additionally, one of the other main features of coordinated campaigns of disinformation is the effort to weaken the value of countervailing, authoritative sources of authentic information, of which the so-called “mainstream” mass media are but one.

It is therefore not surprising to often witness a high level of hostility toward and slurs directed at journalists and their media houses by politicians and their surrogates. This has been proven to be the case up North.

It’s almost axiomatic that disinformation campaigns embrace attacks on journalism and individual journalists. What is needed is a mainstream and social media consuming public that more readily diagnoses some pretty self-evident symptoms. Keep your eyes wide open!

(Originally published in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian)

The Mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS Issues in the Caribbean Media – Addressing Stigma & Discrimination

This paper was delivered at a workshop on Caribbean media coverage of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in December 2006

Introduction

Not unlike media elsewhere in the developed and developing world, the Caribbean mass media have been recognised for what is believed to be their considerable potential to deliver direct information, influence attitudes and behaviour and affect public policy on a range of developmental issues. Researchers however claim that the very characteristics that render mass media a powerful ally can also have severely negative impacts on agendas to promote positive change.

Knowledge is power in the struggle to cope with and contain HIV. People who are well-informed about the epidemic are able to assess the threat posed by the virus and to know how best to avoid infection, or, if they are HIV-positive, how to look after themselves and their partners and families.

But for individuals to be able to act effectively on what they know, they need an enlightened environment. The mass media have a huge contribution to make on both fronts. Besides delivering direct information, they have the potential to influence attitudes, behaviour and even policy-making in a myriad of ways through their coverage of the epidemic in news, drama, documentary and discussion.

However, this is a double-edged sword. The media reflect as well as shape culture and social norms. Ensuring that the messages conveyed assist people to cope with and resist HIV rather than inadvertently falling victim to the epidemic requires wisdom, sensitivity and clarity of purpose. 

Recent events in Jamaica are salutary. Murderous homophobia there has been fuelled by a number of popular rap artists, whose shows and songs have been given exposure in the island’s media. Besides spreading misery and fear in the gay community, this has caused serious setbacks to AIDS programmes, because of the association between homosexuality and the spread of HIV. Sadly, similar examples from elsewhere in which the media, wittingly or unwittingly, help to fuel prejudice and discrimination are not difficult to find. – (UNAIDS, 2005)

Such ambiguity has generated concern that while mass media can serve as an important tool in the process of health promotion, they can also present the process with some of its sternest challenges. Relative relief is found in the recognition that the media are but one element of a range of interventions to promote behaviour change and that literacy, interpersonal communication and explicit programmes of media advocacy are important factors that both complement and counter the presumed impacts of media content.

It has also been recognised that prior notions of behaviour change through individualistic models of mass media messaging on the HIV/AIDS question are challenged by other processes that impact on community action and social change.

In 2002, Nancy Coulson noted in her discourse on developments in the use of the mass media at the national level for HIV/AIDS prevention in South Africa there exists “a plethora of models and schools of thought that public health specialists can use to inform the development of public health communication campaigns. These models include the founding vision for health promotion captured in the 1986 Ottawa Charter which represents a fundamental shift away from individualistic health education behaviour change models to acknowledge the profound impact physical and social environments have on people’s opportunity for health and their health behaviour.”

In this context, communication experts appear now to be turning full circle on the question of mass impacts versus individual behaviourial transformation.

Media Mainstreaming

The “mainstreaming” of HIV/AIDS information in the media is related to the belief that integration of the subject into routine media content will attract to it a greater level of credibility as “earned” media output while reflecting its multi-faceted character. This, it is presumed rewards such interventions with mass appeal.

The Bridgetown Declaration on the Caribbean Media Response to HIV/AIDS acts on this very assumption. Regional broadcast executives declared:

“We, the leaders of the Caribbean broadcast media, gathered in Bridgetown on this 10th day of May 2006, inspired by the UN Secretary General’s call to action under the Global Media AIDS Initiative, acknowledge that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a threat to humankind and an urgent impediment to the future prospects and wellbeing of all our nations, undermining our efforts to build social capital and strong economic systems in our countries.

Convinced that media have a critical role to play in the fight against HIV/AIDS and that Caribbean broadcasters can make a unique and important contribution to HIV/AIDS information dissemination, awareness, behaviour change, and care and support in our countries and communities …”

Silvio Waisbord’s Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication however cites Flay & Burton 1990 and Hornik 1989 in concluding that “much of the current thinking is that successful interventions combine media channels and interpersonal communication. Against arguments of powerful media effects that dominated development communication in the past, recent conclusions suggest that blending media and interpersonal channels is fundamental for effective interventions.”

Additionally, the mass media are being recognised for functions including the independent verification of specific health promotion interventions and the sourcing of mass communication skills outside the direct ambit of journalistic practice.

It is clear the shifting bases of mass media theory on the question of development communication have embraced the notion of behaviour change as a function of a process that owes much less to previously held positions on the effects of mass media than it embraces a wide range of socio-economic factors.

For example, recent social marketing models embrace the view that “while media can be an important aspect of social marketing, other components, including rigorous planning and consumer research, channel-specific strategy development, and formative evaluation are equally important. Likewise, other types of interventions, such as training programs, community activities, and materials development, are equally as valuable as media campaigns, if not more.” (Bellamy, H., Salit, R. Bell, L. Social Marketing Resource Manual: A Guide for State Nutrition Education Networks, 1997).

One activity that has assisted in the mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS issues in the Caribbean media is the annual Media Awards programme of the Pan American Health Organization Office of Caribbean Programme Coordination. In 2004, the institution introduced the new category of HIV/AIDS in response to a recommendation from its Panel of Judges that this be done to help keep the public up to date on information and approaches to the treatment and management of the disease.

Since then, there have been awards for coverage of HIV/AIDS Prevention; the CAREC Award for an Alternative Media Story on HIV/AIDS and the CARICOM Award for Coverage of HIV/AIDS.

The PAHO Media Awards programme is the leading media awards scheme in any sphere in the region. It has developed into an operation that covers a wide portion of the Caribbean area and has assisted in generating greater awareness by media professionals of their role in properly covering the subject.

PAHO says it sees the programme as being designed “to promote higher standards in regional health journalism and stimulate quality reporting on a regular basis in all the media.”

The Caribbean Media

It is important, as well, to discuss the nature of Caribbean media and the social, cultural and economic antecedents that drive their development. There is little doubt that the media have played a historical role in affecting public policy discourse and action.

Understanding the Media in the Caribbean states: “Newspapers were first established in the English-speaking territories as far back as the mid 18th Century at a time when primary production for export to European markets, under conditions of colonialism, dominated the socio-economic landscape. Mediated information flows thus engaged domestic developments primarily at the level of their impacts on the relationship between Caribbean production and the state of a market itself in the throes of dramatic change.

Newspapers were a way of reinforcing a status quo which, by and large, co-existed well with the changing circumstances, serving as efficient advertising vehicles for new products and ensuring the smooth flow of information between the colonial homelands and their overseas operatives. So important was this role that by the mid 1800s, there were more than 100 newspapers in the colonies.” (Gibbings, 2004)

It is also indicated that the relative upsurge in socio-economic crises that have accompanied Caribbean societies into a new era of international stringency and interaction have been met by a string of corresponding social policy initiatives that have brought the media into sharper focus. Many Caribbean societies are, for example, debating cultural policies and new directions in training and education. New policy frameworks are also being devised to attend to issues such as conflict and the disintegration of Caribbean societies.

These initiatives have not been having a neutral impact on the free press. Cultural policies to counter the impact of what is described as the penetration of non-Caribbean cultural value systems have led to the proposed imposition of measures such as broadcast content quotas and other such threats to the free operation of media enterprises.

Matters of social cohesion also, for example, led in Trinidad and Tobago to formulation of equal opportunity legislation which, in its initial design, dramatically threatened notions of free expression and, by extension, the practice of the free press. In Jamaica, proposed anti-corruption legislation was eventually amended when it was brought to the government's attention that restrictions on media reporting on corruption investigations considerably hampered the work of the free press.

The region has also recently been characterised by a new era of politics with an unprecedented string of changes in government and, in some instances, a rotating of roles between government and opposition. Exposure to this dramatic degree of political vulnerability is partly responsible for what can only be described as a new wave of subtle but dangerous threats to free expression and the free press in the Caribbean.

There are also distinct but not unrelated concerns linked to perceptions of media and cultural imperialism. Such concerns have often led to policy initiatives to promote cultural protectionism.

Bilali Camara et al, for example suggested in a paper to the first Champions for Change workshop in 2004: “An issue is that Caribbean states have little control of the content, cultural framing and sheer volume of the foreign media. At the start of the epidemic, there was little data and information on the regional expression of the disease and most of the media reports were from North America. A number of issues raised by the disease, particularly as they relate to sexuality, condom use, and sex work, were foisted on the Caribbean publics. The range of responses of the health educators and information, education and communication (IEC) material developers in the region ranged from clarity, to ambivalence, to denial. This, therefore, is the challenge the region faces.

To suggest that non-regional media were capable of foisting undesirable material on unsuspecting Caribbean media audiences to an undetermined and undefined degree would be to ignore current thinking on mass media effects as outlined above and to invite policy interventions that have increasingly tended to prescribe regulatory control over media content.

In any event, as noted in the PAHO 2005 study on Coverage of Health in the Media of St Vincent and the Grenadines, “Many studies on HIV/AIDS have found that initial coverage includes mostly foreign stories which become localized over time as local governments start to address the issue within their own country.”

The Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers (ACM) has led efforts to resist policy and regulatory interventions related to foreign content in the regional mass media. Current debates over broadcast content quotas to promote greater domestic content have, in my view, distracted from the urgent imperative of action to develop indigenous broadcast content through direct support for the enhancement of specific production skills.

Broadcast content quotas contravene basic principles of free expression and fair business practice and vainly attempt to legislate taste. In their place, regimes of fiscal support and promotion of higher technical standards in domestic broadcast media production can go a long way in addressing perceived shortcomings.

The ACM has also argued in favour of professional development strategies in the field of journalism to better reflect the Caribbean experience and to instill an ethic and aesthetic reflective of the needs of Caribbean society.

Caribbean media have however played an undeniable role in validating values that promote stigmatisation and discrimination against persons living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). Stigma is described as reflecting “qualities that discredit individuals or groups” while discrimination is examined as the process which denies services, entitlements and opportunities to persons living with HIV/AIDS.

Sir George Alleyne, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean suggests “there are basically two approaches to the reduction of stigma and discrimination that are worth considering. The first is how to reduce the level of stigma and consequent discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS and those perceived or suspected of having a life-style that increases their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The second is to accept that stigma and discrimination currently exist and find measures to protect persons against them.”

A media study conducted by Internews Network’s Local Voices project, in collaboration with two of the leading international networks on HIV/AIDS, the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), and the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) entitled Frontline perspectives on how the global news media reports on HIV/AIDS was launched on World AIDS Day 2006.

The report analyses views from more than 130 PLWHA leaders and 200 HIV/AIDS programme managers from more than 44 countries. In one section on Inaccurate and Stigmatising Language, there is the contention that “discriminatory, stigmatising and inaccurate language used by local news media about HIV/AIDS remains a serious concern and continues to undermine effective coverage of HIV news, according to PLHIV respondents. They link this failure to a weakness in research and knowledge of HIV/AIDS by local journalists as well as a lack of interest by their editors and publishers.”

According to the report, respondents to a survey conducted by the project “agreed across the board that the biggest failure of media coverage is in the portrayal of PLHIV, while acknowledging some improvement as activists engage more proactively with journalists. Ninety-six percent of PLHIV respondents said that stories opposing stigma and discrimination need more coverage, such as reporting on internalised stigma of PLHIV and the effect of homophobia on national strategies to combat HIV and AIDS.”

This statement can be said to be largely true of the Caribbean situation and interventions are clearly required to address these shortcomings.

Journalists’ Views

Media outputs are recognised as contributory factors in both the promotion and mitigation of stigma and discrimination against PLWHA.

A survey conducted for this workshop solicited the views of 10 senior journalists in Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, St Maarten and Trinidad and Tobago on the question of media mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS issues, stigma and discrimination and perceived shortcomings in media coverage of such issues.

Six respondents said they did not believe that their media institution had sufficiently mainstreamed HIV/AIDS issues. Mainstreaming is here defined as the integration of HIV/AIDS issues into routine media content.

When asked what changes had been recognised in the treatment of HIV/AIDS material in their media over the past five years, the responses included:

Grenada

i.                    “Inappropriate” language is now generally not included in news stories;

ii.                  Greater care is taken to report HIV/AIDS news “responsibly”.

St Vincent & the Grenadines

i.                    The issue is now covered seasonally on occasions such as World AIDS Day;

ii.                  There are more workshops and conferences to cover.

St Lucia

i.                    The issue has gained greater prominence in the news (maybe because more people are dying);

ii.                  It however faces the danger of being “overplayed” and therefore be eventually accorded less attention.

Trinidad & Tobago

i.                    News media present such stories with a greater sense of its human interest nature;

ii.                  PLWHA are now viewed in a more favourable light in the media;

iii.                More informational material is now published in the media.

Jamaica

i.                    AIDS is no longer a “taboo” topic in the media;

ii.                  It is present in the media more in terms of its educational value

St Maarten

i.                    HIV/AIDS news and information is viewed mainly as material for special supplements.

Guyana

i.                    The disease is reported less as a “doomsday” story;

ii.                  More informational material is now published in the media.

The survey also sought to determine whether these journalists viewed coverage of HIV/AIDS issues as “multi-sectoral” in nature. All respondents agreed the HIV/AIDS story was cross-cutting in nature and was eligible for coverage under the following headings:

1. Economy/Finance
2. Tourism
3. Social Affairs
4. Education
5. Child Welfare
6. Culture/Entertainment
7. Crime
8. Lifestyle
9. Politics
10. Population
11. Labour

Significantly, 7 respondents thought that “media attention is being paid to HIV/AIDS to the detriment of coverage of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.” There was one journalist who said reporting on these diseases was, in any event, “seasonal”.

On the question of whether the media have been helpful in promoting responsible sexual behaviour in their countries, 6 of the journalists said “yes”, one person said “not as much as we should” while 3 said “no”. Some who said “yes” had provisos such as: “we have tried but no one pays much attention”, “there is room for improvement”, “there is less shame in reporting these things now.”

Asked whether they believed PLWHA are discriminated against in their countries, the respondent from St Maarten said “no”, another said “somewhat” while the rest said “yes”. The ways in which PLWHA are discriminated against included: denial of employment opportunities, school places, services and stereotyping based on sexual orientation.

The journalists were however divided on the question of whether the media “play a role in promoting negative images of persons infected with the virus.” Two respondents said the media were “somewhat” responsible.

Asked to rate their level of HIV/AIDS awareness of their journalistic colleagues seven described it as “medium” and three said levels of awareness were “high”.

Asked whether they believed they knew enough about the disease, all responded they would like to know more.

The journalists then suggested ways of promoting “greater awareness of the disease and its impact among media workers”. These included:

i.                    More regular seminars and workshops

ii.                  More media-friendly information from the experts

iii.                A regular media-focused HIV/AIDS newsletter

iv.                The use of more graphic images of impact of the disease

v.                  More direct access to PLWHA

Development of journalistic skills in health reporting and the re-directing of editorial policies are recommended as effective strategies in addressing the multi-faceted phenomenon.

In a survey among a wider group of regional journalists conducted by the ACM in collaboration with the Population Reference Bureau of the U.S, in May 2005, coverage of HIV/AIDS is among the five major areas of concern of journalists engaged in environment and health reporting.

The survey attempted to gauge the most important sources of news and information that advised reporting on population, health and environmental issues. Person-to-personal interviews were the major source (82%); the Internet (73%) and Press releases (55%).

Ninety-five percent of respondents said they consulted regularly with experts and government offices on such issues. Sixty-eight percent consulted regularly with Non-Governmental Organisations while 63% relied heavily on Press Conferences.

When asked what were the most important professional needs to enable them to perform their duties at a higher level, the following were identified:

-          Training in investigative techniques (79%)

-          Lists of experts to contact (68%)

-          Tips for interpreting and citing data (63%)

-          Training in how to effectively use internet (47%)

A follow-up workshop was hosted by the PRB together with the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute and the ACM in Barbados on May 30-31, 2006. The workshop, recognising the needs identified, focused on:

-          How to frame issues

-          Some contact with experts

-          Some exposure to investigative techniques

-          Some tips for reporting using population data and internet sources

These kinds of efforts have been replicated through activities involving the Pan American Health Organisation, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESC) and Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) over recent years.

The Panos Institute of the Caribbean has also led several direct journalistic interventions on the coverage of HIV/AIDS issues. One of its more innovative efforts has been the use of “child journalists” to tell the story of Haiti through the eyes of children.

It is advisable that follow-up activity involving PANCAP proceed on the basis of clearly identified needs as described by the journalistic community.

Programmes of professional, journalistic development also need to take into account the changing face of the work environment for Caribbean media workers. In a paper presented to The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation, Caribbean Dialogue in Barbados in April 9, 2003 entitled Caribbean Media Workers and the Social Dimension of Globalisation, Gibbings pointed out that:

“The introduction of new information technologies to the communications industry has significantly changed the media workplace. It can be observed that in many instances, a shrinking share of financial resources is being devoted to the remuneration of media workers engaged in newsgathering.

There is now a greater degree of multi-tasking in the mass media with the resulting elimination of some human tasks in both electronic and print operations. The implications for journalism are recognisable through the non-moderated nature of much more easily accessed foreign news inputs and the negative impact of multi-skilling in the production of both print and broadcast media products.

There is also growing concern about authors' rights, especially in the case of the growing number of freelance journalists. The efficiency with which news outputs can now move beyond national boundaries has both increased the range of benefits linked to the practice of freelance journalism and presented it with its sternest challenge.”

Media Studies

There have also been a few attempts at more closely examining media content and coverage of HIV/AIDS issues. In 1995, a content study on Reporting on HIV/AIDS in Trinidad (1992 – 1994) was executed by the Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication (CARIMAC) at the University of the West Indies, Mona following a similar study in 1994 which looked at Reporting on HIV/AIDS in Jamaica during the course of 1992.

The results of these studies are not easily accessible and do not appear to have been widely circulated at the time. However, a rather comprehensive investigation of The Coverage of Health in the Media of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was commissioned by PAHO in 2005 under the leadership of CARIMAC lecturer Livingston White.

This report concluded that “the coverage and treatment of the HRC (health-related content) was described and the findings suggest that there is room for improvement in the area of health journalism especially in the way journalists explore the health implications present within stories which on the surface do not seem to have any potential for a health focus. The study showed that there were 164 missed opportunities where journalists could have explore more fully the health implications of certain stories.”

This finding suggests the existence of gaps between coverage of otherwise unrelated events and their potential to emerge as HRC. This is an area that can be addressed both through a revision in the approach of agencies concerned with coverage of health issues and via a process of systematic orientation of journalists. It can be argued that the gap emerges largely from the failure of agencies concerned with health promotion to identify essential links between otherwise mundane information and news and the implications for health.

The study is being replicated in six other countries and an audience response component is being included.

Over the past 10-15 years the Caribbean media have made great strides in reversing the tendency to propagate misconceptions about the nature and scope of the disease which led to pervasive social disapproval of PLWHA and persistent discriminatory practices in the labour market. But, media reportage of conspiracy theories and misinformation regarding the means of transmission have served to validate unsubstantiated views and information, some of which still exist.

It has also been found elsewhere, and confirmed in the St Vincent and the Grenadines study, that the use of “negative terminology” in reporting on HIV/AIDS has been readily associated with popular descriptions of the virus and the disease. In the Caribbean, media research on this subject has been largely confined to limited analyses of media production (the form and source of the media coverage) while considerably more attention has been paid to media content (the information being conveyed). There has meanwhile been little or no attention paid to the impact of production and content on media audiences.

Hopefully, the PAHO/CARIMAC study will begin to fill this information void.

The WHO’s Technical Report Series No 938 cites the findings of a study which looked at the influence of media interventions on HIV/AIDS through the findings of 15 studies that evaluated such programmes between 1990 and 2004.

These findings do not examine the effects of non HIV/AIDS specific material but, importantly, notes, some of the influences observed. The studies were however confined to three main types of mass media interventions including: radio only; radio with supporting media and radio and television with supporting media.

The outcomes measured included: knowledge, skills (self-efficacy in terms of abstinence or condom use), sexual behav­iour (condom use, numbers of partners, abstinence), communica­tion (parents, others), social norms, awareness and use of health services.

The findings of the studies supported the effectiveness of mass media interventions in increasing knowl­edge of HIV transmission, improving self-efficacy in condom use, influencing some social norms, increasing the amount of interpersonal commu­nication, increasing condom use and boosting awareness of health providers.

The review con­cluded that mass media programmes can and do influence HIV-related outcomes among young people, although not on every variable or in eve­ry campaign. Campaigns that include television require the highest threshold of evidence, yet they also yield the strongest evidence of effects.

It is evident that the paucity of media effects research in the Caribbean context has served to undermine confidence in the interventions of the developmental community through the almost exclusive focus on content analyses which, though useful, do not interpret the actual impacts of such interventions and/or the effects of general media content.

Even so, advocates of mass media interventions should bear in mind that the evidence strongly suggests questionable general returns in the context of fundamental behaviour change.

M. M. Cassell et al indicated in their 1998 paper Health Communication on the Internet: An Effective Channel for Health Behavior Change? that “within the field of public health, much attention has been devoted to potential uses of the mass media to modify attitudes, shape behavior, and generally persuade audiences to protect their health (Amezcua, McAllister, Ramirez, & Espinoza, 1990; Hornik, 1989; Wallack, 1989). However, where newspapers, magazines, radio, and television have been used to modify health practices, research indicates that these mass media are not very compelling channels for effecting behavior change (Backer, Rogers, & Sopory, 1992; McQuail, 1987; Rogers, 1983; Rogers & Storey, 1987). Although mass media channels have proven capable of reaching and informing large audiences, interpersonal channels have been more successful in influencing attitudes and motivating behavior change (Backer et al., 1992; Rogers & Storey, 1987). For health educators, the practical implication of this research is that mass media channels are appropriate for creating awareness, but interpersonal interactions are essential for persuading individuals to adopt health-promoting behaviors.”

The need clearly exists for greater investment in the monitoring and evaluation of programmed mass media interventions in the Caribbean and estimations of the impact of general media content on behaviour change.

Recommendations

Though there exists a basis to suggest favourable mass media responses to the thrust by developmental agencies on the question of HIV/AIDS, with particular but not exclusive attention to stigma and discrimination against PLWHA, there appear to be gaps in the attempt to relate the presence of more information to behaviour change.

The following recommended actions can assist in addressing these gaps, together with concerns expressed in this paper regarding the absence of an empirical basis for determining the efficacy of media-oriented interventions.

i.                    The need to establish a cadre of Caribbean media professionals fully equipped to address informational shortcomings both with their media enterprises and among media audiences is well recognised. These professionals can benefit from the development of a Handbook for Caribbean Journalists on HIV/AIDS.

ii.                  There have been several attempts to convene lasting online networks of Caribbean health reporters. In 2004, the ACM, in collaboration with PAHO established Caribbean Healthnet – a network of journalists interested in health reporting. Though the network has become moribund, it provides the region with a model that ought to have been initially supplemented by a further strategy to encourage production of journalistic outputs. Such a model existed in the Caribbean Environmental Reporters’ Network (CERN) which offered journalists the opportunity to earn freelance incomes through such reportage while the network made use of international media alliances to ensure broad usage of the material generated. A similar model is currently being development by the ACM with assistance from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) named CARN – Caribbean Agricultural Reporters’ Network.

iii.                Resources ought to be allocated to enable the conducting of long-term media effects research to investigate the impact of HIV/AIDS media content on specific aspects of behaviour. CARIMAC is perhaps best placed to partner in this exercise.

iv.                This paper, especially its accompanying survey, firmly establishes the cross-cutting nature of the HIV/AIDS journalistic story. It would therefore be important that journalists across a wide variety of ‘beats’ receive exposure to specific information on the disease and its impacts. The participation of business/finance, labour and political reporters should be encouraged at HIV/AIDS workshops to stress multi-faceted nature of the subject.

v.                  Journalistic workshops should also disaggregate print and broadcast media for specialised treatment. This should be at media workshops and efforts should be made to identify leading figures in emerging new media, especially online media.

vi.                Given the increasing injection of funding into media interventions against HIV/AIDS, there should be some effort at a closer examination of the media’s treatment and effects, specifically audience response, that may help to better inform the effort to prevent and/or control HIV. This is a costly undertaking but will undoubtedly build on the work already being engaged in this area.

Bibliography

Bellamy, H., Salit, R. Bell, L. (1997) Social Marketing Resource Manual: A Guide for State Nutrition Education Networks

Bridgetown Declaration on the Caribbean Media Response to HIV/AIDS (May, 2006)

Camara B., Lee R.K., O’Neil C., Madeira J.P., Samiel S., (2005) Prevention and Control in HIV/AIDS: The Status and Policy Issues to be Addressed

Cassell M., Jackson C., Cheuvront B. (1998) Health Communication on the Internet: An Effective Channel for Health Behavior Change? Department of Health Behavior and Health Education University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Coulson, N., (2002) Developments in the use of the mass media at the national level for HIV/AIDS prevention in South Africa

Flay, B.R. and D. Burton (1990). Effective communication strategies for health campaigns in C. Atkin and L. Wallack (eds.) Mass Communication and Public Health (Newbury Park, California, Sage).

Gibbings, W. (2004) Understanding the Media in the Caribbean, Seminar Paper.

Gibbings, W. (2003) Caribbean Media Workers and the Social Dimension of Globalisation, Seminar Paper The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation – The Caribbean Dialogue, Barbados.

Hornik, R. C. (1989). Channel effectiveness in development communications campaigns. In R. E. Rice & C. E. Atkin (Eds.), Public communication campaigns (pp. 309–319). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

International Federation of the Red Cross (2005) - Combating HIV/AIDS and Stigmatisation Campaign – Georgia.

Internews Network (2006) - Local Voices Project - Frontline Perspectives on how the Global News Media Reports on HIV/AIDS

Kitzinger, J. (1990) - Audience Understandings of AIDS Media Messages: A Discussion of Methods - Sociology of Health & Illness Volume 12 Page 319.

Maluwa, M. (2004) – HIV/AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination and Human Rights: Case Studies of Success St. Kitts and Nevis.

PANCAP (2002) – The Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework for HIV/AIDS 2002-2006

PANCAP (2005) - Reducing HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination in the Caribbean - Champions for Change.

UNAIDS (2006) Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.

UNAIDS (2006) Preventing HIV/AIDS in Young People: A Systematic Review of the Evidence from Developing Countries, UNAIDS Inter-agency Task Team on People.

UNAIDS (2005) Getting the Message Across: The Mass Media and the Response to AIDS.

Waisbord, S. (2003) – Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication (Rockefeller Foundation)

White, L. et al (2005) - The Coverage of Health in the Media of St Vincent and the Grenadines – A Content Analysis, PAHO

Wesley Gibbings is a Journalist/Communication Consultant based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has written extensively on Caribbean media issues and currently serves as General Secretary of the Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers – wgibbings@gmail.com – www.acmediaworkers.com.

December 7, 2006

Exploring the Caribbean Media Landscape

Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC), UWI – Public Lecture, Montego Bay, Jamaica, April 12, 2016

Exploring the Caribbean Media Landscape: Mergers, Models and the Practice of Journalism

I warn you that the issue I have been asked to address is very complex and goes beyond the mere institutional, commercial and regulatory challenges of the current condition of mass media in the Caribbean. Had I been minded to approach the topic purely from the perspective of regulations, together with the administrative and commercial imperatives, this discussion would have come to a rather speedy end, because much is already known about how we need to proceed from here.

But, as the late Trinidadian public intellectual, Lloyd Best, might have quipped: This is a matter of algebra and not simple arithmetic.

Let’s begin with a quick introduction to some of what I consider to be the main issues. The first would address the question of what are Caribbean media for. This considers matters in excess of the fact that mass media are acknowledged to be potentially lucrative commercial undertakings – if not as stand-alone enterprises, certainly as facilitative components of bigger conglomerate concerns.

For the most part, though, in our region, media enterprises subsist as single-entity investments. Apart from the receding role of monopolistic state broadcast media, there are few instances – however spectacular – in which concentration of ownership can be remotely considered to be an actual threat to the independence of media operations in the sense of skewing public awareness. Even here in Jamaica with the RJR/Gleaner merger, there is no supportable evidence to suggest that the country will suddenly find itself entirely at the mercy of an entity committed to a narrow interest or agenda that is overwhelmingly foisted on an unsuspecting public.

In fact, I would argue that the true hegemony over ideas in the Caribbean can be found in some traditional customs and beliefs, the machinations of validating social elites and the forceful influence of organised religion. They all find legitimacy in a homogeneity of values and practices, as opposed to diversity and pluralism. All seek monopoly status. They thrive on a lack of diversity. The real challenge involves our liberation from these strangleholds. But that’s another discussion for another time.

It is important that commercial and economic relations ought not to be distorted by inequitable arrangements regarding the allocation of broadcasting spectrum or, particularly in small markets, too many diamonds in a single basket. Our region needs to get more serious about anti-trust legislation which defies traditional uncompetitive commercial relations in our small countries while not stifling enterprise and meaningful alliances that may emerge.

However much we talk about it in Trinidad and Tobago, there are two major media conglomerates but no real dominance to create conditions for real concern about an absence of diversity or plurality. The open market, facilitated by the advent of more and more online media alternatives, has contributed toward a much more rigorous marketplace of news, information and opinion than ever existed before and my own view is that freedom of expression should prevail on all these fronts.

To me, the essential challenges have to do with a capacity to speak truth not only to those in power, but those who provide the circumstances for the accumulation of power through media capable of capturing it within the framework of a unique Caribbean aesthetic. This does not amount to culturally-specific value systems in the delivery of journalistic services – for such a formulation frequently suggests a level of self-censorship and relativism on questions of human rights and freedoms.

There is also compelling consideration of whether the elusive notion of the public interest is adequately served by what we have. I am inclined to support the general principle that the public interest is not served when the otherwise underrepresented do not acquire a stronger voice or a more attentive audience. It is a shared responsibility involving all axes of public communication.

In declaring a specific freedom relative to the work of the press, we nevertheless need to acknowledge a relationship between the rights and freedoms we insist upon and our responsibilities to the people on the basis of whose interests we have asserted such rights.

There is also a broader, universal context to be explored. The current state of media and their future direction, including what becomes of journalism in the Caribbean, is a subject that goes to the heart of an unfolding global human and technological revolution that has created new frontiers and new contexts in which people the world over are defining and interpreting their existence. What we are witnessing, in my view, is a reformulation not only of the business of communication but a transformation of the process of human communication itself.

At one time we in media marveled at the transition from mass broadcasting to selective narrowcasting, through the introduction of digital technology. Today, what we are witnessing seems to be the emergence of a capacity to occupy a multiplicity of dimensions simultaneously through communication processes that are dramatically challenging prevailing notions of how information flows, relatively unmediated, from person to person and from place to place.

In his path-breaking book Understanding Media – The extensions of man, Canadian philosopher of communication theory, Marshall McLuhan, wrote more than 20 years ago that: “After three thousand years of explosion, by means of fragmentary and mechanical technologies, the Western world is imploding. During the mechanical ages we had extended our bodies in space. Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned.”

McLuhan essentially diagnosed a condition in which human beings are moving from being mere witnesses to the explosion of technological development and its subsequent implosion, to what I would describe as being resident at the epicenter of its detonation – both the subjects and objects of a process that challenges almost everything we previously held to be true.

The Caribbean experience ought to have equipped us well for all of this. Born out of conquest, settlement, migration and bondage, our raison d'être has long embraced the notion of organic global integration. We have long not only been in the world, but have had the world in us - reared for the production of goods for markets far away but ourselves the subject of a marketplace for people – a process that never really ended as we witness the production not only of good and services for export, but people and the perspectives we bring.

I believe it is important for us to understand some of these things. It is vital to the process of resolving the many different challenges we face as people who have traveled the highway of colonialism and independence and, are now approaching the opportunity to achieve true liberation and a meaningful place in the world.

An enlightened approach to the subject at hand ought also to realistically make an assessment of the pace and direction of the technological developments. There is a view, for example, that the Big Bang of recent years is set for a virtual technological plateau – a period of time during which we will be permitted to catch our collective breaths and, perhaps, to even take a few steps backward.

I was privileged to interview renowned astrophysicist and former NASA director, Dr Charles Pellerin, only a week ago and was advised by him to keep away from the more fanciful projections that portend overly dramatic arrangements for the role of man in his own affairs. Dr Pellerin proposed that it would be wrong to engage in what he termed a “linear extrapolation” of what might occur in the future, based only on where we are today and how we arrived at this point.

In his view, much of the more recent technologies are reaching their respective plateaus and he locates this within the context of the rise and fall of civilisations. I take the liberty of hanging the specter of my own country, Trinidad & Tobago, as an example in the background of Pellerin’s suggested approach to these big questions.

He points to the rise and fall of relatively complex human civilisations over periods of time. In fact, we do not have to go far to find evidence of collapsed civilisations – the pre-Columbian Taino cultures of the Caribbean are one example occasioned by invasion and conquest not unlike the fall of ancient civilisations in Europe, Asia and right next door with the collapse of Aztec and Mayan civilisations.

According to Pellerin, in the modern era, a state of pre-collapse is more readily observed through the deflation that occurs through the expending of excess energy. For example, one can cite the current oil crisis which features not only a precipitous decline in world prices, but easily identifiable excessive consumption leading to the view that with more than a half of non-renewables already gone, a collapse of sorts can be considered to more predictable as something that can occur sooner rather than later.

In that event, the existence of complex societies turns out to be more of an obstacle to coping with the fallout than a benefit. To what extent, we might ask, are the energy-scarce better prepared for disappearing energy resources than the energy-rich countries of the world? For certain, there are more lights to be turned off and more power outlets to be de-activated.

So, let’s not jump too quickly onto the McLuhan wagon while the Pellerin train is in the station. The warning is however heeded that the expectations of the media marketplace need to be tempered by a proper understanding of what is taking place in fields of engagement outside of mass media development and change. And it is not simply a matter of the technology.

There is a developing orthodoxy that dictates the paramountcy of technology when at the true centre of it all are human beings and how they respond to a Maslovian hierarchy not only of needs but of assets and means. In time, this view suggests, the architecture deemed necessary to move from the satisfaction of biological needs to self-actualisation acquires a life and a dynamic of its own, contributing to a situation in which means become more important than the ends.

Good. Now we have covered the philosophical backdrop – to some extent, because the academics are going to ensure they complicate the issue even more when I’m through.

How do we apply these areas of understanding to media industry decisions and our responses to change? I would contend that the discussion on the relationship between man and technology ought to recognise the real possibility that in the media industry, human intervention, while capable of being whittled down to a minimum, is highly unlikely to disappear.

It is true that media industry people are concerned that the ascendancy of platforms created by Google, for instance, has the potential to marginalise the work of journalists by applying algorithms to generate news out of data. It’s being called automated journalism and several reputable news outfits have already begun employing it as substantial parts of their news-mining operations.

This process is cheaper, faster and less prone to some of the elementary errors you see cropping up in news stories in the media we know. But what happens to things such as journalistic values, cultural relevance, nuance and creative story-telling that relates to audiences?

Or is it that the quality of journalism being practised does not at the moment satisfy these requirements of the practice of journalism? Would this not also mean that events for which no structured data are generated will no longer face the possibility of becoming news and in the process marginalise some people and their issues?

Technology can also not be held to be paramount if media content does not meet the requirements of fourth estate status – meaning that media and the journalists that populate them have conscientiously engaged a pact with their audiences that in exchange for this special recognition or status, we undertake to remain committed to an agreed framework we define as the public interest – whether or not it pleases everyone in the end.

Not far from here, not too long ago, I presented the argument that the impetus behind much of media development in the early years relied heavily on technical innovations that had very little or nothing to do with the media industry per se. The advent of steam engines, for example, enabled publishers to produce newspapers more quickly and efficiently. But the development of steam to power engines was not something that initially had anything to do with the work of printing presses, yet it revolutionised the newspaper business.

Likewise, improvements in wireless telephony did not necessarily envisage the advent of instant messaging, tweeting and social media as ways of communicating news, opinions and information to mass audiences. The explosion that occurred in the region with the liberalising of the telecommunications industry also did not initially hint at the vast potential now being displayed.

Nowadays, adjustments are being made because of developments that are uniquely related to new media technologies. Here is some support for this argument.

In Jamaica, with a population of just over two million, fewer than 300,000 subscribers had telephone landlines in 1992. Today, there are over three million handsets in use on the island. At the end of 2013, there were close to 1.6 million internet users and by November 2015, more than a million of them were on Facebook, according to the Internet World Stats website.

If these figures hint at anything it is that the growth in internet access and the use to which it is put has had the effect of liberalising the multi-directional flow of news, information, commentary, analysis and even a great measure of trash.

On the production side, this contrasts sharply with a past in which media practice relied essentially on professional disciplines in three main areas – print, radio and television. Each occupied its own institutional space, for the most part, with little overlapping except perhaps for some content-sharing among broadcasters, particularly in state media.

The current situation has however moved captains of the media industry, particularly in the West, to be concerned that while traditionally, mainstream media have essentially been landlords of the public space they occupy, they are now reduced to tenants’ status as the online media giants such as Apple, Facebook and Google are essentially setting the media agenda by occupying prime online real estate.

Such displacement has however not been universal. A few weeks ago at the World Media Summit in Doha, publisher of The Hindu newspaper of India, Narasimhan Ram, suggested that like the sun, while the newspaper business appeared to be setting in the west, it was very much on the rise in the east. In India, growth in the newspaper business, especially in the regions where regional languages are spoken, is expected to be in the vicinity of 12 and 14% annually in the coming years.

In our part of the world, newspaper circulation is either stagnating or in decline and many broadcasters have not been able to maintain viable revenue bases. Much of this results from broader economic factors that have served to dry up advertising inflows. Online alternatives are increasingly proving to be an important contributor to this phenomenon.

The Gleaner/RJR merger itself does not appear to have been a function of generally poor states of affairs. Media analyst, Dr Marcia Forbes, points to 2014 statistics which show that the RJR-held Television Jamaica commands 72.5% of all free-to-air television viewers, the group’s three cable stations accounting for 28% of the market viewers with the three radio services holding on to a combined listenership of 19.1%.

The statistics for the Jamaica Gleaner are even more impressive with 77.3% of the Sunday readership and clear dominance on all other days of publication.

The two companies have explained that the move had become necessary on account of what they describe as “challenging transitions which in time will see revenues increasingly dominated by digital revenue streams as media platforms converge.”

The assumption therefore is that by combining resources, products and services the companies will be able to achieve a number of important objectives including digital transitioning, establishment of a larger resource base, the combining of unique expertise from each other’s core businesses, joint access to a vast storehouse of content and archives from two companies that include a 180-year-old newspaper and a radio network that was launched over 65 years ago.

Now, going back to the very top of this presentation we need to ask whether this merger – the largest in the history of the Commonwealth Caribbean – is likely to achieve some important objectives, the primary being vigilance over the public interest.

This arises as a concern in the face of the contention that a business agreement which merges the commercial activities of five radio frequencies, one free-to-air television station, three cable television channels, two newspapers and the very popular Go Jamaica online portal can be perceived as representing a case of media concentration with all the accompanying threats to the desired goal of pluralistic media. As I have suggested before, I do not think this will be the case. But there is a debate that can be engaged on this issue.

I would argue that in the current context, there is not likely to be such a threat, given what I have described as the unfolding media landscape region-wide in which traditional, mainstream media are yielding space to new forms of mass communication by a generation of media consumers with no particular allegiance to how things were done in the past.

I however believe that the validating role of traditional media will remain for the time being and that people will continue to respond to the official stamp of the morning newspaper or the evening newscast. It is also my view that the threat of so-called robo-journalism involving technologically ubiquitous methods of acquiring and disseminating news and information, secure from the rigours of professional newsgathering, will not be a pervasive reality in the foreseeable future for reasons outlined earlier.

The current state of economic flux throughout the region can also be expected to affect the financial bottom lines of media enterprises. In Trinidad and Tobago, the country’s main source of foreign income dropped by 70% within the space of a year; despite recent gains in Jamaica there remain areas of concern such as national debt, unemployment and the challenge of economic diversification; some Eastern Caribbean economies can essentially be described as moribund and stress fractures are appearing in Barbados – considered for a long time to be among the more stable well-structured economies of the region.

This does not pronounce favourably on the future prospects for the media industry. In some instances, the survival game is well underway. Newsroom operations are shrinking, budgets are being cut, investments in new technology are being put on hold and the Big Bang of liberalisation in the 1980s and 90s is imploding.

New business alliances, mergers and takeovers are clearly going to be the new norm as the industry considers its several options in the face of threatened collapse in some instances. It might not entirely be that the sun is setting in the West Indies even as it rises in the East but that the orbit is being shaken and the rules of engagement are changing everywhere.

The specter that looms, in my view, promises as much as it challenges us to review the way we interpret our world.