The recent debate over the changing face of journalism in the Arab world, and the predominance of propaganda over factual reportage, has shone a light yet again on the nature of news.
It is possible for us to find out about events in the most remote (or the closest) part of the world in a trice. But electronic dissemination of news has sacrificed accuracy for speed.
This is just one aspect of an old problem. For news producers have always been prey to (or sometimes a willing accomplice of) propaganda. Press freedom is a contentious issue, especially in war zones where information is power.
Governments have used the media to “plant” their own version of news and have stayed silent as the truth has got blurred with the acceptable way to say something.
Part of the reason why journalists have agreed to spread propaganda is self-preservation. As media workers become targets while reporting conflicts, the sensible way for a journalist to survive a sticky situation would just be to say what the most powerful people have to say and be done with it.
But beyond this is the impunity with which some journalists adapt propaganda as news. The most notable case in point is the reporting of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the decidedly US-bias that condemns the Arab side to the villain’s corner while hailing the Israeli side as the hero.
Propaganda has a long history, and relies on presenting a selective view of facts with the clear intention to influence its audience. Almost always, it has been a successful weapon in the battle for public opinion.
In World War II, Nazi Germany, Britain and the United States were all engaged in feeding the public their own versions of the truth through legitimate and spurious media organisations.
The trend continued during the Vietnam War and the Cold War and the revolutions in central and eastern Europe, and in the Korean peninsula. Former US president George W Bush was accused of “selling” the Iraq war through “embedded” journalists.
Though the news business has mutated further in the modern era, propaganda remains a key concern in the post-Arab Spring world too.
The greater threat to news production, however, remains the growing encroachment of public relations (PR) into domains previously considered an inviolable space for facts. Faced with a shrinking market, news organisations are increasingly ceding to the inclusion of trivia and marketing information as news reports to keep their advertisers happy. Some are even floating the “paid news” business model for corporates to buy coverage.
Popular culture, particularly cinema, has always had an open relationship with propaganda. As Iran condemns the Oscar-winning film Argo for what it perceives as blatant pro-American agenda-setting, the truth is that Hollywood has never shied away from jingoism.
The ultimate tragedy is when there is no record left of the truth.
