By A. Bartleby
Africa-Press – Mauritius. Last Friday, two private radio stations fought a battle to be the first to deliver the content of a USB key. If the content is to be taken with the utmost seriousness, it is clear that this competition to unveil it demonstrates that the form is extremely problematic.
Indeed, while the content of this USB key was to be unveiled at 8 p. m. by a radio station, a competing antenna announced a program revealing the same content for 7 p.
m. The first radio immediately reacted by postponing its program for 6 p. m. , with an interview from its journalist in support where the latter claimed to be under pressure not to reveal the contents of this USB key.
This situation testifies to what the media have become today. The advent of social networks has caused a radical transformation of the media business model.
Historically, the media sold information that was processed and filtered through the prism of journalists whose job, historically, is to verify information in order to present it in a critical and informative way to citizens.
This element of information processing and filtering is one of the prerequisites for the very health of democracy. The advent of social networks and private radio stations in particular has gradually changed this model.
Indeed, the primary commodity of the media is no longer information but ratings: it is ratings that allows these media to sell advertising and thus guarantee their income and profits, redistributed in dividends to shareholders.
. It is thus the very spirit of journalism that is perverted by this “shift in business model”.
Since the media and private radios are dependent on income from advertising, then it is no longer information that counts, but sensationalism. And that’s exactly what we saw in the two-radio race to leak the ‘Vimen Leaks’.
It must be said: this competition for ratings could produce a deterioration in the quality of the media: the latter are so caught up in the race for sensationalism that information and sources are sometimes no longer verified. It should also be added that some shows are more like popular and populist tribunals than serious and well-conducted inquiries and investigations.
It is an undisputed truth that information hidden from the public and from the journalist – because its revelation could compromise the interests of different lobbies, authorities, certain institutions or even bad apples – favors corruption and weakens the Rule of law and good governance.
However, there is a risk that such a media culture could give rise to a confused audience that no longer distinguishes the true from the false and the credible from the eccentric.
http://www.mauritiustimes.com/mt/vimen-leaks-et-la-course-a-laudimat/
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