THE FOURTH ESTATE ...
another pillar of our democracy gone
The term Fourth Estate refers to the press and news media, with specific regard to its societal function.
As a democracy we implicitly trust that the fourth estate seeks to exert an independent watchdog role on the functioning of our democracy, exposing excesses and corruption of governance and judiciary for public scrutiny, and allowing analysis and review of the democratic process and the subsequent policies and actions.
By its very nature as media, the fourth estate does, however, have the inherent potential capacity for misuse for advocacy, rather than independent examination, and a consequent implicit ability to frame political issues. If tempted into these behaviours, it wields significant and alarming indirect influence in the political space, especially given the public perception of independence.
The temptation for such misuse is aggravated when the fourth estate has no independence in its revenue, and simultaneously has a demand for daily 'content', regardless of any intrinsic 'value' in that content. The partisan and 'public consumption' routes are easy avenues in comparison to fulfilling the societal function, and the recent unfettered development of social media as a secondary source for content has readily displaced true journalism and examination.
Citizens must remain vigilant and interpretive as to what is being presented as the 'watch dog' function of our fourth estate has now almost completely displaced by 'false news', covert advocacy and bias.
Reading the daily 'news' this morning has horrified me to such an extent that I feel compelled to try to sound some words of alarm in the hope that others would critically examine what they are being 'fed' by the media, even in this preoccupied time. I had previously observed two disturbing trends in New Zealand, but they now appear to have reached their zenith:
- The first is the abrogation of the NZ news media from their societal role as independent examiners and interrogators of our governance.
- The second is the total erasure of the boundary between governing and permanent campaigning.
We have entered a new political world where personality cult marketing has displaced critical examination of governance. The NZ media has grasped the readily available 'content' with gusto, and has now assumed a near-canonising advocacy role in a perverse and sycophantic celebrity cult. There is no longer any pretence of journalistic examination of policy and its implications, and one of the most important pillars of democratic function has been removed.
Our political leaders, well-versed in the the fundamentals of politics and public relations, have now immersed the NZ population in an almost constant advertising campaign as three principles are being consistently applied:
(i) Create the Persona
Personality politics relies on the generation of a perceived persona that is beyond reproach - and having established such an infallible persona, direct all statements and policy through that persona so that scrutiny is minimised. Attribute any creditable actions directly to that persona, while attributing failure to others or a collective.
In NZ, we are seeing a constant and saturating release of carefully crafted and superficially benign trivia to support and reinforce such a personality cult (much "republished" from the politician's instagram account or from similarly politically-leaning sources [Washington Post? Aunty Helen?] in a circular feedback). We have Paddles the cat, Clarke and the engagement, Neve and the challenges of parenting, teething and potty training, hugs, kisses, head scarves and teddy bears ... update: Danish phone call, nappy cream on lapel, mother-packed lunch, early rising, grey hair dye, gig socks, birthday cakes, birthday cake engineering ...
(ii) Repeat the Lie
It has long been acknowledged that the human psyche has a cognitive bias in equating repetition with truth, and the masters of both commercial marketing and politics manipulate this 'illusory truth effect' with great purpose. In short, if you want to make a lie seem true? Say It again. And again. And again.
We went fast and early.
We went fast and early.
We went fast and early.
We went fast and early.
Except we didn't ... we missed the threshold to keep the cat in the bag, and the costs on our society and the future generations will be just as catastrophic as with all those nations that have destroyed their economies and futures to battle the released virus. We did have the window of opportunity - courtesy of our geographic isolation, small population, controlled air-only access and good medical facilities - to replicate Taiwan and avoid the threshold which would then necessitate the school closures, the business closures, the defaults and the bankruptcy. We delayed ... and the consequent devastation of the economy, the massive ballooning of our debt, the unemployment and economic depression for the generations ahead are all consequential on that delay. And yet the media celebrates and has us congratulating ourselves because others are worse ... who'd have thought?
(iii) Silence the Critics
Use the media to flatter and celebrate the population - aren't we wonderful in NZ and much better and wiser than others! Create a consequent legion of virtuous and righteous supporters that will then vehemently denigrate any examination of policy as an ignorant dissension to be suppressed ad hominem.
Political Propaganda 101.
Easy Pass.
June 2020
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