One reason why history is important is because, understanding the past is perhaps the only way to make sense of the present and future. History is the narrative of mankind. It provides the only way for ANY society to make sense of today by dipping into the reservoir of the past. It serves as a vignette that fleshes out the chronology of how ideas concerning laws, customs, and political ideas evolved and came to assume the shape and form it does today. But what happens when newspapers for example suffer from ‘selective hearing lost’ or worst still ‘amnesia?’ What really happens to our historical awareness when there are serious gaps in our narrative?
To paraphrase, what really happens when a discussion concerning a controversial subject gets bracketed or just disappears off the radar? Apart from generating disenchantment within a segment of society, it’s bound to create blanks in the narrative, what’s the cost?
I am reminded, there’s a cruel adage that kicks in, whenever there is a ‘void’ in any narrative, doesn’t even matter whether it is Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs or something as far reaching as a policy issue – someone will just come along and fill-in-the-blanks. It goes something like this: “if we don’t write our history, then someone will just come along and write it for us!” The quote by Santayana ends with an oblique rebuke, “You can hardly blame them can you? You never bothered!” Is that what’s happening these days?
It could well be by imagination, but lately have you notice, Malaysian reporters have been increasingly stepping in to fill in the ‘void’ and ‘gap.’ It’s of course, ‘early days,’ but nonetheless, it provides a peek into what happens when our newspapers continue to remain bovine and fail to slake the thirst for information.
You could even say, it’s inexorable, an economic fact of life even. The demand for ‘real’ news is unstoppable, unmet demands simply produces new market opportunities and segments – it’s as simple as that and anyone who tells you different is probably a dodgy pastor who believes going into the real estate business is doing’s God’s work – just to give you a peek of what I am referring too, take a look at this article:
Question: What’s really happening here?
Yes, I hear you (I do) somewhere in this narrative where news producers and consumers sit along the long bench of the marketing manifesto, 8 out of 10 readers still consider the ST “important” blah, blah, blah. Yes, I know and so probably you (coming to think of it, when will they stop reminding us?) But that hardly provides any answers to my question: why have ‘others’ stepped in? Most importantly of all, is this the actual cost when when we fail to write our history? Someone just comes along and writes it for us?
Now you can say anything you want, ‘interference’ or even whip out the ‘national security card’ but what cannot be denied is this, people don’t just decide to wake up one morning and write about stuff that isn’t really any of their business, unless of course they perceive the wisdom of doing so i.e they believe there’s even a segment of the population who values these articles. Unless of course it even makes perfect money sense to do so i.e it sells newspapers. Think about it. What are we actually seeing here?
Well if you think about it, it’s hardly a new theme – just as the VOA (Voice of America) played ‘cat and mouse’ with Pravda during the cold war years and thousands behind the iron curtain regularly tuned in to hear the ‘news’ with their illegal wireless sets, one really needs to ask: is this what happens when the press becomes overregulated and corsetted by restrictions? Does it lose much of it’s élan, panache and aplomb even waste away, offers nothing really ‘new’ in terms of reading experience?
What cannot be denied is while governments may try their very best to limit the information assembly line to only ‘the power of one’ – this doesn’t stop readers from gravitating towards “the gold standard.” Globalization in effect guarantees this Faustian compact – the blessing comes with the curse – the ‘need’ to know can never be denied or negotiated away – foreign press writing on our local developments are merely symptomatic of a systematic failure to deliver on the goods.
I’m not saying what we are seeing here is the emergence of a ‘coherent reality movement,’ or that everyone defines news in the way, I have just described. Only, one needs to appreciate the ‘impetus’ behind these developments, if the imperative is to remain ‘relevant’ in this day and age – can it be said, there’s a growing sense that when people want things they feel they are simply not getting, they will just go elsewhere? Is this what we are seeing here? – can it be said, ‘failing to deliver’ only exacerbates this ‘gap’ or ‘void’ in understanding by deepening the divide between producers and consumers? – does it sharpen the sense of estrangement further? And can you really blame them? What really did you expect, when you didn’t even bother to ask the most needful question that goes right into the heart of any relationship that defines the reader and writer? – did you even believe that ideology and the greater good could possibly be a substitute for a culture that imbibes our sense of the possibilities and depths of life? What really did you expect?
Did you even believe for one moment, it’s possible to even have anything resembling a choice in this day and age?
How naïve you are then…..how tragically naïve you are.
“Tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers. …” Darth Vader / Star Wars.
By Harphoon, Scholarboy & Darkness – Socio/ Political / EP 9923773732 – The Brotherhood Press 2007)
