The frontiers of cohabitation between professional journalism and other protagonists who work with information are increasingly being discussed, whether in the conventional media or in the different platforms and projects that today make up the digital/internet digital space.
There are even more enthusiastic voices who understand that reference Angolan journalism is already experiencing a situation of isolation in the face of this avalanche of young communicators who are sprouting up every day like mushrooms on social media with the editing of more or less short videos, but not only that.
Call them content producers, call them digital influencers, call them whatever you want, because there’s no shortage of names, but whatever doesn’t mix with journalism itself. Despite the similarities that their activities may have, they are not journalists. The most serious thing is that, in a certain official discourse, we also start to put everything in the same bag, to the point that today we have, in public media, administrators for the content area. Then information/journalism is just another content alongside entertainment, marketing, educational spaces and so on, in a true Russian salad.
Just to remember, the organizational model that was in force, and I believe is still in force, in several radio and television stations was always based on the existence of two distinct departments, one for information/journalism and the other for programming, where all the contents that fill the grids. This story of transforming journalism into yet another undifferentiated content has a lot to say, so perhaps it’s best to start from the beginning, that is, with concepts and definitions. It reminds us of the well-known story of the chicken and the egg, where the question is who came first. To this day, from what we think we know, allow us to make this humorous reference, there is still no final judgment on this chicken-and-egg maka.
In this case, from a more historical point of view, things are apparently much simpler when it comes to establishing the facts.
There therefore seems to be little doubt in relation to the precedence of journalism over its new and dynamic competitors who currently wear the shirt of content for all tastes and shapes in the search to gain audiences by attracting famous likes and their respective followers. It’s a real race for popularity, certainly thinking about earning some money, which is what is most lacking in the pockets of Angolans, especially if this “kumbú” is in euros or dollars. For even legal reasons, starting with the requirement of a professional card issued by a public entity, the practice of journalism cannot be in the same bag as such content and its producers. At stake are, first of all, the responsibilities, between rights and duties, that the exercise of the activity implies, both on the part of its professionals and on the part of the bodies.
These are responsibilities that have been increasing as a result of the entry into the scene and in strength of the digital space through the Internet as an environment that is becoming dominant for those who want to inform and for those who want to be informed.
In Angola, citizens’ access to the Internet still leaves a lot to be desired in terms of national coverage and individual access. However, we can no longer ignore the strength of communication produced through digital media, and it is certain that this access is increasing, despite all the economic difficulties faced by ordinary citizens, which condition this type of consumption, which still has a very high price. high for a country faced with poverty rates that continue to be worrying and with unflattering trends regarding the future.
It is against the backdrop of the growing influence of the Internet/Social Networks in Angola and the extraordinary increase in information available from the most different sources, that the importance of the role of the journalist among us has also been increasing, as is the case in other geographic contexts. .
In many cases, it is actually unfair and dishonest competition that ends up being sponsored by anonymous money that circulates behind the scenes in politics or business.
A good part of this most worrying content has to do with politically motivated disinformation, made from “laboratories” which, in the case of Angola, are not even very difficult to identify.
In theory, from a more conceptual point of view, Angolan journalism has everything it needs to assert its qualitative superiority in relation to its competitors by simply following the script of the journalistic information itself as defined in the manuals, with the response to what , who, where, when, how and why.
This is the basis of journalistic information that is rarely taken into due account.
In fact, Angolan journalists continue to offer the public a “product” that, in general, hardly goes into depth or contextualizes the facts reported.
The problem begins even earlier, with the identification/selection of the materials that will later form the news and television news.
At the origin of this unsatisfactory performance of the journalism that is being carried out in Angola is, certainly, the lack of independence and editorial freedom that continue to make a home in these parts, which, to a large extent, explains the unofficial nature of the journalism that is practiced in Angola. public sector of the Angolan media, which continues to be dominant, and it is therefore understandable that the spotlight of criticism is pointed at it. There continues to be too much turbulence in Angolan media navigation, when it should already be flying calmly and at cruising speed, without the need to make emergency landings, as continues to happen, as happened very recently with the protest vote that UNITA intended to approve in Parliament against the performance of the public media for violating the stipulations of the Constitutional Law in its article 17, which states that all parties have the right to impartial treatment by state radio and television. An initiative that, as was more than predictable, fell by the wayside because the majority MPLA did not allow this intention to come to fruition, having rejected in a limiting way the project of the largest Opposition party.
Be that as it may, and no matter how much external conditions affect the final product, we believe that the stakes in the quality of journalism are in the hands of those who do it, because without good and daring journalists we cannot reach a different panorama. The lack of professionalism and quality is still one of the challenges that has not yet been overcome.
No it’s not.
In the current conditions, with as its biggest competitor a new and strange “journalism” that was born on social media more as a fragmented political project than anything else like it, the challenge is even greater and more urgent in the face of such unfair competition, which does not even need to be of getting out of bed to write big reports and carry out even bigger and deeper journalistic investigations.
by Reginaldo Silva
Reading | 29 February 2024 | angola, digital, journalism, social networks
