New Media, Old Politics

In his statement to the United Nations Summit last week, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn pointed out the challenges posed by social media to his government. The Premier’s decision to put social media in the spotlight at the UN assembly is bewildering, as member states of the United Nations have already met with the opportunities and ill effects of the new media and put in place ways to deal with it. Social media has been a global phenomenon for several years and it is not something that has simply come out of the blue.

Indeed, the Ethiopian government has faced unprecedented challenges by social media since last year. The government was forced to postpone the national university entrance exam this year after it was leaked on social media, while protesters in Oromia and recently in Amhara have used social media to organise protests. The political developments engendered by the protests have still dominated the topics of nearly all informal and formal conversations of Ethiopians in every walk of life.

While the causes and the means to address the deadly protests remains a bone of contention, the principal role played by social media as a platform for sharing information and discussion about the current political affairs of the country is indisputable. This is an era ushering Ethiopia’s political debate on to a new platform – digital media.

With a very low internet penetration, the Ethiopian government did not seem to regard the emerging new media platforms as a threat to its prevailing position in influencing political opinions in the public sphere.

The Government, like its predecessors, controls every traditional media (radio and television), broadcasting on the national level, except one government-affiliated private radio. The government also markedly changed the media landscape after the 2005 national election. It introduced the 2009 anti-terrorism law, which in some has instilled a fear of running independent media in the country.

The government’s obliviousness might also be due to its perception of its one-to-five network, entrenched at the grassroots level as a solid base for instilling its political ideology as the sole choice for people. This is particularly true in rural areas where more than 80pc of the population lives.

While the Ethiopian government is doing its best to expand regional-state controlled mainstream media, as its proponents to solely communicate the country’s success stories, the media platform in the world has been experiencing new developments. One of the major developments is the growth of new media platforms as sources of news.

This development has shaped the way news and information is shared. Citizens, particularly young people, see the new media as an alternative source to state-controlled propaganda. The instant, dynamic and interactive features of the new platform, which is dubbed ‘the 21st century coffee house’, offer the inclusive and open space for a conversations about dominant discourses to occur, outside of the hegemony of established institutions, such as the government or the traditional media.

The key transformation is the two-way communication, which changes the role of citizens from the recipients to the generators of information and news. The news making role of citizens in the new media era also gave birth to the concept of citizen journalism. This change paves the way for the development of digital democracy.

The new media also opened a new avenue for sharing information and debating on wide ranging local issues in Ethiopia. As proudly stated by the Ethiopian government officials, the sole telecommunications company in the country has managed to deliver its services to more than 40 million mobile phone subscribers. This means tens of millions of mobile subscribers have the opportunity to be enrolled via the internet to the digital media, where democracy is practiced without the limits of time, space and other physical conditions, using information and communications technology.

Today, millions of young people use new media, such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs, not only to provide a detailed account of an event in the form of text, images, videos and audio, but also to organise different forms of demonstrations.

The alternative media, including the new media, are not immune to antidemocratic and polarised views, however.

“When the press is irresponsible, it can sow divisiveness rather than consensus, hate speech rather than sober debate, and suspicion rather than social trust,” Sheila S. Corpme argued in her ‘The Role of the Media in Deepening Democracy’ article.

The media can contribute to public cynicism and democratic decay. But educating young people to separate the wheat from the chaff cannot protect them from falling into the trap of extreme views, if there is a stumbling block for the operations of independent media.

The topline messages for the government, which has already felt the pinch of new media, are clear. ‘The 21st century coffee house’ is taking root and the old rules of the game that made governments successful in denying citizens access to diverse views and opinions through controlling the mainstream media are no longer working. And, if there are technologies to do that, they are hugely expensive for countries like Ethiopia to implement and more importantly their qualitative cost could be unimaginably high.

It is worthless for the government to hinge on mainstream media to dominate the public sphere and blame social media at the international platforms. Rather, the government should take a different approach. Expansion of independent, responsible and accountable mainstream and digital media outlets that serve as vital democratic institutions to promote citizens’ participation through entertaining diverse views, enabling them to make informed decisions, promoting tolerance among various social and political groups, empowering them to make legitimate demands peacefully and holding the government transparent and accountable is a key action to ensure peace and stability in the country.

This, however, can not only be achieved by providing the legal framework. The development of vibrant media demands political will and action to ensure freedom of the press through protecting journalists from persecution, intimidation and harassment, strengthening their professional capacity, and creating and boosting viable economic opportunities.

The old political rules of the game, based on restricting freedom of expression, cannot bear fruit in the 21st century. Instead of unifying people in a single political narrative, the old rules have the potential to jeopardise peace and stability, and undermine sustainable development in the country.

This calls for a new political perspective, and a robust and pragmatic leadership committed to responding to the demands of a media that serves as a ‘market place of ideas’ and as an arena for public debate, promoting informed and intelligent decision making.

As enshrined in the constitution, ensuring citizens’ right to freedom of expression – freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any media of their choice – should be at the heart of any political reform envisaged in this country.


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