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Some authoritarian leaders are quite clever, some not so much. The clever ones have learned how to take control of the news flow, often by eliminating the critics. The very clever allow a few outlets of opposing views to remain for largely cosmetic reasons. Cutting off the internet no longer succeeds as the digital savvy know all the tricks. The less clever are even jumping back to centuries past to cut off postal delivery service. But when all else fails, dictators will resort to the tried and true: batons and bullets. It’s an old movie.
Elections always get attention; from those in power, those seeking such and news outlets assigned to the observational task. All elections are, thus, consequential. As such, candidates and their surrogates craft important messages to persuade and, maybe, excite the electorate. In more recent times those messages have turned to raising anxieties and uncertainties. Hope battles fear, over and over.
News media is truly globalized. A hundred years ago this was barely the case. Sure, bigger newspapers hired foreign correspondents, readers enjoyed the occasional report from faraway places even when the copy was slowly carried across the seas by boat. Then radio carried news across wide spaces and international broadcasting was off and running. Satellites were launched to enable television channels almost everywhere. Now, it is the internet, occasionally spiced up with the odd bot.
Propaganda outlets have adopted all the same tradecraft. Perhaps they conduct Zoom conferences to hone the skills. One of the favorites is the sting: capturing on video a target in a compromising situation. Alas, when they fail, they fail badly.
The great growth of the media sector during the last two decades of the last century has undergone several reversals in this century. There have been spurts, mostly enabled by digital transition, which has equally brought on consolidation and other disruption. By consequence there are many highly experienced media people looking for that next opportunity. And at the top, social distancing accepted, fewer doors are open.
Only the least informed observers dispute that disruptions roiling from the coronavirus pandemic are serious and far reaching. Fair weather friends exclaiming it will all just go away are being ushered to the far end of the bar, maximum social distancing. Pollyannas had their moment, which now has passed. There is no sunny side of this street.
Digital transformation is taking yet another leap. Skeptics have been sent out to pasture, mostly. Masters of the consulting universe, always making fortunes on change, have been pushing all industries to embrace technology. And so they are.
Almost everywhere there is an investigative news portal. Some are relatively well-known. Others, not so much, staffed by a handful of dedicated journalists. The job, though, is the same. Dictators do not like them. Immense pressure frays the mission.
As the current societal anomie careens on a pathway of uncertainty and anxiety there are a few untouched norms. First, everybody wants data, preferably more data. This includes crazy data, but that’s a subject for psychotherapists. Then, totally related, hedges funds continue doing what it does best, dissembling. These are both good reasons to stay away from crowds.