Editorial

The 2008 electoral campaign was not the brightest hour for the traditional media but it was the revelation of the new media. It was, in more senses than one, the campaign of the internet.

Internet subscriptions have been rising by leaps and bounds in past years and have increased much more over the last few months thanks to several novel initiatives launched by the government in its declared policy for the bridging of the digital divide. By and large, the internet is used more by the young than by those of more mature years. This was an important factor to consider because there were over 30,000 new voters in this election. These new voters were more active on this new medium than they were on the traditional media - newspapers, radio and TV.

There are some interesting indications. One popular network on the internet, Hi5, has more than 50,000 Maltese participants. Hundreds of Maltese are blogging regularly. Youtube.com was another site regularly visited by the Maltese. A video showing parts of Alfred Sant's ill-fated mass meeting in Birżebbuġa last summer registered over 44,000 views and a video comparing the two political leaders logged more than 21,000 visitors.

This is precisely one of internet's benefits for producers and users alike. If you are a producer you don't have to have a big organisation to blog or post videos besides the added advantage that the legal regime is not all that clear or effective. While if you are a user you can post your comments and reactions almost instantaneously. Gone are the days when you had to write a letter, post it and wait for its turn to appear on the newspaper. In fact, you can post and post again within hours.

This element proved to be an attraction also to the not-so-young. The Allied Group's timesofmalta.com attracted tens of thousands of hits and comments in the days preceding and following the general election. Like other electronic versions of newspapers and news sites, it could update readers with more regularity than any of the other media, TV and radio included. Indeed, it excelled.

The political party that had an edge on the use of the new media enjoyed an advantage with the new voters and all indications are that the Nationalist Party was the more successful of all contenders in this regard.

The scenario on the side of the broadcasting media cannot be described as the brightest hour of journalism. Unfortunately, journalists with party media morphed into propagandists and do so with enthusiasm. News bulletins on the party media were anything but news bulletins. Innuendos, comments, biased reportage and manipulated sound bites were the order of the day while professionally-presented news was the victim. The same can be said of the partisan newspapers. During such periods the belief that journalism is a profession seems to disappear into thin air. Many journalists badly let down their craft and their audiences.

The manipulated blanket coverage on the party media together with the hijacking of primetime slots on TVM for political broadcasts on a daily basis must have surely irked a vast segment of the population. Unfortunately, the Broadcasting Authority appeared too weak to do its duty of defending the interests of the public. The interests of the political parties prevailed.

Apart from the internet, broadcasting and the print media, there was another important medium during the election campaign - interpersonal and face-to-face communication. The media are essential to spread information quickly but personal communication influences more attitude formation and behavioural change. This is another area where the strategy of the PN seems to have outdone that of the Malta Labour Party.

Can there ever be an election where the media prove to be more important as agents of information than agents of propaganda? Given the parameters of the present constitutional provisions and ownership structures such a situation would indeed be very difficult to bring about. However, the flexibility of the internet provides hope for the independent and free-thinking individuals.