Alastair Campbell. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

The recent keynote address by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former director of communications, helped throw into sharper focus how the media has evolved over the years, mainly but not exclusively, due to the mushrooming of the social media.

Whether one agrees or not with his style, his results during the Blair era speak for themselves.

In spite of inheriting what must have been over the years an unelectable party, he was instrumental in helping Labour win the support of the mainstream press.

Having once shared a platform in Italy with Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame, the latter had dismissed his own work as a disaster for journalism. In the sense that just as children wish to emulate sports stars, so from then on, journalists felt that the only real story is one that brings people down, the mightier the better.

Campbell himself had argued that Watergate’s hold over the journalistic psyche is such that any scandal must have a ‘gate’. In this day and age when the media lack patience, money and investment, one wonders whether there are that many who can slowly and systematically uncover terrible truths that the most powerful men in the world wanted hidden.

The recent ‘Cash for Questions’ scandal and the phone-hacking saga show that a good story can still surface if well thought out and well researched.

I recently reminded Campbell of his own quote that the threat to journalism comes not from politicians, but from within. The same can apply to political parties and politicians who do not mind their step.

Credibility and public awareness remain issues of major concern, even more so now in this day and age of social networking.

Whether the Murdoch era generation has indeed had its day still needs to be determined since I am not that convinced that new moguls might not surface in the coming months or years.

On the other hand, Twitter and Facebook, among others, have changed the landscape completely. I am of the opinion that the new media will also create new oligarchs, with one twist.

That they are more likely to be more interested in financial power than in really good journalism.

Whether one goes for the printed press or online versions of leading newspapers, it is evident that there is a more instant feel to the way news items are carried. This confirms that journalism is changing, rather than dying as some have predicted.

One particular observation of Campbell that cannot easily be forgotten is that while negativity has helped turn people away from the press as a prime source of news, the rise in social networks is in part based on the concept of ‘friends’ – particularly since one may be inclined to believe politicians less than they used to, that they do not believe the media itself but instead believe each other!

In spite of having long gone down as the perennial spin doctor, Campbell has always argued publicly and in writing that the fact that media brands have less control is a good thing for viewers and readers, and the fact that politicians cannot control the agenda as they could, even in our time, is no bad thing either.

The new media landscape and its relentless pressures mean politicians should focus more of strategy and less on day-to-day approach

It remains arguable whether Malcolm Tucker, the sweary Scottish spin doctor in The Thick of It was based on Campbell or not. Most of my UK-based friends, including some in the British Labour Party too, tell me that this may be only partially true.

His main underlying message remains the same. That nothing beats effective communication.

The new media landscape and its relentless pressures actually mean that politicians should focus more on strategy and less on the day-to-day, minute-to-minute approach.

It is for this reason that he had once singled out Angela Merkel as someone one easily can tell who and what she is, in spite of her often being dismissed in communication terms as being technically not a great communicator, especially if judged by Clinton’s charisma, Obama’s rhetoric and Blair’s delivery of message. Not to mention Thatcher’s strong sense of drama.

One may argue endlessly but at day’s end there must be overall consensus that people are nowadays more media savvy, fed up with what they used to get served as a staple diet.

This in itself should serve as a vehicle for driving change.

If the Murdoch era had to really fade out, as Campbell predicts, the media will end up democratising itself in the near term.

Nowadays the trends towards openness and transparency are all over the place and all over the globe.

Politics and journalism might always remain strange bedfellows but regardless of how their relationship may develop, they are undoubtedly adapting to the new age.

Leo Brincat is Minister for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change.