With truth comes credibility

By Terence Fernandez, The Sun

Last Wednesday I attended the soft launch of the World Bloggers and Social Media Summit. The event to be held at the Putra World Trade Centre on June 15 and 16 will see a gathering of bloggers, tweeters, face-bookers, you name it, and boasts several big names, including former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, arguably the most senior social network icon in the country.

As theSun is the official paper for the summit, I was asked to say a few words by Shahul Hameed Dawood, CEO of event organiser MyEvents International. My take was simple: Blog responsibly – something that Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC) CEO Datuk Badlisham Ghazali who launched the event also advocated.

Undoubtedly, the blogosphere is teeming with egos – some more inflated than others. Compound that with the possibility of big bucks channelled through popular sites, there is always the temptation to take liberties with the truth. As I told the 200 or so people at the preview, half-truths and lies may be sexier than the truth as the basic facts could be as bland as cardboard. However, in the age when social networking sites are the new world order, credibility must become the new currency for those who take to cyberspace to stamp their mark.

To repeat what I said, if the print and broadcast media must stand by what we write or broadcast, why should cybertroopers be any different? Hence one hopes that the summit – in its second straight year – will address the need for bloggers and social media advocates to be more responsible when highlighting issues. Enough with the personal attacks, innuendoes and slander. Fact checking may be cumbersome but it is a necessary inconvenience if people are not to be led astray. I can vouch that it is not easy. I started a blog two weeks ago but have put it on hold as the fact-checking can take up a lot of time. One does not want to be popular just by casting aspersions on someone’s character. Which is why, one supposes, print media can still command a certain standard of credibility and respect. But on the flip-side, those of us in the mainstream media and those who control us have only ourselves to blame if conventional media is losing its appeal, especially among the younger generation who are equipped with iPads and iPhones.

Accusations of self-censorship and biased reporting will continue to haunt us if we don’t take up the challenge to push the envelope a little – something that theSun has strived to do and one must admit which we have done with some measure of success. But even we are conscious of the Sword of Damocles known as the Printing Presses and Publications Act, and hence the playing field while wide and undulating, can at times be fenced and rigid. The mainstream media has its work cut out in remaining as a relevant and unadulterated source of information.

It is because of the perceived limitations in mainstream reporting that many turn to alternative media to get what they think is the gospel truth. But as has been proven time and again, this is not necessarily the case. Hence, while we embrace new ways to disseminate information, there is also the need – now more than ever – to take it with a pinch of salt. So mainstream should stake its claim and retake its place. The only way it can do so is if the rules are relaxed and the freedom of the media is recognised as the only way the authorities can rest assured that the people believe what’s being disseminated. Otherwise, as we see today many are unconvinced and sceptical of some of the promises made by our leaders. And that is a shame, especially when many of the things that come out of their mouths actually have merit!

And so with regard to next month’s summit, I at least hope the event will underscore the responsibility social media participants and practitioners have to their followers. That they realise it has a great task in complementing mainstream and challenging conventional press to push its limits – only where the truth is concerned. The whole truth, nothing but the truth. Because at the end of the day, no matter how appealing fiction may seem, the fact is, only the truth matters. Of late, this seems to be a commodity that is fluctuating in value.