Daily Times

Our politics is like a spoiled child, the more we adore it, the more it disappoints us. Society is immersed in political debates, thanks to our prime-time shows but our politics is not inclusive, thanks to the political elite. The public is trapped between faulty politics and information disorder.

We are living in an era of contradictions. Our objectives, policies and execution do not match the ground realities. Development has reached its pinnacle but societies are struggling for basic amenities. Ninety million people in Pakistan have touched the poverty line. The world has turned upside down, change is not abrupt but brutal. States, leaders, and institutions are unable to find solutions to this different and critical situation. States have lost control over the masses, people do not trust their leaders, media has become irrelevant. Pakistan is the most vulnerable country due to climate hazards. Humans have messed up so miserably on this planet Earth that the lives of other species have also been threatened.

It is not the old world, old public, old financial institutions, old external enemy. The world has evolved manifold. Power centres have been distributed from few to many. Those in power have to deal with all these subsidiary power blocks separately. Public sentiment changes every hour. External pressures are immense. Now things erupt and get viral in a splash of time all over the world. The confidential information is leaked by its people. Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are new realities. There is no winner, social media is a headache for everyone.

“Data is the new weapon in the ongoing global war.”

Data is the new form of weapon to fight in the ongoing global cyber war. Information is now the world’s most consequential and contested geopolitical resource. Data is the new oil. Governments, industry, and politics, all rely on data to pursue their set objectives. Data-driven innovation is not only disrupting economies and societies, it is reshaping relations between nations. Power revolves around the state’s ability to use data-oriented information for its own and people’s benefit. Information power is altering the nature and behaviour of the fundamental building block of international relations, the state, with potentially seismic consequences.

Nik Gowing and Chris Langdon published the books ‘Skyful of Lies and Black Swans: The New Tyranny of Shifting Information Power in crises’ focusing on challenges to leadership due to uncertainties arising due to digital revolution and geo-politics. Today leadership is facing new vulnerabilities like pandemic, information disorder, energy crisis, and joblessness. The capacity of leaders at the helm of affairs to understand, embrace and handle the extraordinary processes of change and disruption is one of the biggest global issues humanity faces today. In the coming days, artificial intelligence will bring unimaginable changes in human societies which will further complicate the issue. It is not the development in the cyber world which is disturbing the global environment, it is the wrong use of technology which has disrupted the whole environment.

Chaos and uncertainty are new problems in the digital world. One of the biggest victims of this newfound change is ‘truth’. The virtual world is overshadowed by deceit and lies. Truth is swinging along the Twitter movement; to and fro, to and fro. Information is constantly changing its form and one can’t see clearly through this fog. Stories are automatically developing through CCTV camera footage, mobile videos, citizen journalism, social media activists and everybody. Details are evolving now and then turning into a huge pile of truth and lies, making it almost impossible to find reality. Social media is in lead to set an agenda for a common citizen as well as for mainstream media.

With a revolutionary development in the cyber world, the entire spectrum of public opinion has been reformed. Truth only props up for a while and is immediately taken over by lies of social media activists and troll farms. A new paradigm is in play to erode the truth. The complacency of state institutions has given way to dummy voices which are trying to dominate human opinion through chaos and fear.

Media has been performing the role of watchdog in democratic societies. Technically, the media was the mediator of speech act. Whatever was seen, was reported in mainstream media through a system called gatekeeping. Virtual media is different. Every citizen, holding a mobile in hand is a broadcaster now. There is no editorial control. It has empowered the citizens but weakened the writ of the state. There is no mechanism to quickly check false and truce content. The digital platforms have weaponized the political communication. To match the requirements of present-day media, the state institutions need to restructure accordingly. Social media is a private sector entity, which is constantly growing as per market requirements. Government institutions tend to be complacent and are reluctant as always to adopt new norms in society.

It is a worrisome situation because an information disorder is a threat to the security of the state. To securitize a threat is the responsibility of the state. However, the media takes the role of an actor when it opines through editorials and including voices of their own choice, on an event or issue. This is an expanded role of media which makes it a participant in political power play. The introduction of private television enhanced the role of media as an actor. The political elite, corporations, and institutions struggled to grab their share in mainstream media. A contest started for share in media and that brought the corporate world into media ownership. The role of media from the mere mediator of speech act increased to an actor in the political sphere, in the identification and mitigation of threats according to their understanding or desire.

But we could not securitize the threat of terrorism, which led to a disastrous situation and the damage of this negligence continues even today. Thus, shaping a threat to security is a shared role between the state, corporations and media. Digital literacy and checking on fake news through technical means and legislation is the solution.

We may conclude that open-minded, capable and well-oriented leadership, inclusive and correct politics, an orderly information environment and responsible social media is the solution to 21st-century challenges.

The writer is PhD in International Relations from QAU and can be reached at atiquesheikh2000gmail.com