A viable democracy thrives on dependable information. For one thing, the routine of government must be publicized, More importantly, democratic government must have its fingers on the electoral pulse.

In Thomas Jefferson’s words: “Information must penetrate the whole mass of the people”. He held that “The basis of the government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right, and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter”.

The ‘Fourth Estate’

Informing the people is an essential function of democracy, and the information function in every free democracy has become a preserve of the media.

Under ideal conditions, it is not enough that a newspaper or a broadcasting station is capable of disseminating dissenting views without inhibition. A pluralistic environment makes sure that the citizen is not obliged to have only one organ grinding the same tune.

The foregoing explains why the media came to be called, by Macaulay in honour and by Burke in despair, “The Fourth Estate”, ranking just behind the three pillars of the British Establishment, namely the Church, the Crown and Parliament. This was because the press came to be regarded as public watchdog and opinion maker.

Besides reporting the news, the media editorializes. But it also makes space available for comment. Some newspapers engage columnists, giving them all possible leeway with one eye fixed on quality and the other on circulation.

New breed

The complexity of public affairs, the popularization of science, the evolution of social organization and other developments increased the demand for interpretative and in-depth journalism as well as analysis. Hence the emergence of a new breed of opinion-makers who inquire around, dig in, think through, and sum up their considered views for public consumption.

A columnist’s view is as good as that of any other man or woman – although the best interpretative and analytical efforts require insight, resourcefulness, experience and a talent for getting close enough to the official world, to discover hidden significances, independently of the official perspective.

Add to this the ability to present complex matters in simple and graceful prose, and you have a respected columnist who can “describe the event of the day in its proper relationship to the history of yesterday and the dream of tomorrow”.

It has been said that a newspaper column, like a fish, should be consumed when fresh, otherwise it is indigestible and potentially harmful.

In the final analysis, opinion-makers do their best to tell their readers which way the cat is jumping. The readers beware of the cat.

Malta scene

In Malta, we have more daily and weekly papers, as well as radio stations, than many other countries. Alas, quality often does not come with quantity. The media lack the solid basis that comes with mass circulation, and the advertising revenue only sustained by a big market. Competition and fragmentation denudes the financial intake, and erodes such human resources with the necessary potential that is available.

Other indigenous characteristics have emerged to dent the potential of opinion-makers across the spectrum of the local media.

Politicians, hungry for visibility, have hogged considerable space on a regular basis in most weekly and daily papers. In fairness, it must be said that a few of them have been active journalists throughout most of their career - and a limited number of these may be considered as authoritative columnists in their own right.

On the other hand, a disproportionate number of active politicians sprang out of nowhere to write regular weekly or fortnightly columns on cabbages and kings – mostly on cabbages. Some rely on ghostwriters. A number of them write de rigeur in their party paper, and preach to the converted.

Others write copiously and assiduously to achieve visibility. More often than not, one anticipates the reading material and grasps the message from the headlines.

Modern trends

Does this waste of time and effort have any bearing on local opinion? Or is it a drain of resources that could be more effectively employed?

It would appear from recent electoral results that influences, more persuasive than politicians-cum-columnists, are coming into play. The electorate has been emancipated to a significant degree,

It is increasingly becoming more inquisitive, analytical and non-conformist – in the sense that it does not slavishly conform to the picture some politicians carry in their heads.

For the most part, emancipated voters do not see first, and then define. They first define and then see. They do not accept stereotypes at face value. They assess politicians by their own criteria.

Politicians who tend to convey the impression that they have just come down from the mountaintop with a set of tablets are increasingly becoming obsolete.

The new, accepted wisdom is that, if a country is to be governed with the consent of the governed, the governed must be able to arrive at opinions about what their governors want them to consent to.

It is the columnist who is not beholden to any political party that can perform an essential service to the thinking electorate – namely by critical analysis to be savoured and filtered by the electorate which is sovereign.

It is fertility of insight, rather than vitriol, which nourishes democracy. This, to my way of thinking, should be the motto that guides authentic opinion-makers.

Opinion-makers, who rely habitually on vitriol as their stock-in-trade, live in danger of suffocation in their own foam.

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