Lessons on the inflated role of social media
Since this platform can be used as a tool for misinformation, it is dangerous to rely on analytics to formulate strategies and policies
All the hype in mainstream media and the so-called social media on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul is abating. Yet, the crisis will still have an impact on policies in the Middle East for a while. With the heat subsiding, it is perhaps time to draw conclusions that may clear some of the ambiguity surrounding the world’s understanding of how things work in the Arab world.
An established rule in the region is that external pressures on any country, and more so on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or other Gulf countries, lead to more solidarity among their people and increase public support for the governments. In exceptional cases, where the government is very weak, external pressure leads to chaos. Orderly change sought by those exerting pressure never happened. Examples of that are still very evident in the region.
For more than three decades, from Afghanistan to Libya, people can see the results of external intervention and how it created Protracted Low-Intensity Conflict in these countries. In other countries, where governments were relatively stable, people avoided chaos though the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ didn’t yield the desired change or reform. Saudi Arabia had weathered similar crises before. Sometimes it even led to more support for the royal family from the citizens. Few voices tried to stress this conventional wisdom during the hype the latest crisis has seen. It went mostly unheard until the dust started to settle down. A combination of how the country is ruled, its regional and global influence, and its central position in the Arab and Islamic world meant that chaos wouldn’t be an option.
Any anticipated change in Saudi Arabia will be carried out by its leadership and within the framework of reform set by its crown prince. But lessons need to be learnt and acted upon, not only for Saudi Arabia but of the rest of the region and the world beyond. One of the lessons learnt — or hopefully so — is the inflated role of social media in less-developed societies. As the Khashoggi crisis involved many parties, those who followed mainstream media were in a better position than those who relied only on social media. The leading media outlet that followed the developments related to this particular issue very closely from the beginning was the Washington Post, which had carried Op-ed contributions by the slain journalist for a year. And there were a couple of other media outlets in the region such as a Turkish daily newspaper and a Qatari TV channel.
It was an opportunity to show full-scale news laundering: A fabricated story starts on a bogus news website citing a tweet or Facebook post, inflated to look like news, to be picked up by a tabloid-style outlet, then get into mainstream media. Though news laundering is an issue in the region, its role in the latest hype was more evident. Opposing parties advancing their political agenda went full throttle with the practice, as coverage of the crisis, in the beginning, relied on leaks with no official confirmation from either Turkey or Saudi Arabia.
Disinformation campaigns
Lessons learnt about social media in particular go beyond its use as a tool for disinformation or whitewashing campaigns. It draws a clear line between ‘using it’ and ‘relying on it’, as we use technology as a means but not as a target or basis for policies and strategies. Twitter and WhatsApp have rapidly become the main vehicle of doing business in some quarters, including politics. The danger became all the more clear after relying on social media analytics to formulate strategies and policies.
Consultancy and public relations firms may be playing a role in this trend, but it’s up to policymakers to decide whether to be swayed by it or not. You hire service companies to help in achieving your goals, propose the means they see best, but the final say is yours. Advisers will provide the expertise to help set goals, but the means to achieve them is your task. Blame can’t be laid on PR and advisory businesses who see social media as a tool to sustain and develop their profession.
All these services are here to stay, and can be helpful if employed rightly.