The Value of Information in Georgia

OP-ED

Do we need to be timely and correctly informed by the media in general? Yes, we do. Why? For us to make correct decisions and in good time! We the contemporary folk are well aware of the value of information as such, and appreciate its reliability and precision. In a word, all of us are involved in the current informational merry-go-round which has a tremendous effect on our lives day in day out. And in this lifelong process, some of us have the prestigious function of provider of information, and some are only its mundane recipients, and both platforms are highly appreciable.

Only, there always persists reasonable doubt as to whether the means of mass communication are playing their celebrated role with dignity and integrity, and if the readers, listeners and viewers of the news are qualified enough to either get it right and digest, or read between the lines and adequately react.

Overall, the entire gist of the relationship between news provider and news customer is if it is working on progress or not. Notably, the bulk of the information received, digested and produced in our local media environment makes most of us ponder if the presented info is true or false. Frankly, it is very tiring and nerve-wrecking to be faced with such a spiteful guess. Nobody would trust the provided info without a certain sense of misgiving. And, what is interesting, this kind of attitude was nursed in all of us by the Georgian media style in the last quarter of a century, the reason for this being a sharp political polarization of political powers, attitudes and ideas in this country.

When a free society such as ours is divided so badly, the media often has no way to stay fair and objective, following in the footsteps of the society it serves, especially if the information space is saturated with scores of television stations and even more newspapers and radio joints. Who needs that many means of mass communication in a country of only three million people? It only hurts and debilitates society, turning it away from producing goods and focusing its attention only on the news and political commentary, or on blown up information on various kinds of accidents, including suicides and homicides.

The same is happening, for instance, in America. The value of information per se has gone totally awry in our reality. It has lost one of its most valuable functions: to improve the quality of life by means of feeding correct and timely information to its customers, thus helping them to make good and timely decisions. What we often hear instead is garbled stories, doctored by the masters of manipulated investigative journalism, outrageously abusing the naiveté and patience of our good people. The execution of control over the public spirit and social view with the help of distractive and manipulative information is becoming somewhat commonplace among us although there is so much unlawful in it, saying nothing about the reprehensible endeavor’s immorality.

The only thought carrying a soothing power in this situation is that this happens not only in a fresh and fragile democracy like Georgia, but in the West too: the famous venue of the vibrant constitutional order. The fact of depriving the people, especially its voting segment, of a true word is equal to direct devaluation of information, which any constituency needs like air and water to make a right decision, when election time approaches, because it is practically impossible to arrive at a correct conclusion if we are not equipped with undistorted information.

We are not talking only about the electoral exigencies when we demonstrate such staid concern about the value and validity of information. We need to possess unembellished information at all times of our life in order to stay away from darkness, because it is just in the dark that all our misfortunes and misdeeds brew to eventually hit us right in the feels. Without any exaggeration, certain valuable pieces of timely and correct information work like our guardians and custodians. Then, why do some of our ladies and gentlemen of the press and broadcast media still want to warp their news production so much?

By Nugzar B. Ruhadze

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