I AM currently struggling to embrace the era of the influencer, especially as it enters the newsroom. This is despite me attempting to convince my previous employer to let us — a legacy media outlet — join TikTok in 2022. I knew our younger audiences were on TikTok, so I wanted to train a young journalist, armed with all the principles of journalism, to engage with new audiences there. The channel was apprehensive, I guess, because change is daunting — so we didn’t move forward with it.

The next year, I returned to the classroom to find students were getting their news (read views) from influencers; many even aspired to become one themselves. I felt sort of validated, save the part where students weren’t really getting balanced, even well-informed information. The news media, they told me, was lying to them. And they weren’t wrong, especially on the Gaza issue, which we watched unfold in class following the Oct 7 attack. In Pakistan, however, I take exception to the term lying media, which is better suited to describe the men in charge. Journalists can’t say it how it is because of censorship and boss’ interests, but that doesn’t make us liars.

I digress. I was talking about influencers, whose global industry was worth around $21bn in 2023, according to Harvard Business Review. Around 300m people globally consider themselvescontent creators. “It is difficult to imagine an organisation or a consumer today who is exempt from contending with the realities of a world shaped by influencers,” they write.

While there are a lot of problems with traditional media, there are no safety rails in place when it comes to influencers. You name a product, and, arguably, the Kardashians and their minions are selling it. This industry is, as the report says, a place for entrepreneurship but also exploitation. The influencer industry has grown from beauty, fashion, hospitality and travel to non-profits, news and politics.

Nowhere was this more visible than the Democratic National Convention last week, where content creators jostled for space with journalists and were getting access to top Democrats, like journalists would. The party gave these influencers press-like credentials and a “front row seat to history”, DNC’s communication director told Reuters. Democrats understood they needed to tap into a younger audience which consumes information on social media. According to the latest figures from Pew Research, 83 per cent of adults use YouTube, 68pc use Facebook, 47pc use Instagram, and 33pc use TikTok. The mainstream media is no longer the gatekeeper of political news.

There are no safety rails when it comes to influencers.

Of course, it rankled a lot of journalists who feel the press box is, well, for the press. The number of journalists at the convention was slashed and reporters say they faced restrictions in access as well. Meanwhile, content creators got a (real) platform from where they could record their videos.

While there’s never been any consensus anywhere on who gets to call themselves a journalist, the way of reporting or covering events hasn’t changed. Journalists work from a place of balance, whereas influencers are partisan from the get-go. They are not accountable to anyone. That is the fundamental difference, and if the DNC is roping in influencers to spread their message, is it because they have lost confidence in journalism or in its product; ie, their candidate?

At the time of my writing, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were giving their first joint interview, an anomaly in itself. Harris has come under criticism for not giving an interview since becoming the presumptive candidate. There is a lot of speculation as to why: from she’s avoiding scrutiny, to she doesn’t think the media industry plays fair. My guess is that she wants to win (duh) and doesn’t think she needs air time to get there. Maybe she’s taking her cue from Joe Biden, who gave the least amount of interviews and press conferences as president since Ronald Reagan. Or she is confident her polling figures are strong enough. Whatever the reason, it hurts the media and the electorate it reports for.

To reiterate, I have no skin in this — or any country’s — electoral game. What does it matter if we are bombed or sanctioned by the first Black and Indian female president? But it matters if countries take their cues from a superpower like the US and dismiss the press as an increasingly irrelevant institution that will be replaced by TikTokers. This is worrying and requires a serious re­­think by media managers. They must em­­b­race change, whether it is learni­­­­ng technological innovations, research from audience insight, or exploring new bu­­­si­n­ess models. I don’t want officials to be answerable to in­­fluencers. I want to keep asking tough questions and ensure elected officials are held to account. That is my job.

The writer is an instructor in journalism.

X: @LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2024