There used to be a time when the average person believed that they were getting the truth from their local news service, as a people’s trust is fickle; once lost, it is virtually impossible to get back.
We can all thank US President Donald J Trump for popularising the expression “Fake News” during his 2016 US Presidential campaign and for helping ordinary citizens around the world to question the integrity of their media. People depend on accurate reports of current events in order to help formulate their own informed decisions on important issues of the day.
It is my belief that the media in New Zealand has failed its citizens, and have been exposed to be an echo chamber for the current Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her leftist government’s propaganda.
Jacinda Ardern has proposed that the current vaccine wars allow a new type of second-class citizenry, and my concern is that the absence of real journalism in New Zealand makes it nearly impossible for objectivity, honesty, and accountability to take root.
What hope does the average citizen have in making accurate, informed decisions on these issues when all that is being reported is government propaganda?
Here is the good news. If necessity is the mother of invention, then the dirge of ‘truthful’ news reporting has given birth to a unique phenomenon.
As the death of trustworthy news becomes more known, there is now the rise to a revolution for change led by groups of Citizen Journalists/Reporters. This trend is taking place all over the world.
Citizen Journalists/Reporters are ordinary citizens who have taken it upon themselves to provide news of current events to the public, and while there are many things that differentiate the Citizen Journalist/ Reporter from the mainstream media, one of the foremost decisions is what angles will be given to events or stories.
Mainstream media make this decision based on propaganda whereas the Citizen Journalist is led by what’s in the best interests of the public.
In 1970, Gil Scott Heron wrote a Poem entitled, “The Revolution will not be televised”. I mention this poem’s title because oftentimes we think that if something is not broadcast on the news it must not be important. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.
Usually, if something doesn’t suit the Mainstream media’s narrative (which in New Zealand appears to be based on Jacinda Ardern’s ideology), then it has very little chance of being televised or reported in the news.
There are many important events taking place within the community that do not make the news cycle. Today’s Citizen Journalists have taken it upon themselves to bear witness and report back to the people what they have seen and heard.
There is a real desire for change that is not being reported, and it is taking place in New Zealand because of government propaganda and the mainstream media’s complicity. Kiwis are being shortchanged!
Thank God for our Citizen journalists/reporters because they really do fill a public need and I believe that New Zealand as a whole will be better off in the long run for them.
A citizenry armed with accurate and truthful information is well-suited to make choices that will bring about better leadership in Government and ultimately provide a better quality of life for all a nation’s citizens.
By Fuiavailili Ala’ilima.
