�2 Continued from last week
As a journalist you learn a certain shorthand, so to speak, a way of expressing a whole bucket of back story in one phrase. For example, if I had to describe the Media Association (Matt) I'd use one word: embattled.In media speak, "embattled" tells you that the organisation has been under pressure. In this case, Matt is embattled not only because it keeps losing executives but also because it has become a convenient whipping boy for the failings of the media as a whole.
Any time a media house does something stupid, the public cries, "Why doesn't Matt do something about this?"We journalists ourselves are quick to shout for Matt when anyone does anything against one of our fraternity. This is the height of irony, given the lack of interest Matt endures from day to day.It's a chicken and egg situation. Matt has no power because it lacks the support of its members; its members don't support it because they perceive it lacks power. It doesn't have to be like this. We can escape this cycle if we have the will to do so.
What would it take to bring Matt back into national relevance, a return to its former reputation for fearlessness and backbone? What would it take to resuscitate this organisation?Some people have ideas. Kerry Peters, a former Matt president–a member of one of the "lost" executives–has put forward a document designed to bring the organisation into this century. I'll give the key points here. It's posted on the Media Association of T&T Facebook page, if you want to read the whole thing.
Kerry's first point is that the organisation should be funded by the State. Not the Government, mind you, but the State. He argues that full-time working journalists can't and won't succeed in running the organisation because it's too much work to do as a part-time gig. He suggests we "recognise that Matt serves a public interest function and agitate for state (public) funding on that basis," and insists that there is no conflict of interest there.
Maybe, maybe not. But there are international (non-governmental, and non-state) funders who would support Matt if only it could get its act together and apply for funding.Kerry then describes the current Matt constitution as "dated and useless" and recommends we "write a new one that makes provision for a professional staff. Stop depending on goodwill from people who are barely making any money and then judging them when they don't perform."
The joke is that the Matt constitution seems to be missing in action. Nobody's been able to get their hands on the most recent revision of it. In fact, if you have a copy of it, please send it to me. Matt's handover documents seem to have been lost along with the last two executives, as humiliating as it is to say that in public.Next Kerry calls for three new pillars of the rewritten constitution: fund-raising, training and publishing.
Every successful NGO I know has people who are experts at and dedicated to fund-raising. The NGC Bocas Lit Fest didn't grow into the largest English-speaking literary event in the Caribbean over the past five years by accident. It took literally millions of dollars and hundreds of man-hours to get there. Same thing for the T&T Film Festival. Good intentions mean nothing without money, sad to say.
Matt's training programme has enormous possibility. In the T&T media most of us still learn on the job; J-school graduates in the field here are few and far between. In training journalists Matt would not only improve the lives and careers of practicing journalists, but it would also improve the quality of media to which we have access.
Finally, publishing. This one I can see as a long-term vision rather than something that needs to be immediately implemented. But he does make the point that as journalists what we are best at is in fact something we've never exploited for the benefit of the association. Why not produce a Matt guide to elections coverage? A Matt guide to the Sexual Offences Act? A Matt guide to reporting on crime?
I know that Kerry Peters isn't the only journalist with ideas to take Matt forward. I hope and pray that by the date of the Matt elections, April 11, others with good ideas and the energy to implement them come forward and stand with Matt for all our sakes.