GUYANESE inhabit what Marshall McLuhan called a mediated Guyana. Our media landscape forms the structural social context that Guyanese live into, to carry out day-to-day existence. As a thriving democracy, this country houses a plethora of independent, powerful, influential media operations. Along with the radio and TV stations covering the land from coast to coast, the four national newspapers play a crucial role in defining the context of how Guyanese feel about their nation and their lives.

Add to this powerful national media voice, this cacophony of multiple voices vying for our attention, there are social media and on-line news sites, which play a powerful role today, even if they piggyback on traditional media — often rewriting news items to make them look like original reporting.
This idea that the country is a mediated social space is an important consideration when we think of directing the path of the nation towards developmental goals, and even to execute the ideal of the Guyana vision.

How could leaders construct the media culture and media landscape to galvanise, motivate and encourage Guyanese to tap into that legendary Guyanese character for innovative solutions? How could leaders generate confidence and a unifying oneness as Guyanese tackle the task of designing this resource-rich country into a global success story?

The power of the local media showed its enormous power during the period when the Coalition tried to trample the democratic process. Without a strong media showing immense integrity, the country may not have pulled through to today restoring democracy and the rule of law. The media, government and the justice system form the tripartite pillars of modern society, acting as checks and balances, but the media industry it is that forms the driver, propelling the people forward.

History is resplendent with the power and clout of the media’s role in building a society of democratic norms, where the rule of law prevails. In fact, Guyana’s own history shows how devastated society becomes when the media landscape becomes subservient to an autocratic government. In the days when the PNC governed under Forbes Burnham, this country banned private media, and suffered over two decades of socio-economic collapse because of it.

Once democracy was restored in 1992, private media proliferated and grew and became an established order in this land. The benefits of this showed up with stark reality during the Coalition’s attempt to stifle Guyanese democracy. All the great nations in the world today built their societies on the back of a solid media establishment. Britain operates the BBC, a national state-owned media platform, which reaches a global audience and in fact played a big role in spreading British values around the world. Canada has the CBC, also a state-owned media operation.

America is the media mecca of the world, with the New York Times, TV networks, national and international radio stations, and a wide array of Internet digital media causing the American ethos to be dominant in the world. The American media entrenches American views into the global consciousness; truly, if America sneezes, the world sits up and takes notice, and the role of its media in this is indisputable.
So it is an established fact that the media is an extraordinarily powerful national force in any democratic society. In fact, even in countries suffering forms of autocratic rule, governments take a serious view of media power, and seek to control how the media influence citizens.

The Middle East sought to balance Western media power reaching the global village, with their own media operation in Aljazeera. Russia operates RT TV as a global outfit. China, India, and even the United Nations and the Vatican all see this truth, and operate their own media empire.

Guyana enjoys a healthy media environment. The state media, in NCN, the Guyana Chronicle, radio stations and Internet sites, play a significant and crucial role to balance the vested owner interests that private media houses practise.
What kind of national context should the Guyanese nation cultivate among citizens? This social responsibility is a job for the media, but private media houses operate first and foremost to make profits, and some even see generating public controversy and buzzing attention as their raison d’etre. Which media organ could objectively cultivate and lead a national context into which citizens live? One would think that the state media is best suited for such a national role.

The State media would serve the nation well, were all its arms to cohesively cooperate in a unified, strategic, professional way to shape the Guyana social landscape, to mediate the land, with strong alignment to the government’s vision that emanates from Cabinet.

This is not to say that the state media should or would be subservient to political masters, to those who pull the purse strings. Rather, the state media upholds the fundamental values of democracy, justice, and development. But the state media is well positioned to mediate the nation, to shape the social space, to generate in citizens a national context of confidence, trust, unity, and an uplifting feeling of Guyaneseness.

The most powerful force over society is the media landscape, in today’s mediated global village. And therefore it is important that Guyana practises and continually refines a professional media industry, where owners, operators and practitioners uphold the noble tenets of professional Journalism. In this, the state media is the pre-eminent voice for the nation.