New people power of digital information technology undermines reputations of the institutions of political and corporate power.

11 May 2009

In a moment of major, unexpected crisis the institutions of power – whether political, governmental, military or corporate – face a new, acute vulnerability of both their influence and effectiveness, according to a study published today (11 May) by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ).
In Skyful of Lies and Black Swans, the award winning TV news presenter and Visiting Fellow at the RISJ, Nik Gowing, highlights the ‘new fragility and brittleness’ of those institutions in a crisis.
Gowing’s study is a warning to those institutions about the policy impact of what he describes as the ‘fast proliferating and ubiquitous breed of “information-doers”’. He argues that the unprecedented mass ability to bear witness and record dramatic, unfolding events on cheap, lightweight, go-anywhere technologies is defining a new, broader, almost infinite media matrix. Routinely it wrong foots and catches off guard the institutions of power in a crisis, leaving them open to both accusations, and the appearance, of failure.
‘This global electronic reach catches institutions unaware and surprises with what it reveals…Technological changes are redefining, broadening and fragmenting the media landscape in dramatic ways… Even in the most remote and hostile location, hundreds of millions of electronic eyes and ears are creating a capacity for scrutiny and new demands for accountability. It is way beyond the assumed power and influence of the traditional media.’ (Extract from Skyful of Lies and Black Swans, published by RISJ, University of Oxford)
Gowing warns that in this new, almost unlimited new media matrix, the unfolding events revealed rapidly by ‘information doers’ create new public expectations for almost immediate real-time accountability from the institutions of power. Yet in so doing, they routinely expose policy weaknesses and institutional shortcomings in the handling of crises.
He analyses the profound impact of ‘information doers’ and the new media landscape in examples of crises drawn from across the globe. He concludes that most institutions of power are still in denial about the new media realities.
‘Overall, this surge of civilian information is having an asymmetric, negative impact on the traditional structures of power. It is subverting their effectiveness, and calling into question institutional assumptions that as organs of power they will function efficiently and with public confidence.’ (Extract from ‘Skyful of Lies and Black Swans‘, published by RISJ, Oxford University)
The two-year, 113-page study draws on candid revelations by politicians, officials and corporate executives during extensive conversations and interviews. It analyses a host of examples where the public positions of institutions have been undermined by the new ‘information doer’ matrix of social media. These include major crises involving NATO and the US military in Afghanistan, the British military in Iraq, a US mining company, the governments in China, Burma, Iraq, Iran, Israel and Russia, private security contractors, and the Metropolitan Police over the handling of the 7/7 bombings and shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes,
The trend of institutional vulnerability Gowing identifies was forcibly demonstrated by events just before the study’s publication. Video taken by a New York investment banker in the City of London during the G20 protests on 1 April first exposed the questionable nature of police actions in the moments before newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson died. The banker’s video challenged the police account of what led to his death, encouraged other ‘information doers’ to come forward with more video coverage, and prompted damaging reputational questions about the tactics and behaviour of officers.  
 A key finding of the Oxford study is that overall, such real-time information flows in a crisis produce real-time insight into a developing crisis, which is far more rapid and comprehensive than the institutions of power are primed to embrace or respond to. Time lines of media action and institutional reaction are increasingly out of sync, so institutions must ‘confront, understand, and embrace the challenge of the new real-time “information-doer”’. To re-establish the balance ‘in the information dynamic’, Gowing asserts that they must respond to what he calls both the new ‘Tyranny of Real Time’ and the ‘Tyranny of the Time Line’.
‘The moment any crisis takes place there is an imperative to fill the resulting vacuum within not hours but minutes, and if possible dominate it’. The new breed of “information-doers” will enter the information space immediately and relentlessly…and increasingly they do so overwhelmingly and more effectively.’ (Extract from ‘Skyful of Lies and Black Swans’)
The study concludes that to maintain credibility in a crisis the institutions must assert themselves as swiftly and self confidently as the media. Yet, Gowing says far too often institutions succumb to weaknesses of what he labels the ‘F3 dilemma’. ‘Should they be first to enter the information space? How fast should they do it? But how flawed might the first position they take turn out to be?’ His view is that the working assumption for institutions must be that they need to act to fill that space even if much remains uncertain.
‘In summary, the new real-time media realities are harsh. But once understood, embraced and acted upon the proposed solutions are compelling. They represent a path to institutional effectiveness and credibility when these are currently lacking.’
(Extract from Skyful of Lies and Black Swans, published by RISJ, University of Oxford)
For more information or to interview the report author Nik Gowing, please contact the University of Oxford Press Office on 01865 280534 or press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk