Voice is power. The loudest and the most repetitive voices induce influence and action. In a world spilling with messages, advertisements, breaking news, statements, the mind is overloaded with information it can barely register and hardly remember. With such verbal and visual traffic jam in people's mind, getting mindshare space is becoming an art and science of clever narrative building, disbursing it in every channel possible, and ensuring that people consider, evaluate and formulate perceptions the sender wants to create. In the business world it is common and easier because the audience is identified and limited. In the political world it is very complicated as the audience is dispersed and diverse making the cost and impact of every message a difficult proposition.
The recent statement by the heads of the three countries - Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey - that a joint television channel will be developed to create understanding of the true spirit of Islam and raising a voice to create economic and political power of this segment needs discourse. This is a much-needed step towards developing integration between the isolated efforts of the Muslim world to get themselves heard, understood and treated with respect as an entity that matters in world affairs. While the West has invested in BBC World and CNN International to represent them in international communication, the Muslim world has not really focused on this medium of global penetration. The only channel close to any international prominence emerging from this region is Aljazeera.
Al Jazeera Satellite Channeli.e AJA, was launched on 1 November 1996 after the closure of the BBC's Arabic language television station, a joint venture with Orbit Communications Company. Al Jazeera's availability (via satellite) throughout the Middle East changed the television boundaries of the region. Prior to the arrival of Al Jazeera, many Middle Eastern citizens were unable to watch TV channels other than the national TV stations. Al Jazeera introduced a level of freedom of speech on TV that was previously unheard of in many of these countries. In many instances, Al Jazeera presented controversial views regarding the governments of many Arab states on the Persian Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Al Jazeera was blamed for being biased and also sensationalist by its critics.
Al Jazeera had a wide reach of nearly 80 bureaus across the world and is widely quoted by western media yet its acceptance in the Middle East is contentious due to the political conflicts that exist between the various countries. In 2017 when Qatar had the diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia Al Jazeera was the victim. Saudi and the UAE blocked Al Jazeera websites. Saudi Arabia closed Al Jazeera's bureau in Riyadh and halted its operating license accusing the network of promoting "terrorist groups" in the region. Jordan also revoked the licence for Al Jazeera. Saudi Arabia banned hotels from airing Al Jazeera threatening fines of up to $26,000 for "violators". On 6 June 2017, few days after the Saudi-led group had cut ties with Qatar, Al Jazeera was a victim of a cyber-attack on all of its platforms.
Thus, when on the sidelines of the meeting at UNGA it was announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan that a BBC-type English TV channel will be launched jointly by Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia it was a good announcement that needs careful crafting of its mission and direction. "President Erdogan, Prime Minister Mahathir and myself had a meeting in which we decided our 3 countries would jointly start an English language channel dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia and setting the record straight on our great religion - Islam," tweeted PM Imran Khan.
The Turkish Presidency Communication Director Fahrettin Altun speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) stated, "We believe that a global brand will be established. Actually, we will establish a media and communication center and a channel to fight Islamophobia. This digital platform will produce videos for social media, make documentaries and video news". The agreement and commitment of all three countries for this venture is a great first step. Altun said the three countries have formed a study group for conceptual works. He added that a framework will be completed before Erdogan's visit to Pakistan on October 23-24. This is where the effort is needed to establish the real purpose and a road map for an effective voice for the Muslim world. This study group must study and base their concept paper on the following 3 areas:
1. A channel beyond religion - While the initiating point of the need of the channel is to counter Islamophobia the concept study must make its scope larger than that. The study must make a vision, mission and values statement that is developed keeping in view the next decade of world challenges. The mission should be based on developing interfaith harmony that benefits the world at large and the Muslims in particular. Values of Islam, particularly tolerance, peace, integrity and equality should be the reiterated in the initial strategic framework as being the cornerstone of changing perceptions not only in the non-Muslim community but changing behavior in the Muslim community.
2. A professional global structure and system - It is imperative that the channel is not viewed and treated like a preaching tele evangelist medium. To do the study of the best global channels, their systems and their standards is a must to compete for viewership on a comparative basis. CNN's and BBC's regional structures and global stature staff is imperative to create a serious impact on the mindshare market of the opinion makers and opinion takers of the world.
3. Content that has global appeal - News means new stuff. New research. New segments. The target audience of millennials in the world are social media saturated and will refuse to click on any content that is perceived as biased, single focused or agenda driven. Thus the need for making programming that is well rounded covering debates, controversies, entertainment, innovation and trade etc. The strategy should be to pull audience to know more by first offering them enough content that appeals to both their light and heavy needs. Once they seek the channel for them more subtle content delivering the message without really delivering it will help achieve the overall purpose.
In a world full of clutter, noise, shrill only those sound and sights will stand out that are perceived as having universal appeal covered in interesting designs delivering messages for the heart and mind of the different stakeholders. For the idea of a joint communication network to turn into an ideal it has to be catering to a world where competition for mindshare is literally "mind boggling". The policy will of course emanate from the political corridors of Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey but for it to be successful its execution must be delegated to the top global professionals in the field of communication with 'think global act local' philosophy.
(The writer can be reached at [email protected])
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