We have, by now, assisted to more than fifty media briefings on the Covid-19 situation in Malta and technical terms like ‘PPE’, ‘contact tracing’ or ‘reproduction number’ smoothly made their way into the street-corner lexicon like they were ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.
Apart from the sudden national illumination on virology, the daily addresses are also exposing the general public to the modus operandi of another obscure field – the press. People in their homes are getting to see journalists in action as the Public Health Superintendent or politicians field questions from them over video link.
Journalists are the anonymous carriers of the stories that people leisurely chat about during their coffee breaks and much of their work goes unnoticed. In fact, the most that viewers normally see of journalists is a hand attached to a microphone sticking out of the bottom of the screen while they are doorstepping a hot figure. But, the new setup of press conferences obliged by social distancing rules is now showing the face of journalism, and not merely in the literal sense.
Audiences have a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes before a news story breaks: the research and preparation, the approach to the event and the choice of questions, the collaboration between press members to pursue clearer answers.
Even if coverage on a regular day seldom follows the linear process of a virtual press conference, these daily briefings still manage to capture the buzz of a newsroom chasing all kinds of stories from investigative journalism to breaking news to features. There is, of course, a wider network of camera crew, editors, production assistants and so on who work together to bring the story out.
The two-month exercise in public information is delivering the news that the work of media houses is essential to the functioning of a country. It is one of the intangible services that we consume daily – constantly – but that is more difficult to acknowledge because it has no label or direct price attached.
Hopefully, this period will not only help foster appreciation for media houses and grow trust in the press by the public, but also awaken a new generation of journalists. Besides the important updates on the pandemic, the daily briefings are proving that if a message is dropped in the forest of noises, and there is no media, it makes no sound.
