Peacekeeping Force/East Timor Transitional Authority

Public Information: a simulacrum perspective

By Snake

            Nothing can be said to militate against the advocacy of  freedom of speech and of the press  in a  democratic  environment except  by the inherent power of the state to ensure and promote the greatest happiness of  all the people.  The exception to that  preceding is the  Jeffersonian tradition . It suffices to remind us the indispensability  and ascendancy of  the "fourth estate" and its   immense power  in all aspects of living come hell or high water. 

Permeating into the common sense and  the gifted alike, every bit of information is significant not only for its timely dissemination but so with  the maintenance of communication linkages  to its target audience. Public Information now  as a process  is the  purveyor which does not  only limit itself as a governmental mouthpiece  but in equal intensity readily accepts the role of alternative media.

            Integral in the business of  public information is integrity  and credibility. Be that reposed in the source or in its substance, these values are primordial in the establishment of communication linkages with the target audience.

            For it to adopt itself in an objective environment, public information goes through and must survive the market place of capitalist ideas by harnessing its ability to perceive the best interest that can fill up the emptiness of the unthinking  majority who are  oftentimes susceptible to misinformation. Concomitantly,  it equips itself with invulnerability as it subtly presents itself  as  the source of governmental parody.  This strategic perspective  has its end in view of becoming the primary transceiver of public opinion.

            In ET environment,  the target audience is  very  much fragile  that  any public information effort  must  initially focus on apolitical concerns for instance the  basic delivery needs of the target audience and substantial assurances for  reconstruction and normalcy. The thematic color that may add intensity to the polarization of the most visible cleavages in the given environment must  be reserved under the rug  if not finally  disposed of in  time.  Public information  therefore  must drive itself into the core of the given environment  to spin  cohesion among those who survived the holocaust of  violence by shunning itself from the orgies of war.

            In fine, public  information must  become the  active link of  understanding through the adoption of appropriate  images of reconstruction and development with the end in view of attaining the most desirable public opinion that is conducive to the particular period in the presently obtaining ET environment. It must not allow itself to be haunted by the ghost of deconstruction but rather attune itself to the intervention of reconstruction. This attitude becomes even more compelling  by its comixture with the  traditional lines of  humanistic compassion and understanding i.e., the Church.

            The "tabula rasa" of public opinion openly fills itself with parody and wishful thinking than  serious concerns especially in the post-troubled times.