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OPINION

By Henry Rugamba

It has become commonplace for organisations, institutions of government and individuals to wake up to the news that they are the news.

Sadly, most, if not all, never seem prepared to handle the news and the crisis that comes in its wave.

On June 1, 1980, Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld launched CNN as a 24-hour news channel disrupting the conservative traditional news channels like the BBC who only gave us news by the hour, on the hour. Consequently, CNN became the trusted source of news and the BBC was left resting on the laurels of their colonial connections.

Then come the 2000s; Facebook launched in 2004, Twitter (now X) launched in 2006, the early smartphones BlackBerry in 2005 ahead of the iPhone in 2007, WhatsApp in 2009 and a whole compliment of applications came and went. Then TikTok was launched, giving the common man and woman a chance to create and share content, music videos, naughty clips, witty thoughts or deep perceptions. We the people found power in the palm of our hands.

According to the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) as of June 2023, we have over 300 privately owned FM Stations, 40 million mobile phones of which 13 million are smartphones, 27.7 million internet-connected devices registered in our country of a population of give or take 45 million. This means that almost 77% of our populations has access to minute-by-minute news, not the CNN 24-hour news, but rather eyewitness instant news.

The thing about news, our brains quickly filter the news and we gobble on scandals and shaming news. We have no time or space for good news. We like dirt and the muck it brings to our conversations.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his final Sunday sermon, ‘Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution’ at Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968. If you have not listened to one of his many greatest sermons, please do so because maybe more organisations and institutions will remain awake during this technological revolution and be more prepared to deal with the challenges of being the news. For too long, public relations has not been a profession appreciated for the value it brings, and can bring to the boardroom tables.

For too long, our profession has been reduced to putting up banners, calling the press and serving them teas and coffees! And for too long, the role has been assigned to the smart dressers and clear speakers rather than the professionals who have trained and prepared to prepare leaders of business and government to prepare for a crisis and navigate with minimal or no damage through the murky waters of TikTok, Facebook, X or WhatsApp.

Crisis management and crisis communication is a must-have training programme for every leader in every institution regardless. Waffling through a crisis does not cut it in today’s world. Where there is smoke, as we all say, there is a small fire. The trained ones put out the small fire in minutes, while those who sadly think they are untouchable, often with a smug look, find themselves in a blaze of fire and blame everyone but themselves for the carnage and ashes their unpreparedness has left behind.

Nobody or no organisation is immune to this risk. The British royal family is fumbling after Princess Kate released a photo many loved until they heard it had been edited. Our Parliament is scattering in all directions following headline-grabbing revelations from the parliamentary exhibition.

Staying with Parliament in the news headline, very often in the course of executing their legislative role, the parliamentary committees have gained a reputation of tearing into the witnesses they invite in the course of their investigations and seem to revel in the screaming headlines that dominate evening news and morning papers, so it should not be surprising that when the Parliament is the screaming headline, the public is not letting this story sunset as soon as Parliament would want it to, and it should not be surprising the public is not consuming what may be the fact but rather gobbling up the innuendos.

Does your organisation have a crisis communication plan in place? Are you ready for the moment YOU are the news? Have you invested in the bank of public goodwill, or do you think your name or position will wriggle you out of the X posts or TikTok videos? Take a moment and think if you, your organisation or institution is awake in this instant, constant news and technological revolution.

henry.rugamba@gmail.com