An effort to adapt to the new normal
The Editor is the window of the media collective in eSwatini. It responds to a growing felt need for an inclusive and comprehensive platform for sharing all the news published by the various media in the kingdom.
It reflects the evolving audiences’ need to experience the totality of the diverse range of information products generating and carrying news and information that is relevant to the audiences with an in the kingdom. These audiences increasingly as much within the Kingdom as they are outside looking in. They include the diaspora, business and investment interests, the networks of regional economic bodies as well as general public interest.
The Editor is published by the Swaziland Editors Forum, an incorporated entity of Eswatini Editors. It is, so to speak, the Editors choice of the news of the day from domestic, regional and international sources.
In the past, Editors were the final arbiters of what information, when and how it reached the readers and audiences. That responsibility also carried with it the obligation for verifying the truth, accuracy and quality and effectiveness of delivery formats. Alas, times have changed. A revolution in technology has enabled any citizen who has something to say to do so anytime, anyhow and anywhere without any of the restrictions as to rules of etiquette or quality standard editors traditionally respected. Within this milieu in the new normal, some news are true, others untrue, some genuine, disingenuous, some strategically dishonest while others are deliberately mischievous and misleading. This is what may be called fake news.
In the attention economy of the new normal, Editors continue to be hugely relevant with a very big and important role to play.
Only editors enjoy the historical public mandate, the learning, the experience and public trust to make the day to day decisions of what constitutes news that is relevant in helping readers and audiences form opinions and make decisions on issues of importance to their lives. Editors can continue to discharge this important responsibility provided they keep with the times, transform practices, adapt to new realities and reskill to remain relevant.
The Editor is part of that move to adapt to a new information ecosystem that delivers news, analysis and comment aligned with the new timeless and borderless society.
The Editor will deliver news that is generated by its own resources, of second and third parties and news and information curated from legitimate validated and verified third parties.
