WILL IT WORK? Khalid's RM15mil propaganda plan may just fall flat

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, the Selangor Menteri Besar, should be heartened by that knowledge.

He'd be happier to know that fewer Americans (66 per cent) could recall who the governer of their State was. The American public's knowledge of international affairs was even worse: only 3 out 10 knew who the Russian president was!

When tabling a proposal early this week to spend RM15 million next year on the State's propaganda apparatus, namely Selangor Kini's online news portal, Internet television and newsletter, Khalid explained that there was need to better inform the people of Selangor.

Some people in the State didn't even know that Khalid Ibrahim was their current menteri besar, Khalid complained.

Some thought that Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib, who is Khalid's predecessor's predecessor's predecessor, was still Selangor MB.

He singled out the ignorance of some folks in rural Hulu Selangor where his party, PKR, had recently lost an important by-election.

If Khalid really believes that the RM15 million budget would improve puiblic knowledge, then he may have just exposed his own ignorance about some basic facts about the news and information business.

"Public knowledge of current affairs little changed by News and Information Revolutions". This is the title of the summary report by the US Pew Research Center, which conducted the survey on the American public knowledge.

In a nutshell, the summary report said that since the late 1980s, the emergence of 24-hour cable news as a dominant news source and the explosive growth of the internet have led to major changes in the American public's news habits. However, these have had "little impact on how much Americans know about national and international affairs".

"On average," the survey discovered, "today's citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are about as aware of major news events, as was the public 20 years ago."

The answer Khalid is looking for lies in education. Levels of public knowledge rise with each additional year of formal schooling, the Pew research said.

"At the extremes, these educational extremes are dramatic: people with post-graduate degrees answer, on average, about 17 of the 23 questions correctly, while those who did not finish high school average only about eight correct answers."

The link between levels of knowledge and formal education, if true, could explain why some Selangor citizens don't know who their MB is.

About 80 per cent of the Malaysian working population are SPM holders, at most. Which means only 20 per cent have gone beyond "O" Levels and enjoyed pre-university and tertiary eduication.

Khalid's RM15 million budget will not guarantee that more Selangorians will be able to recall Khalid Ibrahim as their MB by the end of next year, that is assuming he gets to defend the hotseat for that long. It will, however, ensure that Selangor Kini can operate — and continue to provide good publicity for Khalid and his government — without having to worry about expenses and advertising revenue, like most other news portals, Internet TV and publications.

The people of Selangor will be paying RM3 each in 2011 to finance the State's propaganda media.

The possible good news for Khalid is, given their ignorance, most of these people would not even be aware of this new little hole in their pockets.

Ahirudin Attan is group editorial adviser for The Malay Mail, Bernama TV and The Malaysian Reserve.
He blogs at rockybru.com.my