Video Assisted Politics Vs Video Assisted Consciousness.

 By Takura Zhangazha*

In discussing the state of affairs of the English Premier league, a colleague joked about how its current log leaders, Liverpool FC, appear to be a little bit too lucky with the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).  He went on to joke that Liverpool FC should be spelt as Li(VAR)pool in reference to the additional match official who cross checks incidents during games.  I laughed my lungs out. And because he is a Manchester United supporter, I reminded him of the game in which VAR worked in  favour of his team.  Against mine.  All he could say and sheepishly so, was that it was a different game altogether! And of course we burst out laughing at each other and our biases. 

Later on, I reflected a little bit on the changing manner in which we now have to anticipate the entertainment of watching the globally famous EPL via the medium of television or a mobile phone or tablet. 

And how the very act of pausing real time, in a football match.  All in order to subjectively attempt to verify what occurred or didn’t with the intention of coming to a version of the truth that will remain unpalatable to one of the two parties involved.  Who, where it concerns football at least, will have to accept the eventual decision because those are the rules. 

While in our everyday African lives we do not have immediate video assistant referees to pause our daily political activities and check via camera recording whether we really did or not do something, we may be living as though our lives VARs exist.  Not only to judge but to decide the next course of action we must take. 

In this, we must also ask key questions of how we might perceive of ourselves as part of the equivalent of video reviewed or motivated lives.  Or alternatively, what we consider critical to make this even possible.

In my view, we probably look at our lives as potentially video assistant refereed by default.  And in the particular area of our political perceptions.  Via the medium of the mobile phone as it is linked to internet connectivity and the social media platforms that come with the same.  

In most cases, like two football teams, we have opposite end political preferences and we like to slug it out on social media on behalf of those that we support.  And we also like our biases better if they are ‘video verified’ or simply put accompanied by some form of audio-visual footage. Again to confirm to our biases in similar fashion to me as a Liverpool FC supporter and my friend the Manchester United supporter. 

This is now most evident during election campaign periods.  Not just in Africa but probably in the United Kingdom where they will have a general election this December.  Contemporary elections are increasingly influenced by access to online audio visual content of political parties and their candidates.  Particularly in urban areas.  This development has in part changed the organic meaning of politics as is already well analyzed through recent studies on how the big tech companies are increasingly working to not only help parties win elections but even beyond that, the ominous modification of our human behavior to suit their super profit motivated intentions.  

In this, our video assisted politics becomes a channel that confirms what we prefer to see/hear.  Just as I would in my sporting bias, keep my fingers crossed actual football VAR favours Liverpool FC.  All the time.  Not that I will  not accept a negative or objective determination by VAR on occasion.  It would be that in a majority of the cases I will not do so because of assumptions of loyalty and hypocritically decry the change in the meaning of football.  Or in the case of politics, resort to assumptions of party or celebrity loyalty via a stubborn refusal to accept an objective truth.

The other option, though it’s much harder, is to look at our newly mediated realities via videos that confirm or challenge our stubborn biases through a different lens. One that would look a the medium itself and how to utilize it to make oneself more conscious of the issue it raises.  Its not as easy as crosschecking/googling the FIFA rules on ‘ball to hand’ versus ‘hand to ball’.  

Instead it would be to seek more to understand the equivalent of how FIFA actually functions and why for example wherever the World Cup is held, FIFA takes the greatest control of products and services affiliated to it in the host country.  That is then utilizing the medium or the VAR toward a new critical consciousness. Or a video assisted consciousness. 

In the political realm this would entail a critical consciousness to the next  ‘political video’ you see. Even if it harmless news, the veracity of what is being shown should be understood from at least three angles. The ideological import of it, its impact on the national economic livelihood and what it portends for the future.  It may not be as immediate or as entertaining as a controversial moment in a football match. But I am certain it will help.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)