NEW (SOCIAL) MEDIA VS.
CONVENTIONAL/TRADITIONAL
JOURNALISM
Tanzania Country Report
Prepared by Zuhura Selemani
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Dar es Salaam
Tanzania.
20th May, 2013
THE MAJOR (OR THE MOST POPULAR)
NEWS MEDIA IN TANZANIA
Tanzania has one of the most vibrant media
landscapes in the region, with over 18 daily
newspapers, 63 weeklies, 60 radio stations and 15
television stations as well as virtually unrestricted
Internet accessibility
 Up to 2010, Television was accessed by only 5% of the
population, while about 15 million Tanzanians own
radio sets; the Internet catered for only 1% of the
country’s estimated 40 million people (MCT, 2010)

POPULAR NEWS MEDIA CONT…
Radio listening remains by far the most popular
home based media.
 The print media: mixture of private owned, (which
are the majority), and a government owned
newspaper namely the "Daily News" run by the
Tanzania Standard Newspapers (TSN)
 *The media in Tanzania is trying to satisfy a very
demanding audience.

POPULAR NEWS MEDIA CONT…
The English newspapers are the Daily News,
Guardian, and The Citizen, while Kiswahili ones include
Mwananchi, Majira, and Tanzania Daima. –there are
national
 Those newspapers are popular and enjoy mass
readership (MCT, 2010, p.51).

THE MAJOR CHALLENGES REGARDING
THE NEWS MEDIA
1. Laws
Article 18 of the constitution of the URT provides
that freedom of expression and opinion-to seek,
receive, impart or disseminate, and every citizen has
the right to be informed at all times of various
events in the country and in the world at large.
CHALLENGES CONT…
The Newspaper Act 1976 (Act No.3/1976)
 The President has the power to prohibit any publication to be
imported or printed if he/she finds that it jeopardizes national
interest.
 The minister for information has the power to prohibit
publication of a newspaper and that it will be an offence if any
person sells, prints, distributes after such prohibition.
The Broadcasting Service Act. (Act.No. 6/1993)
 The act establishes several functions. The commission under
section 6(1) issues broadcasting licenses, regulates and supervises
broadcasting activities.
 The commission is responsible for standardization, planning and
management of the frequency spectrum.
CHALLENGES CONT…
2. Infrastructure: to transport newspapers to
peripheral rural areas is, however, prohibitive.
3. Limited circulation of newspapers, the low
purchasing power of most citizens, the high cost
of batteries for radio sets and the shortage of
electricity provision to rural dwellers, and the
high costs of owning television sets.
CHALLENGES CONT…
4. Accessing Internet remained as main challenges-technicalknow how and ownership.
5. On the gender front, women have limited access to radio in
rural areas as men move around with their portable radio
sets.
6. Threats and killing-over FOE
-certain number of journalist were killed duringfield work!
-Some tortured, receiving threats and serious harm
-State and Police interference-use of force, police detention
(Ndimara, 2012).
INTERNET PENETRATION IN TANZANIA
Internet was introduced in 1996 causing big impact
on information and communication sectors.
 By May 2010, there were 67 entities registered as
internet service providers, data operators and
international data carriers.
*All mobile phones networks also provide internet
service through mobile phones (to more than 20
million subscribers)

NEW GENERATION TELEPHONE GADGETS ARE SURELY MAKING THE WORLD GLOBAL VILLAGE BY
FACILITATING DATA AND TEXT COMMUNICATION FAST, AND MORE EFFICIENTLY FOR THE MEDIA
INDUSTRY (MCT, 2010,P.VIII)
PENETRATION CONT…



In 2003, the Ministry of Communications and Transport
adopted the National Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) policy with the mission to enhance nationwide economic growth and social progress.
“Compared to countries in developed world where the
alternative media have been around for several decades now,
the development is relatively new in Tanzania” (MCT, 2010,
p.50).
Most rural areas are not even connected to the national grid,
thus putting the majority of rural dwellers at a disadvantage
in accessing Internet facilities, as noted earlier
EMERGING NEW MEDIA
The Internet:
1.
Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Blogs
2.
Email
3.
Mobile phone txt
 Issa Michuzi (issamichuzi.blogspot.com)
 Ndesanjo Macha (jikomboe.com)
 Jamii Forums (jamiiforums.com)
 Maggid Mjengwa (mjengwa.blogspot.com)
Note: media convergence: Conversional media are now days found
in new media
NEW MEDIA CONT….
Studies have shown that facebook and blogs are
increasingly used as alternative media (Njonjo, 2012,
p.43)
 Twitter is also increasing challenging the traditional
media (p.23)
 Issa Michuzi, an experienced photo-journalist, is
leading. With an average of 1.3 million visitors a day
from 167 countries, the blog in fact enjoys an
International reputation, and is among the top ten
leading blogs in Africa.

JOURNALISTS' WORK CONDITIONS
Political influences
 Owners monopolization
 Most are volunteers/independent reporters
 Freelancers-no permanent employment
 Threats, torture and death

USE OF MOBILE PHONES AND OTHER
MOBILE DEVICES
Communication: text messages are now a popular
form of communication during big events like
elections.
 Internet
 Mobile Banking-(Mpesa, EzyPesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel
Money). Other Corporate banks cooperate with
mobile phone companies for withdraw, checking
balance

SHARE OF MEDIA CONSUMPTION (TIME USAGE BETWEEN
NEWSPAPERS, RADIO, TV AND ONLINE)
Online: Blogs, Social networks-young generation,
working class
 Recent introduction of digital TV broadcasting has
decreased number of viewers.
 Radio-(mostly in rural areas) a replacement of TV
 Newspaper disseminate the same content as
TV&Radio, but on the following day-no instant
reporting-audience prefer more of
electronic(MCT,2011)

SHARE OF ADVERTISING MARKET (BETWEEN
NEWSPAPERS, RADIO, TV AND ONLINE)



The income of most newspapers and periodicals derives
mainly from sales to readers and advertising. In Tanzania
print media is the largest advertising medium.
Content on the blog also include news, announcements,
commentaries and advertisements!
“One thing, which is clear and is admitted by media owners
and managers, is that media houses, especially those
publishing newspapers, are currently experiencing serious
liquidity problems. The question is whether the situation is
engendered by declining advertising income associated with
online advertising competition or not” (MCT, 2011,p.89).
SHARE OF ADVERTISING MARKET
CONT…

“Muhidin Issa Michuzi, the pioneer of the most
popular blog in Tanzania, The Michuzi Blog,
acknowledges that mobile phone companies are today
advertising on his blog. This is an indication that as
popular individual blogs and social forums evolve,
they are likely to take a share of the advertising
revenue currently earned by traditional media”
(MCT,2011,p.90).
SHARE OF ADVERTISING MARKET
CONT…
Yet others argued that its not the time yet. It is not
possible for most advertisers in Tanzania to abandon
radio, television and newspaper advertising in favor of
new outlets when there is no solid market data to
convince them that the new media will yield expected
business impact on the local market scene.
 More time is needed to unfold.
 Collapse of most TV-digital broadcasting in relation to
advertisements!

CONCLUSION
The government of URT respects the freedom of the
press, but it does not entertain the "Free Freedom".
 There is a Press Freedom with obligations such as
imposed different acts to regulate the news media (as
mentioned earlier)
 New media is growing although it is different to
countries in developed world where the alternative
media have been around for several decades now, the
development is relatively new in Tanzania
