COMMUNITY MEDIA
IN ZAMBIA
Background research done
BY
Sr. Rose Nyondo
F. Muzyamba
R. Nyondo
IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA
ON JOURNALISM
NEW TOOLS OF
JOURNALISM
CAN COMMUNITY MEDIA
COPE ?
R. Nyondo
THE NEW MEDIA
• It’s all on the NET and thrives on new
technology
• It’s Google, Your Tube :
• Face book, Linked In, Tweeters, My
Space, user generated content (UGC)
like CNN’s I-Report or our won Cop,
eye-witness, etc
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The New Media
• It’s the blogs -- journalists are creating their
own blogs and profiles and generating
unique audiences to their sites
• It’s the digital revolution
• It takes about 15 to 20 minutes of lab time
to teach a student to open and manage
his/her own blog.
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NEW MEDIA
• Changed information gathering,
editing, packaging, dissemination
and are re-shaping journalism in
ways we’d never have imagined
possible
• We can write and edit from
anywhere; we can outsource roles
such as subbing. The sub editor does
not need to be in the newsroom
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Informatiom overload, We
have lots to choose from, real
time news
Present the most dramatic
form of free flow of and
access to information
Helps to bypass the censors
and anything goes of course
at a hidden cost?
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DISTINCT FEATURES
• Heavily technology based
• It’s all about the message, not
the MEDIUM
• Not restrictive -- anybody can
use it
• Multiple platforms all in one go
• Allows widest reach ever
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IMPACT
• Digital piracy -- copyright issues
(Google, Yahoo, All Africa.com and
other content aggregators
• Has spawned a whole new
phenomenon of citizen journalism
• Crowd of consumers who,
empowered by new technologies,
have decided that traditional media
are no longer relevant in today's
society ??
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IMPACT
• So everyone is now a journalist (mobile phone or
digital camera – upload content and publish on
any of the numerous available sites or on your
own blog or send to a newsroom of your choice
•
EXAMPLE OF THE TSUNAMI PICTURES
• News and info are available anywhere, anytime. A
lot to choose from AND IT’S ALL FREE
• New terminologies -- maximization of information
-- and this can only be good for society
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IMPACT
•Death of professional
journalism?
•Accountability, ethics,
standards are at risk.
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Impact
•How to enforce ethics: how
do you tell that growing
crowd of non-journalists that
you don’t control – ‘To check
and double-check their
stories before sending them
to you’/ How to keep out
hearsay, rumour, gossip or
avoid being manipulated?
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Impact
•What about gate-keepers?
Have they lost their
employment?
•More of quantity than
quality
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IMPACT
• Digital onslaught -- new roles,
medium neutral titles.
• Newsroom integration and
convergence – who breaks the
news first? Online distribution
becoming part of our job
description. But the Community
media in Zambia are far from
being ready.
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Impact
• Notion of Day Two journalism - background and context
• More analyses, commentaries,
in-depth reporting, investigative
journalism, unique and specialist
content. You can give more for
those who want more. A patient
of breast cancer will not mind
more space to that story.
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IMPACT
–Plagiarism much easier to
do, but also to detect,
forcing journalists to be
more creative in the way
they cheat.
Example of Students at Mass
Comm.
Impact
•Research is child’s play. All
you need to do is Google
•Story narration is changing –
using new tools, it’s no
longer just words and
spaces – we can add
audio/video, get story
subjects’ bios or information
on them
•Investment in training in the
new media
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CHALLENGES
• Resistance to change -traditional media rivalries
persist
• Higher compensation for
publishing on multiple
platforms
• How to maintain
professionalism as we know
it (ethics, values, etc)
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Challenges
• Taking the newspaper in
particular to the next level
•Newsrooms -- fewer or more
journalists
•Has community media been
prepared to meet these
challenges ?
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Challenges
• Publication of a small community
media
• House has more audience than just
its geographical reach.
• A Community media paper or radio
station in Zambia can reach Russia,
South America, Australia etc
• We need to be more professional
than we are now!
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Challenges
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Research done with my colleague
F. Muzyamba revealed that:
Comty Media houses need
training
They need the new Technologies
and training on how to use them.
Urgent need to Resource
management
Means of generating finances.
Knowledge of media laws and Ethics
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Challenges
• Employment patterns have to change
• A CV. With IT experience will be
more than an added advantage.
• Creativity and new ideas to beat the
stiff competition will be the most
needed commodities
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Conclusion
• Most Community Media houses
in Zambia are not ready for the
new Technologies.
• Training needs to be our next
and most urgent priority.
• Facing the new challenges , the
State needs to rethink its
regulatory framework?
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THANK YOU
• GOD BLESS YOU ALL.
R. Nyondo