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COMMUNITY MEDIA IN ZAMBIA

Background research doneBY

Sr. Rose Nyondo F. Muzyamba

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IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA ON JOURNALISM

NEW TOOLS OF JOURNALISMCAN COMMUNITY MEDIA COPE

?

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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 newsPresent 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.

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.

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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 • Research done with my colleague F.

Muzyamba revealed that: 1. Comty Media houses need

training 2. They need the new Technologies and

training on how to use them. 3. Urgent need to Resource management 4. Means of generating finances.5. 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.