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Journalistic training in conflict-related situations - Journalistic Training Symposium 2008
Deutsche Welle
2008

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The evolving role of digital media in Africa: Kenya and Zimbabwe
Chido Makunike

African media is disproportionately dependent on Western agencies for news of the world, and even for news about much of Africa. A lot of the news diet served Africans by their media is therefore often the perspectives of Westerners. At worst this tends to focus on crisis, hunger and bloodshed to the exclusion of much else. But even when this is not the preoccupation, Africans often have to get news of their own reality through a Western filter. Perceptions and views of 'self ' and other Africans, and of people and events in the rest of the world, are based primarily on how those people and events are portrayed in the initial reports of the Western news agencies.

Digital media has reduced this exclusive reliance on Western news agencies, and made it possible to get direct reports on issues and events of interest in many parts of Africa and beyond. Even when the still dominant Western news agencies are the primary sources of the initial reports on a situation in an African country, Africans with access to the Internet now have the means to widely communicate their own interpretations of the events to each other and to the world in a way that was not possible before the advent of this technology.

As in other parts of the world in their relatively early stages with digital media, African web publishers have used these media mainly for social networking, to show off their interest or knowledge on a particular topic and other such personally focused uses. As elsewhere, African users of digital media have enjoyed the newfound power to be heard and seen in ways not accessible to them before, and on their own terms.

The 'professionalism' of this type of citizen publishing is mixed. Many make little serious effort to adhere to rigorous professional standards, but most readers are savvy enough to treat the musings of bloggers, for example, with that in mind. A few blogs and websites work hard to produce a quality product, while many are more concerned about expressing themselves than they are about quality. A more forgiving yardstick is used to judge the content of such media than is used for more conventional "professional" media. Bloggers are generally understood to be opinionated non-professionals who are not necessarily seeking to be journalists but to merely be heard, while the professional media is expected to also live up to certain minimum standards of objectivity. But there have been times when unrest in a country has forced such 'vanity publishing' to fill gaps left by conventional media. An example was the recent post-election unrest in Kenya.

Several Kenyan blogs became important sources of news for many reasons. Events were developing faster than the conventional media could keep up with them. Conventional media was constrained by relatively inflexible publishing deadlines from delivering news as it happened, even if they also had an online presence that could have made them keep up with the bloggers. It was not just access to digital media that was the issue, but a completely different approach to publishing.

The bloggers had no publishing deadlines and other structures to worry about as did the conventional media, and could publish 'on the fly.' Several Kenyan bloggers became reliable sources of as-it-happened news, perspectives, photos and rumors. Many of the conventional media began to cite the blogs to gauge what public sentiment was, even if they did not go as far as to claim the bloggers were delivering 'straight' news. In at least that regard the best of the blogs served a very useful function which conventional media struggled to keep up with, at least for the weeks of the unrest.

Although many of these blogs may have fairly limited readership during normal times, during Kenya's crisis the conventional media amplified the reach of the bloggers by bringing them to the attention of many readers who might never have come across them.

There were also some blogs that fed into the ethnic tensions and seemed to want to stoke them, but the conventional media was generally careful to stay clear of recommending these to their readers, helping to limit their reach and influence. Another factor was that the Internet is available to a rapidly growing but still small percentage of Africans, so the influence for both good and bad of digital media is still very small compared to radio, the main source of news for Africans.

In most African countries the dominant media are generally government controlled, leading to a heavy emphasis on the views of officialdom. Digital media are now an important support help to independent conventional media.

Kenya and Zimbabwe have many things in common. But their political progressions have sharply differed in the last decade. Kenya has become gradually more open and democratic, with a vibrant private media to provide balance to the official media. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, has seen its political and media space shrink dramatically. Many middle of the road and government-critical publications have been forced to close, both because of the country's poorly performing economy and an increasingly controlled and hostile media-operating environment. The few remaining private independent media struggle to survive, and their reach has remained stagnant or declined. This has left a rabidly pro-government and virulently anti-opposition media (newspapers, radio and TV) as the only source of information for the vast majority of Zimbabweans, even those who dismiss much of what that official media serves as outright propaganda.

The closure of many private news outlets on economic and political grounds has driven many of the country's media professionals out of the country. That and the hunger of Zimbabweans at home and abroad for news alternatives to the government media has spawned a thriving, almost exclusively digital media alternative, based mainly in South Africa and the UK. This has led to the unusual situation of most of the Zimbabwean media being based outside the country! The many externally-based Zimbabwe websites and blogs broadly serve two main functions: to aggregate news articles about Zimbabwe from all over the world and to provide platforms for Zimbabweans around the world anguished about events in their country to vent and debate their feelings and opinions.

A number of the websites reflect the professional media training of their operators. These are run according to fairly strict journalistic standards, performing a role very similar to that of some of the now defunct Zimbabwe newspapers. Some of them have maintained good sources in Zimbabwe and are occasionally even able to feature news 'scoops' that shame the in-country media. Many of these more 'formal' types of digital media also often feature well-argued opinion and analytical pieces. It is no longer considered odd or unusual for readers of the externally based websites to be better and quicker informed of political news at home than many people actually living there.

Most of the blogs and websites, however, are not and do not seriously seek to be considered as authoritative sources of news or analysis. They mainly provide space for readers to vent their true feelings about the overall crisis in Zimbabwe. While not professional journalism, this is nevertheless a useful function in a country where most avenues for political expression which is contrary to the official government view have been ruthlessly suppressed.

As useful as is the function that is served by this more emotive, less journalistic type of digital media, it has its limits. For one thing, more expressive heat than analytical light is generated. This is not necessarily an indictment of this type of website/blog, but merely an indication of the unique and narrow, non-journalistic purpose for which it exists. It seeks to be a social vent for pent-up feelings that have few other means of being expressed, by either readers reluctantly far away from home, or at home but feeling politically oppressed.

Almost all of the externally-based online Zimbabwean media are generally critical of the currently ruling government. In this respect it could be said to lack ' balance.' This state of affairs is to a large extent because most of the Zimbabweans who operate and patronize these websites are in some way 'in exile' because of the political and/or economic situation at home, and so as a group they can be loosely considered to be critics of the government. Others would argue that the overwhelmingly government-critical tone of the sites is simply a true reflection of the sentiments of most Zimbabweans. Still others would argue that this overwhelmingly government- critical stance is justified by the need to give a platform to the voiceless and to counter the stridently pro-government stance of Zimbabwe's official media.

The Zimbabwean digital media is an important source of information for the many Zimbabweans outside their country. They may still log onto the government's digital media to get the official angle on an issue, but they will then resort to the private, externally-based websites and blogs for opinions, interpretations and contrary views.

Although relatively few people in Zimbabwe itself have direct access to the Internet, this does not mean the influence of the external digital media there is minor. Those few who have access to it vastly amplify what they read online to many others because of the great 'news hunger' that exists in Zimbabwe. That amplification takes many forms. Word of mouth and cell phone SMS are two of the major means, with downloaded articles also being passed on electronically to those who may have email but not Web access.

The externally-based digital Zimbabwean media therefore have an importance and influence far beyond their direct and primary reach. Government spokespeople have often inadvertently helped the penetration of the critical digital media by sometimes strongly reacting to articles featured in them, raising general awareness of the existence of such critical voices even when Zimbabweans have not been privy to the original digital articles being criticized! Such government reaction is partly in recognition of the powerful role of such critical digital media in influencing world opinion about events in Zimbabwe, even if the critical digital media's direct influence in shaping opinion within the country is more limited.

Training implications of the rise of digital media:

Many practitioners/operators of digital media are not professional journalists and do not seek to be.

Many trainers have their background in conventional media and look down on nonjournalist digital media practitioners. This is a now outdated way of looking at things that the trainers need to be trained out of! Digital media and digital journalism are not necessarily one and the same thing, and yet many trainers still act as if they are or should be. The trainers themselves are still battling to catch up with the many changes that digital media has brought about.

More respect needs to be given by trainers to the many (and sometimes predominant) non-journalistic functions much of the digital media serve. This partly means it is no longer enough for 'trainers' to only be composed of media professionals.

Although the costs of establishing and running digital media can be a small fraction of that of conventional media, a steady income stream is a huge challenge to digital media practitioners. Frequently, even the 'professional' practitioners are forced to do many other things to keep food on the table, which impacts the quality and the rate of development of their digital publications. Yet grants and other such support money is only available to very few of them, as is advertising income. Training of digital media practitioners needs to include all these realities, and examples of successful coping strategies. Training on ethics should be a strong component of digital media training. The relative lack of controls and the ease of digital media as well as the easy possibility of anonymity mean some web publishers drift towards character assassination and other socially harmful behavior.

My own example(s):

I consider myself a "professional blogger," not in the sense of blogging being an occupation, but in the sense of the quality standards I try to maintain. I principally run two blogs, African Agriculture and Trade Africa. I began and continue them as supports for my agricultural/trade consultancy. They have proven to be a very effective marketing tool for my business by freely, professionally and regularly providing information that my prospective clients can use. They also serve to make me very well-informed on the issues I consult about. So while blogging, I am also always picking up information which makes me ever more of an "expert" in my fields of consultancy. The blogs have led to many contacts which have resulted in invitations to write articles, attend meetings and to actual consultancies. They are like a digital business card that anyone in the world can see. I like to think the quality of the blogs also gives potential clients an indication of the attention to quality with which I would do their jobs.

These two blogs are quite easy to maintain because they are not composed of my thoughts and writing, but merely aggregate articles from all over the world on their respective subject areas. I estimate that updating them takes up about 20% of my work time. I feature Google advertisements on the blogs. They are a growing but very small source of revenue which does not even cover the time I spend on updating them. But because they merely serve a support function for other things, it is not necessary that the blogs be incomecenters in their own right. They pay for themselves indirectly through the many other business benefits they make possible. Those benefits are quite considerable, and I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that the consultancy and trade I am now involved in grew directly out of the blogs.

I also more casually run Zimbabwe Review, a blog of my own political commentary on events in my homeland. I do it when I can. It has no advertising and no obvious material benefits to me. I try to make it more than just 'venting,' by contributing perspectives that go a little deeper than is frequently covered by both pro and anti-government Zimbabwean media. It has a small but respectable reach for a blog.

* Chido Makunike, Journalist, African web entrepreneur and online writer, Senegal

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