1 / 74

New media, Africa and 2020 …

New media, Africa and 2020 …. Guy Berger Rhodes University, South Africa. Sivu Mzamo. Tech story Career story Economic rights story Spatial – development story Cultural story. COMING UP:. Context: information society Africa and South Africa New Media Lab Highway Africa Conclusion.

zinnia
Télécharger la présentation

New media, Africa and 2020 …

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. New media,Africaand2020 … Guy Berger Rhodes University, South Africa

  2. Sivu Mzamo • Tech story • Career story • Economic rights story • Spatial – development story • Cultural story

  3. COMING UP: • Context: information society • Africa and South Africa • New Media Lab • Highway Africa • Conclusion

  4. SECTION 1: CONTEXT

  5. Modernisation paradigm • Assumption of desirable devt: Urban, affluent, informed, rational. • To get there: technology. (= Romanticism and determinism) • Temp hurdle: tech haves, have-nots • In ICTs, the Digital divide (widening) • Answer: disseminate (Rogers)

  6. Challenge!

  7. Limitations • Desirables? Eg. USA? • Technology can be negative. • Tech progress is not inevitable. • How separate & temporary is the Digital Divide? • Dissemination is a top-down ethos: • Misses bottom-up tech evolution • Misses that the ‘haves’ need have-nots.

  8. Future visions • Pete Rinearson: • Overestimate changes in 2 years • Underestimate in 10. • Media2020: 15 years away! • What is media? And its role?

  9. Predicting • Certainties: • Globalisation: one world • Conflict: security issues • China: language, script • Connectivity & content: cheaper • Uncertainties: • Shape of inequalities • Cultural power

  10. Options: what Info Society? • A holistic concept encompassing: • Tech: ICTs • Occupations • Economics • Geography • Culture. = An integrated global Info Society, OR = a divided, uneven one?

  11. CENTRES ICTs: ubiquitous Occupations: service Economics: GDP Geography: insular Culture: northern MARGINS ICTs: costly Occupations: mindless, none Economics: charity Geography: colonial Culture: subaltern 2020 scenarios OR: networked globe, automation, value co-created, cosmopolitan, diversity as sought-after.

  12. Summing up: • A two-tier Information Society? • An inclusive Information Society? • … or a transformed one?

  13. SECTION 2: AFRICA

  14. Continent commonalities • Not media-dense • “Information” not nec “rational” • Not an exporter of content • Limited beneficiation of imported content • Policy environment problematic. • Even in SA, role of media constrained by: • Investment deficits & market size • Language diversity • Class and access issues.

  15. South African media • Licenses: PBS, Commercial, Community. • National broadcasters • Terrestrial, analogue: advert dependent • Satellite TV by subscription. • Regional & local radio. • 15 dailies, 20 weeklies, 50 mags = Important info-structure components.

  16. SA media content and role • Independent, democratic • Commercialisation • Tabloidisation • Plagiarism, but not much piracy • Contraints on exports • Quality of content: mixed.

  17. SA new media: internet • 3,6 million online users (5% adults) • Mainly white, 50% at work • Govt online, but weak MPCCs • Media web content: shovelware • Limited experiments in pay models • Not commercially viable for publishers

  18. Connectivity: • 2 big ISPs plus Telkom • Still buying pipes from Telkom • Wireless: 3G from Sentech • Wifi – very limited. • VOIP banned. • February 2005: liberalisation • BUT: connectivity will still be costly!!!

  19. Current costs: • SA was in top 20 connected countries • Now 34th. • Cost differential: 13x higher than UK.

  20. Convergence Bill: • Move from vertical licensing: • To date, Telkom could do everything and a consumer received chain of services, infrastructure and devices from them. • To horizontal licensing: • Will be tiers of licences that are “tech neutral” and open for competitors. • But: radio spectrum use is not neutral.

  21. Policy problems: • Infrastructure is one thing; • Applications is another; • Eg. signal distribution, ISP, ecommerce; • Digital content is something else. Apps can be tech neutral – go on diff infrastructure Content can ride on various apps & infrastructure • But historically, providers of content via airwaves (unlike newspapers) have conditions: local content, watershed periods, electoral obligations

  22. Under new law?: • Suppose SABC is licensed as content provider (via airwaves) … • Does not need license for its website. • But what when the same website content travels on wireless? • Licensing of websites??? • Is diffs between broadcast push & internet pull significant? (even wrt webcasting?)

  23. What impact for future? • Or: will all content producers need licenses? Even newspapers with sites, or stand-alone sites, or bloggers? And not just audio-visual, but text content producers? • Or will those other than “spectrum-hogs” be exempted as a class? • Point: content licenses should not be relevant to channel (i.e. airwaves, but how this vehicle is used) = not tech neutral! • …. Until digital broadcasting comes along.

  24. Telecoms industry: • Telkom: SDC, Malaysians. • Universal service targets but failure. • USA levy but failure. • Cellular operators success. • Vodacom (Telkom, Vodafone) • MTN, Cell-C • Predicted <500 000, now 18 million • African business expansion

  25. Broadband blues • Telkom: ADSL • 2nd national operator – 2 years overdue (Transtel, Esitel) • Sentech: 3G

  26. Evolution: content, other • SMS – 17 a month per user • Voice services • Costly to use GPRS • MTN going into M-commerce.

  27. Journalists & ICTs • Barely use cameraphones. • Poorly skilled at web research. • Inadequate access in newsrooms. • Under-researched content in general. • Not multi-skilling, SABC bi-media reversed. • Negligible convergence of native & online newsrooms.

  28. SECTION 3: NEW MEDIA LAB

  29. Rhodes New Media Lab • Teaching • Research • Development • Highway Africa

  30. 1996-1998: phase 1

  31. 1998-2001: phase 2

  32. 2002-2004: Phase 3

  33. Multimedia: 3 sites Tenyearson.org Alivingstage.org egazini

  34. 2004: NML’s cms in Cuemedia

  35. Work flow tracking

  36. Performance monitoring

  37. Automated online publishing

  38. Time management

  39. Going open source:

  40. SECTION 4: HIGHWAY AFRICA

  41. NML 2004 vision: • We see African journalists, empowered by the skills, understandings and access to technology, contributing to a communication and information enriched community, country and continent.

  42. NML 2004 Mission: • Educate and train journalism students and the media industry; • Advance knowledge through research and dissemination of that research; • Innovate and experiment with technology; • Engage with industry and relevant interest groups.

  43. 2005-2008

  44. Highway Africa history: • 2001: all African countries connected

  45. Highway Africa history: • 2001: all African countries connected • 1997: HA commenced – 65 people • 2004: 430 external delegs, 17 sponsors • Aims: • Raise awareness • Impart skills • Bridge industry-academy • Continental networking

  46. HA themes:

  47. HA themes:

More Related