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.
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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.
Future visions • Pete Rinearson: • Overestimate changes in 2 years • Underestimate in 10. • Media2020: 15 years away! • What is media? And its role?
Predicting • Certainties: • Globalisation: one world • Conflict: security issues • China: language, script • Connectivity & content: cheaper • Uncertainties: • Shape of inequalities • Cultural power
Options: what Info Society? • A holistic concept encompassing: • Tech: ICTs • Occupations • Economics • Geography • Culture. = An integrated global Info Society, OR = a divided, uneven one?
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.
Summing up: • A two-tier Information Society? • An inclusive Information Society? • … or a transformed one?
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.
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.
SA media content and role • Independent, democratic • Commercialisation • Tabloidisation • Plagiarism, but not much piracy • Contraints on exports • Quality of content: mixed.
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
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!!!
Current costs: • SA was in top 20 connected countries • Now 34th. • Cost differential: 13x higher than UK.
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.
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
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?)
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.
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
Broadband blues • Telkom: ADSL • 2nd national operator – 2 years overdue (Transtel, Esitel) • Sentech: 3G
Evolution: content, other • SMS – 17 a month per user • Voice services • Costly to use GPRS • MTN going into M-commerce.
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.
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.
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.
