ANALYSIS OF ZIMBABWE MEDIA INDUSTRY VS INTERNET USAGE

According to the International Telecommunication Union, the social and economic development of every country will depend on broadband and with the financing of submarine fibre optic cabling along the East Coast of Africa to connect countries in the region to the global telecommunications network, internet usage in Zimbabwe has grown with over one million internet users.
The media has also taken advantage of internet usage to satisty the appetite of citizens who want to keep abreast with real time news and current affairs since most people have moved a step further to look for news online.
To that effect, sixteen perecnt of Zimbabwe population has adopted internet usage, which is relatively a high rate of internet penetration for Africa.
Through online editions, an opportunity arises for newspapers to reach a wider audience and on time given the background that newspapers typically have poor distribution networks outside urban areas and one reads the news a day after it has happened.
One of threat which arises is that internet access is limited due to high costs charged by internet cafés and service disruptions caused by frequent power cuts coupled with high website maintainance fees making it difficult for media houses to do real time updating of news.
Since the media industry is operating in an unsatble macro-economic environemnt, it is difficult for most media houses to create websites modelled along the lines of international stations such as CNN which offer numerous packages among them video, audio clips, and casts in several languages to their listeners online, thus being the case, a lot needs to be done to attract followers to local online editions or publiactions.
Through facebook, media houses can increase their competitiveness through luring companies to advertise their businesses, services and products on their webpage which creates opportunities for networking, research and make more money using social media.
Due to the unrestricted nature of the internet, foreign based Zimbabwean papers and news sites are accessible from inside Zimbabwe and with the 2007 Interception of Communications Act which allows officials to intercept telephonic and electronic communications and monitor content, local online newspapers, news portals, and blogs which distribute news and information will operate within the set framework and stand not to pose as a threat to national security as well as raise alarm and cause despondency.
With opportunities arising, a potential threat to the media is that most people will shun the traditional modes of information sources like television, radio and newspapers as they tend to glue their eyes on the computer screen or mobile phones for real time stories.