The media industry in Zimbabwe in the advent of new media

I belive that the media industry in Zimbabwe, inspite of the current challenges we are facing, is poised for more growth. The current challenges the industry faces are that of resource constrains and general lack of experience that we have in handling new media and other new technologies. Given that  mobile internet acess is a relatively new thing in the country, we as a nation have not fully harnessed the use of the internet. Reports say that over 1.4 million Zimbabweans have access to the internet, problem is that the majority of users are on Facebook and perhaps email. This is unlike other countries where users readily subscribe to news sites and other websites where subscriptions have to be made. I just do not think Zimbabwans are quite ready to pay for news. A case in point is that out of seven radio stations in Zimbabwe only one station does livestreaming on the internet.This shows how far behind we are in terms of harnessing new technology. Still on issues of resources another constraints I feel hampers the development of media, is the low bandwidth with most users being able to access 3G internet and not proper broadband.
            On the other hand I feel the new media presents a lot of opportunities for growth as well as increasing revenue for media organisations. Internet use in Africa is generally on the rise. In just eight years, between 2000 and 2008 internet use grew by over 2000 percent, in the next ten to twenty years I reckon it will be  much higher than that. In fact Zimbabwe is ranked highest in terms of litercy in Sub-Saharan Africa and tenth in terms of internet use. This presents substantial opportunities for media organisations. Revenue steams from advertising for their online sites will grow as more users access internet and probaly, people will begin to pay for news more. Issues of bandwidth will be dealt with as  Zimbabwe begins to fully utelise the Undersea cable ( EASSy) East Africa Submarine Cable System which are party to as  country. All we then need to do is to make sure that as the media industry, we get with the programme and begin to reap the rewards, lest we get left behind.