Change is inevitable

"From the day when reporters used the typewriter to the introduction of the computer, journalists viewed this as the death of thinking, as they tried to fight the growth of online media which has become the main source of information".
Zimbabwe generally has a small media industry which is dominated by the state media and a few privately owned media organizations. 
However online news websites and activists have sprung up, harnessing the democratic potential of the internet to champion change.
According to 2011 Zimbabwe All Media Products and Services Survey , 1,223,947 people in Zimbabwe who have internet access, either at home, the office, Internet Cafe or by mobile
 The biggest benefit offered by the internet is information and in Zimbabwe we can say information is spreading very fast, at times before the media gets hold of it.
Breaking news is being posted on various social media platforms which means that people are no not sorely relying on print media
Internet has allowed the media to do research which was quite difficult but nowadays you can find any type of information on any subject with the help of the search engines like Yahoo and Google.
However the problem that has come the internet is that no one is playing the gate keeping role.There is absolutely no censorship of information that is posted or published on the internet. Pornography for instance is  harmful for children but no one controls that.
Change is inevitable and in the next 20years the internet would have taken over the role of media.

Empowerment Through New Media Training

http://soundcloud.com/patriciamagorokosho/anna-edited
Life is exciting and full of surprises waiting for each individual. It is full of lessons that we all have to learn  in order to improve our lives.   Welcome to the  second edition of the New Media Training course for female journalists offered by the Federation of African Media Women Zimbabwe (FAMWZ).  The ladies are full of energy and  ready to unleash their oozing their energy. 

The training is full of critical analysis essential for blogging and practicals on creating web albums, uploading photos to the web and adding audio to the pictures. The practicals are really exciting as it is something  the participants have never done.  Everyone is busy on their work stations. 

Participants busy at work during the first day of the training session

Female journalists are blogging  different issues ranging from the media environment, the advent of journalism vis-vis social and new media.  

From mere elementary internet users, FAMWZ has groomed female journalists equipped with skills on blogging, critical reasoning, media ethics.

Taking the bull  by  its horns....Tinotenda Sibambo , one of the new media course participants

For media women, the training is preparing them for  the media industry jungle where  they will be able to practice online journalism without fear nor phobia for cybber. 

The training is part of FAMWZ entreprenurial drive for media  women  as they will be able work for online radio stations and  media houses. Thus we are grooming a well equipped female  journo  ready to take  the media industry by storm.

Serious at work, One of the participants Emilia Bundo   during the afternoon session of the first day of the training.

To Anna, the training.  was essential especially during her Essentials of Digital Media Management Course at the Sol Plaatyje Institute.  She was one of the participants with a better understanding of new media and its importance in journalism  during the training at the Institute.  The training  also helped her to contribute towards the improve her organisation's blog page.

Anna Miti,  during the third day of the training

THE MEDIA INDUSTRY IN ZIMBABWE

Media is defined as a means of communicating information . The media industry are those media forms designed to reach people with the information, for example, the radio, press and television.
In Zimbabwe 1,223,947 people have some form of internet, whether at home, the office,internet cafe or by mobile, according to ZAMPS (ZIMBABWE ALL MEDIA PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SURVEY OF Q4 2011). Out of a population of an estimated  12 million people, this accounts for less than a third of the population.
But there could be other reasons to this very low figure of internet users, most probably to do with broadband. If broadband is upgraded which mighty be sooner , we are going to witness a surge in this number. 
The internet has an advantage overt traditional media like radio, television and press in that the internet allows broadcast on a wide range of platforms , thus allowing easy access for consumers.
News can be spread to a large amount of people, quickly and easily on twitter, you tube, blogs , facebook and a wide range of social networks

In Zimbabwe the print media is bracing up for competition through engaging their audience on internet, although more still needs to be done to encourage feedback, so is the electronic media, but meaningful engagement with the audience is still lacking.

Internet is growing popular each day and the onus is on the media to keep in pace , otherwise they will be left behind and people will end up relying on the internet for news. 

My job vs the internet

The advent of citizen journalists is slowly eroding our work as practicing journalists.
Because your cell phone is now your camera, your laptop and anything you want it to be, the work of the practicing journo is now being taken by the citizens.
While it is encouraged to have citizen journalists, a way to curb their prominence over the journalist in the newsroom should be devised.
A few years ago, we would be rushing around in the field gathering news and taking pictures but now, journalists are lying idle in the newsroom because by tea time, ten people would have visited the newsroom with stories and pictures.
"Honestly, what is my job description."
Citizen journalists can post the story you wanted to break in tomorrow's edition on the internet.
Most people in this country use the internet for Facebook more than anything and they can just post you scoop.
Newspapers take time to print and they just go to print just because you have a hot story that you ant to break.\
All stories are gathered and collected at once then sent for print.
By the time, your paper comes out in the morning the next day, its stale!
No one buys it because they got the news from Facebook!
Where does this leave the journalist?
Advance yourself and be ahead of the citizen journalist.
Learn about the latest technologies, start blogging and tweeting because that's where everything is now aligned to.
I think in ten years journalists will be crazy bloggers!
I have already started and I think blogging is the new thing.
Journalists will now be working online because the internet usage has greatly increased and the hard copy sells will go down.
In ten years time our newsrooms will be transformed with father internet and the latest computer technology.

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.

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.

How My Work As A Journalist Has  Influenced The Community

Having worked for a National Radio Station for the past ten years, i am proud to have imparted knowledge to the community through the  youth,health and women`s programmes i produce. The health programme conscientises the audience on diseases,risk factors,  
prevention, signs and symptoms  while  the women`s programmes focuses on all issues to do with women, empowerment, parenting,reproductive health, rights, and so on and so forth.

My programmes are broadcast in venacular languages, i.e.  Shona and my mother language Shangaan.My grandmother in the village can listen to me talking about breast cancer,the young mothers in the village get to learn about the importance of exclusively breastfeeding their children, the importance of early screening for cervical cancer , just to mention a few, but there are a whole lot of issues which we discuss. I invite an expert in the field of the chosen topic to articulate on issues around that topic , and i should say my programmes are quite informative .