Do you get your news?

People are finding new and innovative ways of accessing information faster. Today South Africans quickly access news updates from their cellphones, do a search on the internet or switch to the twenty-four hour news television channel that constantly provides news feeds. This has allowed people to get a fair variety of news, putting individuals in a position to critically decide on their stance. TARRYN KAY TRUSSELL explores the developments in technology and how they have made news more accessible for South Africans.

Do you remember the time when word of mouth was the main source of information? When your neighbour would pass on the message. Christa van Louw (49) was born in Calvinia, where she lived for the first ten years of her life. “I remember being sent as a child to my mother’s friend with a message that the church had burnt down,” says Van Louw. “We were not fortunate enough to make a phone call,” she added.

She recalls this as the time when radio presenters provided the times and dates of events, and when the seven o’clock news was family time because everyone gathered around the television set to get an update of the day’s events. It was not too long ago that these minimal sources of information were the fundamental ways in which people accessed the news.

The exciting world of the media is restructuring society as technology is changing. These changes are creating new and different modes of accessing information. Before 1990 South Africans used television news, magazines, radio and newspapers as their primary sources of information. Today people are bombarded with an assortment of news sources ranging from blogs on the internet to mobile news.
According to internetworldstats.com, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) granted South Africa with her za in 1990.

This has made information more readily available and obtainable in different media and people can now choose how they acquire their news.

Due to the fact that there is a greater variety of media, people are exposed to different views.
People are thus able to be more critical about the information they are being fed. Technology has also allowed information to become more accurate.

Cellphone technology, for example, provides for on-the-spot retrieval of information.
South Africa is bracing herself for a burst in media technology. According to southafrica.info, South African schools are joining a pilot project which will involve the use of cellphones as a learning instrument.
The eighteen-month project, called MobilED, is being run by the Meraka Institute, in partnership with the University of Pretoria and Finland’s Helsinki University of Art and Design.

This enables learners to adapt to the technological modifications happening within society, while gaining educational benefits in the process. These children will eventually be well-equipped with the
necessary skills to access news in different technological modes.

Along with these exciting developments come setbacks we often overlook. As technology evolves, so should accessibility to the modifications taking place. However, the daunting reality is that in 2007, only 8% of South Africa’s population had access to the internet, according to World Wide Worx.

Media24 CEO Francois Groepe explains that South Africa is not what it was a couple of years ago in terms of media and technology. According to Groepe, immense changes such as the digitalisation of radio have already happened, with various South African radio stations being listed, particularly by foreign-based nationals, and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) growing fast.

Groepe explains that IPTV, a digital television service delivered using internet protocol, is a system new to South Africa. People can now receive television via technologies commonly used for computer networks and not the universal method of broadcast and cable format.

Naspers CEO Koos Bekker told SMF that he has doubts about the technological viability of IPTV in South Africa.“IPTV is a system of television broadcasting that was launched in South Africa and failed because of poor infrastructure,” says Bekker. It took off in South Korea and became a big success, but a different dynamic exists over there, he added.

These advancements are brave steps towards world standards in technology. However, the reality is that many South Africans are not fortunate enough to afford a pay channel, own a cellphone or have access to the internet. For that reason not all people are able to be as critical about their news feed as those within the economic bracket that can access these media.

According to the website markettree.co.za, up to 60% of all South African households own a cellphone.
Groepe sees the advancements in the media as a progressive step for South Africa. Yet this still poses great information access barriers for technological advancements. If there is not a market for cellphone technology, then its development will inevitably be prolonged. He believes that once these changes commence, South African society will restructure into a new state of technological innovation.

Groepe says South African media are innovative and growing fast. “The only regret is that we have fallen behind on digitalisation due to the Telkom monopoly which has caused us to fall behind in terms of internet and broadband penetration.”

Bekker adds that private companies are desperately trying to reach world standards in terms of technology. This process is being delayed by red tape and regulations from the Department of Communications.
However, the media is diverse and dynamic. It varies from broadcast to writing to advertising. The days of one medium of information creating perceptions for society are slowly coming to an end.

For individuals that cannot afford internet access, tabloids such as the Daily Sun and Son have become essential news sources.

Groepe says the middle class has a patronising attitude towards tabloids. This, he says, is regrettable, as these papers are far more in tune with their readers. Loyal readers of the Daily Sun and Son do not originate from a culture where people read newspapers religiously. For people in the lower classes of society, tabloids like the Daily Sun and Son are a primary information base.

In order for the progression of technology within the media to happen, change should be embraced, says Groepe. The main forces in media are the people who assemble and produce the information that is transmitted in different modes. According to Groepe, people such as journalists, who hold an enormous responsibility, should embrace technology and maintain the highest levels of ethics and accountability. Because whatever the changes in format, the media still have the duty to, as Groepe says, “inform, educate, entertain and update society”.