Can u SMS it 2 me?

Teenagers and young people appear to be more interested in what’s happening on their cellphones than in the world around them. What does this mean for the future of news media? Delia de Villiers investigates.

You heard that video killed the radio star. Now it seems that the cellphone is killing print.

Teenagers and young adults may be able to accurately explain how GPRS works on their cellphones, or how Facebook can be accessed from their phones. But they are uncertain of where this year’s Olympic Games are being held or how old Madiba is.

Generation Y are growing up with a myriad of information at their immediate disposal. New technologies bring the world to their doorsteps, or rather their N95s or X510s, yet they know very little about the world.
With the media, in its widest definition, gradually infiltrating every aspect of our lives, should we be concerned about this seemingly uninterested and apathetic generation? The medium appears to be very important to them but the message is lost, or rather, deemed unimportant.

It appears that part of the solution to the problem lies in bringing the world to young people in the format they prefer. Khwezi Magwaza, editor of Seventeen magazine, said in an email interview, that when catering for the youth market it is important to constantly be ahead of the trend because teens live in a much faster technology-driven environment than adults.

Teenagers are growing up in a world where “mobile interactivity is a given and technology has made participation a reflex”, says the Fleishman and Hilliard Professional Communication Spring 2008 Youth Trends Report. An SMF survey amongst grade ten learners at Brackenfell High School found that nearly all of them have cellphones and 90% use MXit on a daily basis. The teenagers reported that chatting to friends on this mobile instant messaging application is one of their favourite pastimes.

This should then be read as one of the signals of how young people want to experience the world. Brackenfell High learners all agreed that getting the news on their cellphones would be the best way to get them interested.

“Going mobile” may be the way of the future to both inform and educate. Frieda le Roux, editor of Research and Product Development at Die Burger, said in an email interview that she is interested in seeing how cellphones as a medium for receiving and producing news will develop and shape the media landscape in South Africa. Cellphones, Le Roux believes, have the ability to put people in developing countries on the same footing as in developed countries. Only 8% of the South African population have access to the internet while 70% have access to cellphones, according to www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com.

Using mobile technology as a means to inform and educate young people should then be considered more seriously. It could potentially be the way to bridge the digital divide that exists in South Africa. Inequality concerning access to information remains an obstacle in South Africa due to socio-economic factors.

An article recently published on the website www.thoughtleader.co.za written by Steve Vosloo, a Communication and Analytical Skills Fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, considers the merits of using MXit to learn. Early last year the Meraka Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research launched an initiative. It allows learners to send questions about maths to the ‘Math on Mxit’ number and enter into a discussion with a tutor ready to answer any question from the entire high school mathematics syllables, according to Vosloo. The initiative has about 1 000 learners that it helps weekdays between 2pm and 8pm. While it is difficult to assess its success rate, learners have been asking for a similar service for science.

MXit has more than 5,8 million subscribers in South Africa, adding 10 000 to 12 000 subscribers daily,according to Vosloo. It is a cheap way of providing access to informational content and it’s mobile, which means it can be used anytime, anywhere. Its potential is gradually being realised. As a means of supplementing classroom education, Vosloo believes this may be the only opportunity many young people in South Africa have to benefit from the skills of qualified educators.

And what about news media? South Africa is one of the countries with the cheapest cellphone internet in the world, says Peet Kruger, editor of Beeld. He was addressing the BPhil journalism class of Stellenbosch University at Beeld’s offices in Auckland Park. This is another reason why it should be encouraged and exploited as a means of bringing news to young people in particular. Mondli Makhanya, editor of the Sunday Times, also speaking to the BPhil class at the Sunday Times offices in Rosebank, says: “You want to get young people reading so that in ten years’ time they are still reading, perhaps not the paper, but online, or wherever then.”

Does this mean that print is dying? Not just yet, says Le Roux, especially not in developing countries. She says Die Burger are actively trying to make younger people part of the newspaper. This is taking place in the production phase by employing younger people, as well as in the content of the paper, with younger faces and voices, for example.

Gavin Rheeder, Communications and Marketing Manager for Beeld, speaking alongside Kruger at the same event, says the paper’s penetration of the 16-24 age group market has increased from nine to 22%. He says that there is the perception that it is a very difficult market to reach. He adds, however, that it is the market that consumes a lot more media simply because they have the time to do so.

Beeld’s secret has been to identify the youth as a distinct market and cater specifically for that market. “This marketing has to take place through channels that the youth are familiar with.” Beeld also realised that the youth are not going to go looking for the product so it has to be taken to them.

Rheeder argues that it’s when news becomes relevant to one’s life that one starts reading. The important thing then is to go through the different life stages with people and constantly adapt and cater to their changing needs. Often this means presenting the product using the right medium.

Young people are “ruthlessly efficient media consumers”, states the Youth Trends Report. “Young people are not used to being quiet and in the corner anymore,” Le Roux says. “They know what they want, they ask for it, and they will go wherever they get it, or even create or produce it themselves. Respect them as a market.”