The social media challenge of 2010
It's been an eventful year for Over to You but if there's one theme that has cropped up over and over again it's the impact that new technology and social media is having on broadcasters like the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service.
Sure, you might argue, the discussion over the potential benefits of this kind of innovation has been high on the agenda for some time (possibly ad nauseam for some) but now it's more than an academic conversation. The advent of broadband in East Africa, the tussle in China over control of social media like Facebook and the deployment of Twitter in relaying events from Iran this year - well, it all adds up to a significant number of us - consumers of radio, television, print and the internet - being affected by these changes.
As Africa gets more connected - what impact does this have for big broadcasters? Picture: Getty Images
And that's why we decided to invite three important opinion-shapers in the media world, with very different perspectives, to give us an insight into how they think things will develop over the next year.
Ying Chan is the Director of the China Media Project at Hong Kong University in addition to being a Professor of Journalism.
Salim Amin is the chairman of A24 Media in Nairobi in Kenya. A24 is an online video agency which enables local journalists to report their stories from an African perspective and to get them heard and seen by a wider audience.
And they were joined in the studio by the relatively new Director of the World Service, Peter Horrocks, a man who has been at the vanguard of the move towards multi- media and towards encouraging more contributions from a hitherto passive audience.
I hope you'll think it's a fascinating discussion; it's certainly one which highlights some of the disadvantages and unintended consequences of the media revolution. The divisions between the haves and have nots, the urban and the rural, the developed world and the developing one, are in constant flux and are forcing regular reappraisals of how media bosses should adapt their policies.
For Salim and Ying, it's all about empowering Africa and Asia to report their own lives to the rest of the world rather than having the major international networks do it for them. For Peter, it's about broadening the sources of information and opinion to enhance our level of understanding of what's happening in the world.
The World Service may be regarded as more thoughtful than other big media outlets but it is still a broadcasting "superpower" and the likes of Salim Amin and Professor Ying Chan want to see a shift in the balance of power away from the West.
But that's what they think. I wonder whether you will agree with their views. Let us know whether you want to hear more reporting of your region by local journalists. And whether you feel that the advance of technology means you have access to better media coverage - or whether you feel left behind because new technological developments are slow in reaching your part of the world.
Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You
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Comment number 1.
At 2nd Jan 2009, voice_germany wrote:In contrast to social networks like Facebook twitter is about a very reduced sort of communication that gives no room for developing an argumentation with reasons and examples. There are scientific studies form the UK that even say twitter makes people therefore mad. In general, it is more an unsubstantial form of communication.
As for the global landscape of media, there is an imbalance towards US media like CNN International (although there are regional CNN channels) and MTV alongside very large US media companies. Our culture is therefore influenced by the American culture. The term "global governance" might go too far here, but there has to be a balance between
local and this world operating media.
A competence for the judgement of these social media is especially important for young people that are supposed to develop their own pint of view by a media competence that doesn´t take over the views of others in a blind way.
During the war in Yugoslavia there has been a huge interest of war coverage of countries that are not NATO members. For example Swiss and Austrian news have been watched closely by spectators from Germany. As Switzerland and Austria are neutral countries, this political attitude seems to attract people to get informations from countries that are said to have a unbiased coverage.
As for English media, the current coverage of Germany is often mixed up by a sort of "instant" coverage of the era between 1933 and 1945. This coverage is misplaced as it is situated among actual news and not among an in-depth view in which this sort of coverage is supposed to be situated. It is clear that there is a (deliberate?!) fault in the systematical order of this coverage.
Needless to say that it is wrong to say that the attitude of a 60 years old democracy is the same as a dictatorship that has gone.
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