‘Media needs funding … HA is beyond ICT coverage’

Internet as a new media is posing threats to the ‘old’ media with unpredictable future, reports Remmy Nweke at WSIS 2005 ground.

MEDIA as an agent of change would require public funding to survive in the next decades to come, says chief executive of Malaysiakini.com, Mr. Premesh Chandran.

Just as the motivator of the Highway Africa (HA) project at Rhodes University, Grahamstown-South Africa, Prof. Guy Berger, said that the initiative is not only interested in the coverage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), through its Highway Africa News Agency (HANA).

Mr. Chandran and Prof. Berger made their views known as panelist in a session at the on-going second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS 2005) holding in Tunis, the Tunisian capital.

Other members of the panel included a German political scientist, Ms Jeanette Hofmann, who works for the Social Science Research Center Berlin and the founder of the Grassroots Media Inc based in the United States (US), Mr. Dan Gillmor.

Internet as threat
The Malaysian media chief said at the session tagged, “How does the Internet change journalism?” that the call has become pertinent due to the threat by the new media, pointing out that the Internet, for instance, has paved the way for both the old and new media to converge.

He noted that Internet journalism especially the ‘citizen journalism’ makes journalists to be responsible to their citizens.

This is because reactions to online stories could come in minutes rather than taking days as in the case of traditional media.

He also said at the event co-chaired by Messrs Luckson Chipare and Werner Eggert, that journalism is increasingly becoming a public good, which is confusing, but added that modern journalism is a shared space.

“Journalists need to be creative in order to be part of the media in convergence,” he said.
Therefore, he said, the media needs support to be able to deliver most of its expectations from the public.

Beyond ICT reporting
Prof. Guy Berger, on the other hand, said that HANA, is beyond reporting on ICT and Information Society (IS), emphasizing that the use of information for development also counts in the organisation’s priority.

Berger who was discussing the recent study of Highway Africa on African media coverage of ICT policies, lamented the anticipated absence of media in this area.

“African media websites are very weak, sometimes they are updated and some times it takes week,” he declared.

He stressed that journalists in the newsroom need to play catch-up to be able to compete with their colleagues in the coverage of international events, especially on ICT and information society.

Prof. Berger summed up by saying that African media also needs education, sensitization, access to the internet and skills.

Ms. Hofmann, said, Internet Governance requires cross national political solutions, even as Internet is the only media not controlled at the national levels.

Legitimacy
She called for legitimacy and accountability in practicing the profession, saying that only then would journalists live up to the expectation as one of the bridges between the people and technology.

“Journalists are those who would build on the Information Society,” she said, describing Information Society as “imagined communities”.

Self regulation
Mr. Gillmor in his contributions said that modern journalism should be based on the order of positive consciousness of individual practitioners.

He maintained that control over ‘citizen journalism’ otherwise known as bloggers has been generating heat and advocated that it be allowed to regulate itself, than government marshalling out regulations.