How does the Internet change Journalism?

By Brenda Zulu
The first question to help talk about this topic would be, where do journalists access the internet?

Few journalists access the internet from their places of work. I am referring to the African situation of newsrooms where internet connection is limited to senior people especially managing editors and senior Journalists.

Journalists therefore access the internet from cyber cafes, libraries and media resource centers. We have very few journalists who have access to internet at home mainly because African journalists cannot afford to have computers in their houses.
As much as journalists can have access to the internet we also need to consider how they use the internet. As a journalist what do you look for on the internet? How do you use the internet to your own advantage and how have you benefited from the internet?

Here I will share my own experience as a Journalist who was introduced to the internet some eight years ago.

Working as a correspondent at the Times of Zambia in Ndola, Zambia, I was introduced to using computers. I also leant about the internet which was mainly used for sending stories from all Times of Zambia offices to the main office where production of the newspaper was done.

At this time I looked at the internet as an institutional facility. There were no cyber cafes set up in town and therefore there was no direct access to the internet for Journalists. IT personnel employed at the Times of Zambia, could print out information relating to journalists when they came across it on the internet and share it.

At this time it was rather difficult to communicate because even when information was shared with me, I could only act on the information using the fax facility or the snails’ mail.

Life however changed when I started operating from MISA Zambia resource center where we had one computer which was connected to the internet. I did not have my own e mail address but used to access e mails through the general e mail address for the resource center. People used to communicate with me on this e mail address and this was usually information concerning work and personal messages which were not classified information.

When replying I usually used to tell the resource center assistant what to write and she would send the e mails on my behalf. I however also managed to have an e mail account with hotmail but was not usually checking my e mails and the account was closed. I learnt my lesson and opened an account with yahoo which at first used to check at least once or twice in a week because I did not have a lot of traffic in my mail box.

I later started subscribing to progressive d-groups and also joined list serves which would help me as a journalist with information that I needed. Usually when e-mails are forwarded to me I look at the kind of information if it is progressive for me and then ask to join various list serves. Now I receive about 200 e-mails a day many of which are generated from various mailing list and discussion groups. I also moderate some d-groups.

Having access to the internet has however created new opportunities for me as a Journalist in that I can now sell stories to other countries not only in Africa but all over the world. Also, the internet has made the World to become a smaller for Journalists as they can be contracted to send stories to any where in the world. The internet also helps me to research on various subject matters and I also many times ask questions from my sources by chatting with them and calling them using skype or yahoo messenger.

How the internet changes Journalism?
With the coming of the internet Journalism has changed in that the world has become really small and it does not matter where one really is to send a story or to get an assignment. The internet has created markets for Journalists and it is up to Journalists to act on the information.

The internet has also created new forms of Journalism where journalists can solely specialise and working as Online Journalists or work as content managers or editors for particular websites. The internet is pushing Journalists to learn new skills on how to add content to a web site, blog, create hyper text links and also some basic html. The coming of the internet is also leading Journalists to basically know photographic skills such as how to take digital pictures and upload them to a computer or add them to a blog or website. You can check out my blog though not regularly updated at http://brendait.blogspot.com Having a blog has actually improved my own skills of adding content to the web.

There is also need for Journalists to learn some basic Content Management Systems (CMS) because that is the future and is here to stay. The internet also makes it easy for Journalists to research on any subject as it is one of the biggest resources. It is easy to find the out what acronyms stand and also to research a certain subject matter.

The internet is also changing the way we write for newspapers as we now have to learn how to strictly write for online newspapers. However most of the online newspapers still carry the same material which was produced by the print version which without creating hyper text links to help the visitor to the page to stay. It is possible that the person who is visiting that page has already seen the print version and the reason why he is visiting that page is because he is needs to get detailed info on the subject matter.

People who read the internet browse through pages and this should make Journalists learn new skills. Online versions should however carry background material of the subject’s matter.

I believe that when people are online they are looking for much more information and that makes journalists provide more information on the subject matter. People visiting an online version of the newspaper should actually read more information than those reading a print version. The online version should provide more information and in some cases may even provide video clips and a series of pictures unlike the print version which has limited pages.

The internet is much more interesting as it provides Journalists with a multimedia platform where Journalism can provide data, video and voice. This fact is what has changed the face of Journalisms. Journalists are now expected to provide more information and we cannot ignore the fact the new technology that the internet has brought.

Gender Issues
Women journalists will however have to do more in this area if they have to be up-to-date with their male counterparts. It is always a personal decision if a journalists needs to set up an email address or if she wants to own a mobile phone.
The women journalists have to go an extra mile to learn the new skills which the internet has brought into journalism because issues to do with technology are always considered a male domain. It is considered normal for male journalists to be seen uploading content to the web, working online, etc as for the women journalists most of the time she will just be contributing to the online work by submitting copy to the editor.

The media still has very few women journalists in decision making positions and also there is need for women journalists to embrace Information communication technologies (ICTs) so that they learn new skills.

Women journalists also need to be interested in learning the skills. The other problem is that most of the senior people in African media still want to do things the old way and this does not bring up progress in many media institutions. There is need for training especially in the area of reporting on new technologies.

Training
There is need for journalists to be trained in new skills and get the know how on how to write for the web, add content to the web, how to edit online material etc Where can journalists learn these new skills which the internet has brought? Who is training who in Africa?

I have been privileged to get some of the training from the Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa who had to run a BTC sponsored course because of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) which needed to receive coverage from Africa by Africans. It was a wonderful experience though a very short packed course.
Recently, in our last BTC sponsored course, I learnt about mob blogging where one can send pictures and text from a mobile phone to a server. In Zambia I cannot use this skill because we do not have a 3G platform from our mobile phone service providers. It is however important to know these new skills because a Journalist is not static.

I have also been trained by the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) in managing and creating content for the web site www.genderit.org where I was in charge of African content management. I created and managed content on Africa.
The challenge for our journalism training institutions in Africa is to create a package for online journalism and teach Journalist new skills.

Converged Journalists
It however important for all journalists to know that there is need for all of us to be Converged Journalists. This means we must learn broadcast, print, photography and online Journalism. A Converged Journalist has an advantage of being employed or sent on special assignments because it will be cheaper for the media institution intending to send the convenged Journalist on an assignment.
The coming of technology is however setting new treads in Journalism and it is up to journalists to take up the challenge and be Converged Journalists.
Blogging
Women journalists need to take up the challenge of blogging. It is the women's ability to take advantage of ICTs that is dependent on conductive policies, an enabling environment in their countries to extend communications infrastructure to where women live, and increased educational levels.

Women need to take up blogging seriously because it is also one way in which the women’s silent voice would come out as they are least reported in the mainstream media.

ICT is transforming the global economy and creating new networks that stretch over continents and cultures. However, there remain noticeable disparities as to the extend in which access and skills are available. The benefits of knowledge and technology are not available to the large majority of the world’s population. Developing countries, in failing to respond to the transformation that the development of ICTs has produced, will be severely burdened when they participate in the global economy.

Not only do these differences affect developing nations and disadvantaged communities, but within societies there are also significant disparities. Women find themselves in most cases, not only excluded from equal social and economic opportunities in general, but also in terms of the benefits offered by ICTs. There are unequal power relations in our societies that contribute to differential access, participation and treatment for men and women vis-à-vis access to, and control of ICTs. Without women’s participation in decision-making in all spheres of life and at all levels of society, poverty will not be eradicated, nor will fully democratic societies be created. Limited access to ICT for women also has the effect of reducing countries’ competitiveness in the global market.

Strenuous efforts will be needed to capitalize on the opportunities offered by the World Summit on Information Societies (WSIS) to bridge the gender divide which is already apparent within the emerging information society.

To help achieve this, the women’s movement in Africa and women in the media need to to foster the broadest possible participation of decision-makers, professional communities, and representatives of civil society, bilateral and multilateral partners, and the private sector.

Together all will set out to discuss ongoing initiatives on gender and ICT; to raise awareness on gender-related barriers to ICT access; to include women as leaders and decision-makers; to facilitate better understanding of the needs and directions within the framework of gender and ICT, to render assistance, to support local solutions and content; and lastly also to take forward the commitments that were made at previous for a associated to gender and ICT.

Having been introduced to ICT tools such as the internet and mobile phone, it is actually very difficult to leave without them especially that they help with research on many topics and help Jorunalists with background information.