Struggling to fathom changing faces of media

Much debate has gone on regarding the role of newspapers in a changing world. The changes are in the area of demographics, technology and the general behaviour of consumers.

Gone are the days when it was the function of traditional media to break news. Coup plotters, particularly in Africa, would prioritise capturing broadcasting houses to control and direct the narrative.  The control of the broadcasting house would determine who was in power.

Social and technological changes have ushered in an era where information is passed quickly in small groups. Much of this information is not verified, brief and without context.

The current protests in the country exposed the extent to which the younger population may lack context for social issues. There are many posts in which the youth blamed their parents for the state of the country, for not standing up for their rights and for letting the country slide to where it is today.

This is understandable for a population that has been brought up on such platforms as Twitter now X. Even the speed at which the names of these platforms change is telling, lacking in providing the solid context in which the firms were founded.

Think of the speed with which players in the media space merge and change ownership. But it is not only their structure that is changing; their relationship in information dissemination is equally changing, defining how they relate with the older media institutions and regulatory frameworks.

The world where firms were enduring and General Electrics remained solid in its field, is giving way to the new fluidity. This has an impact on the foundational knowledge that society has. How can society’s long-term viability be established without knowledge of the past?

To bring it closer home, the current political protests are largely incremental. Before them, protests were just as deadly, even if their structure assumed a different character, and they took place in much more difficult circumstances regarding information dissemination.

Could this provide an opportunity for a new role in media?

It is not just a question of what is referred to in journalism circles as Day2 journalism but instead becoming the latest history textbooks that remind the older generation and introduce the younger ones to their past.

This challenge is compounded by what has happened in our educational system. The curriculums of yore were detailed, steeped in the past, demonstrating how the current conditions have emerged from the past’s fog.

Granted, much of this was inherited from colonialism. Somehow, it had to change to reflect the new reality of a free country, a free continent. But sometimes, in throwing the past out of the window, we may not have appropriately situated the present to draw from the past.

Further, our education is more determined by the budget available rather than what needs to be achieved in terms of what the education is in service of. For many, education may be viewed simply as the pathway to getting a job or for decoration, the grounds that inform the current culture of questionable certificates.

The media can do what education needs to do. After all, part of the function of the media is education. How can the past explain the current circumstances of society? And many genres of journalism can help achieve this.

Feature articles, magazines and documentaries, among others, can bring back the past to enable the youth to understand the context of today’s developments. Obviously, there are challenges to that. This kind of journalism is expensive and would require resources.

Secondly, such context does not easily lend itself to short videos and the characteristics of much of the current social media. This may be a place for philanthropic journalism where corporate social responsibility comes on board to ensure that Africa’s past is not forgotten but curated for the more determined of our population to access.

The other function of the media is being a storehouse of ideas and culture, transmission of culture and a preserver of a people’s heritage, including language. Doing this is a service to society.

— The writer is the Dean of Daystar

University’s School of Communication