Online journalism in south africa.

Online journalism in South Africa.

Online journalism is defined as the reporting of facts when produced and distributed via the internet. It tackles the pressing question of how to apply fundamental journalism skills to the online medium. It provides an essential guide to the Internet as a research and publishing tool. In particular, it examines how to forge key journalism skills with the distinctive qualities of the World Wide Web to provide compelling web content.

http://www.mg.co.za/

With an increase in access to the Internet, digital or online journalism in South Africa has spread to include a strong focus on user-generated content, with traditional news media using Twitter and other social media to generate reader feedback. Similarly, the Mail & Guardian ‘Thought leader’ blog, originally designed for so called J-bloggers, is another example of the ‘convergence’ between journalism and social media.

http://www.mg.co.za/ is actually for the intellects. The contents therein do not fit any individual but the middle-class who are educated and are interested in cutting-edge news coverage. It gives in-depth news angles.

www.sabcnews.com/

And there comes www.sabcnews.com/ which happens to be everyone’s favourite because it covers any news. The content is not enticing, what you get from other news sites is also in www.sabcnews.com/. It’s as if the media houses discuss their news angles and responding before uploading their stories.

www.iol.co.za/.

IOL brings breaking news from its newsrooms across the country, sport and the latest in entertainment. The so-called South Africa's Premier News Source with In-depth coverage of local and international news. With its independence nature, it tackles every story side. The most surprising this about all these news sites is their same content nature.

My view on online journalism.

It got me thinking. When will South African online journalism “come of age”? I am not for one second saying it should involve a negative incident like that of The New Republic. What I am saying is that online journalism has yet to make some kind of impact in this country. But as far as news goes, South African online journalism is a long way off from “coming of age”. Online is beginning to show better revenue streams as a result of the upturn in online advertising. It means bigger budgets and more staff, which media groups are not willing to do.

The question that has troubled my mind for some is that why all online news sites has the same content. You visit www.sabcnews.com/, www.iol.co.za/ or http://www.mg.co.za/ it’s the same content over and over.

Where is the online scoop? When last did people refer to a story from an online publication as an exclusive? Has it ever happened in South Africa? The Sunday Times and Mail & Guardian, as well titles out of the Independent group and Media24, regularly break big stories that send the media industry into a flurry. Has this ever happened in the online world?

South Africa’s online publications simply won’t scoop the big, exclusive stories reason being that it does not get to reach every person. Let’s be frank here, how many people are able to surf the net and read stories? It’s only a small fraction of people citizens that actually have access to internet. Traditional journalism or print has made its way to the top because physically people are able to read the news. They can buy in the nearest stores.

It may be that online news staff complements are small because there is no budget for big armies of journalists on specific news beats. Or it may have something to do with the fact that Sapa and the other wires do such a good job on volume; it’s all too easy to rely on them and do little else

Online news publications in South Africa are too reliant on wire services like Sapa, I-Net, AFP, AP and Reuters. Has anyone noticed that the top five online news publications often publish and lead with identical stories from these wires? So much for original journalism.

The fast and vast growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has spawned the newest medium for journalism, online journalism. The speed at which news can be disseminated on the Web and the profound penetration to anyone with a computer and Internet connection have greatly increased the quantity and variety of news reports available to the public.

At the moment, to be blunt, online journalism compared to traditional media journalism, is bad. And until online starts to publish more original stories, it’s not going to be taken seriously.

Hyperlinks to online news sites

www.sabcnews.com/

www.iol.co.za/

http://www.mg.co.za/

The paradox of South African Youth:By Khaya Dlanda.

The paradox of South African Youth:By Khaya Dlanda.

In post-apartheid South Africa, we all have the freedom to participate in the political process - but also the right not to participate. Our country's youth have tended to exercise the latter right, but the fact is that we need to participate politically if we want to inherit a country we can be proud of.

As young people in South Africa, to a large degree, we cannot really claim to have fought for liberation, although we are the ones who stand to benefit the most. Others fought on our behalf because we didn’t really understand what was going on. Our parents, their parents and their parents before fought for freedom. They died so that we might lead lives of our own choosing and making. They did not count on us being lost.

But, we don’t know who we are or where we are going. We are lost, like a plastic bag blowing in the wind. That generally happens when you follow overachievers. Our parents were overachievers for they defeated a system far bigger than themselves. 

We want to thank them for what they did. For bleeding and dying. For bleeding and living. For bleeding and not giving up. We think we will thank them by acquiring material possessions to impress them, but more importantly, to impress our friends. They bleed again because it is as if we are saying to them, “Look at what freedom can buy. A BMW.” They shake their heads. We shake ours, because deep down we know how empty our exploits are. And so we make a noise. We shout. Our shouts have no substance. No wisdom. Unlike an orgasm, wisdom cannot be faked.

We become agitators for its sake - not because we are bringing new ideas, but we agitate because we seek relevance. But we don’t realise that our relevance has no relevance.

What to do with all this freedom? Freedom has many so many complex sides to it. The right to buy; the right not to buy. The right to spend; the right not to spend. The right to care for the poor; the right to live one’s life without giving a damn about the poor. The right to care only for oneself. These are the consequences and the pleasures of freedom that we enjoy today.

A week ago, I watched the HBO mini-series on America’s second president, John Adams. While he was stationed in France to seek assistance from the French to resist the British, a French noblewoman asks him if he has ever attended the opera.

Adams responds by saying he has no ear for music because, “My occupation allows me little time for the finer arts. No, I must study politics and war, you see, so that my sons will have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons must study navigation, commerce and agriculture, so that their children will have the right to study, poetry, painting and music.” His son, John Quincy Adams, would become the sixth president of the United States. He too had dedicated himself to service.

Judging from what John Adams said to the Frenchwoman, we are missing an important step. Our parents fought for freedom, and we must fight to build the country, to strengthen its democracy, to build a foundation upon which the nation will prosper, not just look out for our own individual prosperity, for we prosper more as individuals if we help the whole nation prosper.

Since the last generation fought for our freedom, what are we fighting for? What is the mission of this generation besides partying? (Something to which I am completely unopposed I might add). Is it the sole thing we have decided to dedicate ourselves to? What have we decided we will do? What is our North Star?

We need to have a unified goal, but we all go towards it in various directions: some pursue it in commerce, others in government, and others in the arts. Where are we going? Since the grown-ups have not told us where they are taking the country, we might as well set our own course. What is the single, simple, palatable proposition?

What is the bold, balls-to-the-wall motto that we shall adopt? The great thing about the “American Dream” is that it can be whatever you want it to be. The motto gives you endless possibilities. But I want to refer to something that Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs said during the early days of his company: "I want to make a ding in the universe." It is vague, but it is a bold statement. And you know what? He has.

I am not here to preach. I am here to speak to myself as a youth.

We grow up too slowly, but when eventually we do, we grow old too fast. We will wake up one day to suddenly realise that it is all up to us. We didn’t pay attention, now we must look after the country.

We are young; we should rightfully enjoy our youth. There is a misconception that enjoying one’s youth involves sex, partying and drinking. If I don’t do these things then I am not really enjoying my youth is the logic. Again, I am not opposed to parties; I go to several a week. All I am saying is we must not just live from one party to the next. Those who have lived the kind of lives that just involve hedonism often call these years, “My wasted youth”. If we want to make an impact, we can’t just focus on the shallow and narrow factors that just speak to the individual. There are many young people who contributed tremendously while they were still young.

The third president of the US, Thomas Jefferson, was just 33 when he wrote one of that nation’s most important documents, the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Even if he had never become president, just having written that document would have put him and it in American folklore.

At 26 years old, Martin Luther King Jnr organised a non-violent bus boycott after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a segregated bus. At the end of the 381 days, the economy of the town had broken down so badly that the locals called for negotiations, and the Supreme Court declared that segregated buses were unconstitutional. Overnight, King became the national leader of the civil rights movement, a very youthful 27 year old. At 28, Martin Luther King preached his famous sermon, “Loving your enemies”.

His idea was radical because it was new. It was non-violent. It was also about love at the same time. It called to build, not to destroy. Yet he was a youth.

And of course, Steve Biko who died at 31 left us with radical ideas that we still quote to this day. “I write what I like.”

How did these young people become so famous? They served humanity not themselves. Studies show that people who serve causes that are higher than themselves are more satisfied and are happier. Those are, in fact, the ones who are enjoying their youth.

I am not here to preach. I am merely talking to myself. Publicly. I don’t have answers. I have the same questions that my generation is grappling with.

There is a terrible misconception that when you are young and somehow want to be involved in the political process, you have to be angry, abandon all reason and display all the vices of youth to make an impact in the political landscape. These young men, Jefferson, King and Biko, all stood up and were counted. They showed that one is never too young to be wise.

The second part of this talk I will call The Power of Opportunity. Opportunity in itself is agnostic. It favours no one. It favours those who do something with it, whether it is for ill or good. What does the power of opportunity mean? It means that you are fearless when you are faced with it, for it presents itself always, under good circumstances, under bad. It’s just up to the individual.

The paradox of South African Youth:By Khaya Dlanda.