University of Amsterdam Graduation

On Tuesday 22 September 2009, I joined 15 other men and women receiving their masters degree certificates from the University of Amsterdam. We were 28 students in our class, but only 12 were able to finish in time and get their diplomas. 4 other graduands were of previous years.

The ceremony was held at the University theatre in central Amsterdam. It started on time with a few speeches from the University administrators and head of the New Media. The procedure was for a graduand to go to the table, his professor reads out a statement, he/she signs the certificate which is later offered to him and a gift from the university. The gift was an executive laptop bag.

My thesis supervisor Dr Geert Lovink was away, but the second reader Dr Jan Simons read out his remarks, which are as follows:

Dear Ali,

Congratulations on your graduation. We all know it has been a difficult challenge for you, this year, but you did remarkably well, in time. You came from a long career in journalism in Uganda, then moved to Holland, and then at some point decided to go for a new media masters degree to seriously upgrade your knowledge about ICT from a broad cultural perspective. I remember well you weren't that familiar with computers to start with, a year ago. However, you worked hard and saw possibilities to further build on your experience. When I mentioned in class the previous work done within our program on ICT for Development, for instance by Rikus Wegman and the Incommunicado project, back in 2005, you played a crucial role, with Ben White, in the formation of the ICT 4 Uganda research group. The first students research initiative within our MA, if I am right. You were four, and then soon after, five students who started working together on a plan to travel and work together for 2-3 months in Uganda to study diverse issues within the quickly emerging new media sector in your home country Uganda. You assisted the group in finding the link with Makerere University in Kampala and housing. Your own research focused on the new media uptake within the Ugandan print media, a sector that itself is only 20 or so years thriving and now in such an amazing transformation due to the digitalization, networks and globalization of the news industry. We agreed that you're probably the first to map out this terrain. Ali, you may not yet be a Continental philosopher; theory is something for later, a next life! So, good luck in your career 2.0 and the staff is proud to see you becoming an important player in the amazing growth that new media in Africa is currently going through--with so much more to come.

 

 

Lawyer Turned New Media Savvy Journalist

                             Linda Mbabazi at her desk

Ali Balunywa in Kigali, Rwanda

Linda Mbabazi is an unassuming lawyer who has never practiced law. She is an editor at the New Times newspaper in Rwanda. The New Times (TNT) Publications was launched in 1995, as a media outlet publishing in English. It was established just less than a year after the end of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the return of over a million Rwanda refugees from mainly neighboring countries of Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC then Zaire), Tanzania and Kenya. Many of these returnees were English speakers besides their native Kinyarwanda, a factor that could largely be attributed to the fact that TNT publishes in English. History shows that there had never been an English newspaper in Rwanda before TNT. It is the only daily newspaper in Rwanda.

Linda joined the New Times in 2005 as a freelancer. Sooner than later, she was recruited as a journalist. Today she is the leisure page editor of TNT. Everyday she wakes up at 6.00am and by 6.50 she is in office. On arrival at the office, she checks her mail for stories or story tips and also reads online news especially entertainment.

At 9.00 am she attends the daily editorial meeting where they share tips and story ideas and also carry out a post mortem of the days newspaper. The meeting lasts one hour after which she goes to her desk to type in her stories and coordinate leisure newsgathering.

By 1.00pm she submits her stories to the features editor under whom her portfolio falls. She leaves office at 6.00pm. She also contributes to the weekend editions and therefore works everyday. On whether she has no life, her answer was that she enjoyed her job!

Linda’s computer savoir-faire makes her confident in what she does. She delivers her pages in time and the content is quite interesting. If the pages can be redesigned to achieve a better standard and be able to invite more readers, she will have accomplished a big feat.

Most of the time she sits at her desk typing away day in day out. I later noticed that new media tools assist her do her in doing her work. Because of my interest in digital culture, I asked her if she could tell me more about her work in relation to new media. She consented and that is when I knew that she was a law graduate who decided to become a journalist. The interview took two days before taking place because of her busy schedule.

She explained to me that her use of the new media starts with the basics, that is, typing in stories on her laptop. She uses the spell checker, the Wikipedia and the Internet as a source of her stories and to learn the modern style of writing leisure. Sometimes she receives stories or story tips through her email.

She is a member of many social networking sites like face book, Hi5, Yahoo messenger, Meebo and YouTube. She uses these sites for networking, getting updates, interviewing sources, man on the street and research.

Unfortunately she lost her own digital camera and now uses the TNT photographers whenever she has to go out take photos. She also owns an iPhone mobile telephone, which she uses for receiving, and making personal and work related calls.

Linda was still busy when I conducted the interview, so I did not complete it. However, I sent her an email with other questions, which she answered as below.

Do you listen to radio or watch TV, if yes do they help you in your work?

 Yes, I always do, but mostly TV. I make sure I swatch to different channels, but most entertainment related channels, including MTV Base, E! Channel, Capital and other channel like Aljazeera, BBC, CNN, and CNBC for news.   

And as the radio, I prefer listening to Salus, Contact and Radio 10, for the latest news about our local celebrities. 

Does the Google search engine help you in your work?

Absolutely yes! It really does. I often use to search for facts, and writing style.

Do you text while gathering news, or do you receive text messages?

Both. Sometimes, I send text messages to my sources asking for facts, or when seeking for news. And in return, I receive replies from them, or they send me message texts when they are telling about an event that is going to take place. 

Do you receive SMS alerts for headlines or breaking news?

No…not on my phone, because its not a Blackberry type. But I instead receive Google alert headlines or breaking news. 

Is there anything else you would like to add with reference to digital culture and your work?

I guess not, because I’m sure we exploited everything yesterday. Thanks, and would love to read about my interview

 

 

 

 

New Vision’s Digital Revolution

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Robert Kabushenga is the Chief Executive Officer of the New Vision Group of Companies. The New Vision Group is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug). 

I spoke to Robert in his offices at the New Vision headquarters in industrial area in Kampala at the end of May 2009. The appointment was made towards the end of my research on the impact of the digital culture on the print media in Uganda 

Robert was very passionate while speaking about the new media. He actually congratulated me on my choice of research. According to him, the media’s operational aspect of content generation is to share information, acquire physical networks and have the ability to store data. With this, the possibility of real time access to what is happening elsewhere is possible 

To Robert, the New Media has helped the New Vision to leap frog literally from manual to digital technologies in a short time. The technology revolution has closed the digital gap in the last 10 years. The new vision’s digital use is now at the same level as Europe or America. The speed might not be the same in terms of infrastructure, but the tools are similar. He gave an example of owning cars everywhere, but the West has good roads, yet the south has poor ones 

In terms of efficiency and convenience of operations, the new media has gone a long way in ameliorating working conditions at the New Vision, according to Robert. Regarding hardware, he talked of how the computers and mobile phones had eased communications especially in this part of the world.

He added that the development of the digital camera had made sharing, transmitting and taking photographs easy. Before, the photo developing and printing process was constrained by use of films and long time taken to get the end product, which had to be scanned and fed into the newspaper layout process. 

The new Media has also made it possible for the media houses to be truly multimedia. There is so much content generated, but most of it goes unused because there is not enough space to use it all. With new media, the capacity to absorb all content is increased many times over. 

Robert added that the new media has had a liberating impact on the media in Uganda and has also freed innovation. Business has for example shifted from being only a newspaper to a multimedia house, which includes online and hand held devices for delivering content. 

To facilitate this shift, the price of the computer has come down nearly one-third the cost of a typewriter. This has had a big impact on gathering, processing and producing news content. For journalism it has also had a positive impact on the financial side of investing in the media.  This is manifested in the way, the New Vision shares were oversubscribed when they floated them on the local bourse.

Meetings dominate Robert’s typical day. This is the culture of the New Vision and in this part of the world. Decision-making is consensual. All management must own a decision in order to effectively execute their duties. To Robert, the best way to coordinate different facets of group professionals to get the best content outcome is through meetings. 

Competition is rife among the different sections of the group. The finance, editorial, marketing and broadcasting sections have all to be well coordinated to produce their products without clashing. 

Robert like all other senior staff is on call 24/7. He starts his day quite early and finishes late. By 8.00am he is in office, at 12.30 goes home to have lunch with the family and returns by 2.00pm. He leaves office art around 8.00pm. 

The administrative work of the New Vision is accomplished using new media. Foe example, all company records are now in soft form. Minutes in meetings are typed on a laptop as the meeting is proceeding and are circulated immediately after the meeting. Even those who fail to attend the meeting are instantly updated on what transpired. 

More information is shared in advance to ease decision-making and to make contributions to meetings more informative. New Media has made the processing and distribution of information in advance much easier. Even if people are unavailable physically, they continue being involved in decision-making. 

All the group’s financial transactions are now made online. With or without bank signatories’ physical presence payments can be made despite the inaptness of the bandwidth. Still however, the New Vision has the largest bandwidth in Uganda. And hopefully, this national problem will be sorted out before the end of the year with the completion of the undersea cables. 

Mobile money technology has also made payments much easier. People in the rural areas who wish to advertise or distributors remitting money to the New Vision can use mobile money to pay the New Vision. Advertisers too can send their adverts by mobile telephone texts or SMS. 

New Vision can also make payment to its contributors, writers and correspondents in the rural areas using the same system. Mobile money is a money transfer service being operated by the two biggest mobile telephone companies, MTN and Zain. 

In spite of New Vision being the leader in ICT use in the media industry, it was with great regret that face book; twitter and you tube were disconnected. They used to slow up the whole system and make the journalists lazy to do their work and instead waste time on those social networking sites. 

In the spirit of embracing the new media, all senior staff at the New Vision was provided with a company Blackberry telephone handset. Middle level management staff is also furnished with a company telephone and credit. All these people are supposed to be in touch 24 /7. Breaking news can be coordinated as it is happening by telephone or email.

The New Vision is investing in new technologies to remain the leading innovative media in Uganda. The online newspaper edition is currently being revamped. All editorial staff will be encouraged to blog once the website is refurbished. All the regional papers will have a presence online in the local dialects.

In conclusion, the New Vision wishes to do it the Rupert Murdoch way of having a strong presence on every media platform in Uganda. No wonder Robert and Rupert rhyme!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning to use the new media

Ali Balunywa in Mbale, Uganda

Freshly graduated with a diploma in journalism and mass communication, Watala Jean Paul joined the New Vision as a reporter early this year 2009. His use of the new media is limited to typing in stories, emailing and mobile telephone use.  He can now also operate a digital camera by taking photos, downloading them and emailing them to the head office.

The New Vision newspaper is a member of the New Vision Group of companies and it is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug).

Jean Paul is always at the office by 7.30 am. First thing he does is to look into the diary to check on what assignments are undone or which invitations he should attend. By 10.00am, he must have a story idea to work on. The Mbale New Vision bureau has 3 reporters.

Every reporter must come up with a minimum of 2 stories per day. Sometimes they receive assignments from the head office or from the bureau chief. However, it is also common to initiate stories by oneself.

Jean Paul is still exploring other new media. He is yet to use the search engine tool, doesn’t know how to blog nor how to chat! He has no idea what social networking sites are. He however is a young man eager to learn new things and it will not take him long to become computer savvy.

 

 

 

 

 

Corresponding for Monitor Digitally

Ali Balunywa, in Mbarara Uganda

Jossy Muhangi is a pioneer student of Mass Communication at Makerere University. He is currently a Monitor correspondent in Mbarara, in Western Uganda. The Monitor is Uganda’s other second English daily newspaper. (http://www.monitor.co.ug/) It is an independent daily founded by a group of journalists. Currently, it is owned by East Africa’s biggest media house, The Nation Group of Companies that publishes the biggest circulating newspaper in East Africa. It also owns radios and televisions in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Jossy also freelances for the African Press Agency.

He recalls that while studying at the university, they were using typewriters during their studies. It was the same at the newspaper office where they did their internship. Only typesetters then had access to computers! Photography then was a reserve of professional photographers and the process of getting a photo usually took days.

However now it is different. Every morning Jossy attends the daily meeting at the bureau office. The meeting is purpose is to generate news tips after which the bureau chief assigns the reporters what to do for the day. The reporters and correspondents go out in the field to gather news by way of following tips, interviewing sources and observing what is happening. From time to time they return to the office to type and file their stories.

While going about their daily work they use the new media. For enriching their stories and beefing them up, search engines like Google are continuously used. The computer is also used for typing ion stories, retouching photos and exchanging and filing stories. The Monitor intranet system is extended to Mbarara, however, whenever the office system slows up a public Internet café is used.

Jossy has Microsoft Outlook instant alerts, which alerts him whenever an email comes in. At the office he now uses a digital camera. There is also a scanner, which is used to scan historical photos submitted by the public.

Jossy can never work without his mobile phone. He uses it for communication, photography, recording, SMS- and MMS-ing. Even though the photo quality is not very good, the mobile phone camera comes in handy when he is covering sensitive stories like the military adorning party colors or torturing civilians. Photos can also be easily taken from a bus or other vehicle.

Jossy is belongs to several Social Networking Sites like LinkedIn and Twitter which he uses for keeping in touch and networking. He is also a member of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, the International Federation of Journalists and the Science Global Network Communication initiative. His membership helps him to access other journalists internationally by email, provides training opportunities, awards and scholarships.

Jossy is an ardent blogger. His blog is: http://www.jossmuhangi.blogspot.com/. Here he posts all his stories especially those that are not run by the Monitor. He also uses the Yahoo messenger a lot. It is much safer since the law of intercepting telephone calls was instituted making it difficult for sources to hold telephone interviews.

He proposes that through the Monitor, an Internet connected laptop and digital camera should be provided to correspondents in the field to simplify news gathering and filing even from remote places. This would go along way in creating efficiency and news deliverey.

A date with a Monitor Editor

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

The Monitor is Uganda’s other second daily newspaper. It is an independent daily founded by a group of journalists. Currently, it is owned by East Africa’s biggest media house, The Nation Group of Companies that publishes the biggest circulating newspaper in East Africa. It also owns radios and televisions in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

My first date at the Monitor was with Mr. Fred Masiga, an associate editor, Business. He joined the Monitor in the year 2001. In addition to having a Bachelors degree in Mass Communication, he also holds a Masters of Business Administration degree. 

Fred’s typical day at the Monitor is as follows:

5.30 AM: Wake up

6.45 AM: Drive to office

At the office go through the BBC, New York Times, Financial Times, Manchester Evening News, Reuters and other news websites. 

7.30 AM: Peruse through the day’s local newspapers and also the Monitor to                        identify any errors. He also carefully scrutinizes the nearest competitor,                The New Vision for any news that the Monitor could have missed

8.30 AM: Attend an editorial meeting that lasts approximately 30 minutes

9.00 – 11.00 AM: Assign journalists work, give briefings, make phone calls, sub available stories for pages that go to bed early and generally supervise the ongoing work.

11.00 AM: Attend the editors meeting which carries out a postmortem of the day’s paper and also check the docket drawn by the news editor from the early morning meeting chaired by the managing editor.

12.00 Noon – 3.00 PM: Start receiving stories from reporters; receive draft copy of the designed paper as subbing and passing pages is being continuously done

3.30 PM: Attend editors meeting for 30 minutes to decide what story should lead and passing of pages is agreed.

7.00 PM: Gather at the desk of the chief subeditor to agree on the headlines

8.00 PM: Leave for home.

Fred says some days he can attend up to 10 meetings and on others go out to meet a source or follow up a story. He works for not less than 12 hours everyday, 6 days a week. Monday is his only day off. 

On New Media use, Fred claims the computer is now an integral part of the media business. Typing and sending stories, email, the intranet, researching and many other wonders of the computer have made things easier for print journalists. He quoted for me the incident of the terrorists attacks on Hotels in Mumbai when he used the Voice Over the Internet Protocol (VOIP) with an Indian colleague to get instant updates of story as it was unfolding. Further still, the Monitor is in the process of upgrading its system to enable the journalists to blog.

Fred also praises mobile telephony. To emphasize its importance, the company provides official mobile phones and credit to most journalists. In turn these phones are supposed to be on 24/7. The phones usually have added services like the SMS, MMS, camera, Internet and recording.

 

 

 

 

 

The "East African" Special Correspondent

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Esther Nakkazi is a special correspondent for the East African newspaper in Kampala, Uganda. The East African is one of the many publications by the regional media giant; The Nation Group based in Nairobi, Kenya. It publishes newspapers in all East African countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.(www.nation.co.ke)

Esther joined the East African newspaper in the year 2000.She is a holder of a BA degree and a postgraduate diploma in journalism. Her niche in the industry is science and the environment. 

Esther is a correspondent for a number of news organizations for example; the East African, plus news at www.plusnews.org, the Monitor, Real Health News (UK) and she also trains upcoming journalists in environmental training through the Uganda Media Development Foundation. She also edits “Eyenet” an IT newsletter.

Before embarking on any assignment Esther attends the Monday editorial meeting where tips are exchanged. She mostly assigns herself what to do. They then network and agree on a team of 2 reporters to be sent out. Newsgathering takes the form of follow-ups, hard news and features preparing.

Esther also attends conferences, carries out interviews and reads other newspapers to get tips. She subscribes to many journals. After reading, she contextualizes the news to the Uganda system. She is also a good listener from which activity she gets many tips. Furthermore has a network of sources, which tip her especially for exclusives.

Esther has wholly embraced the new media. She owns a Macintosh laptop that is like an extension of her. She types in direct whether at a conference, conducting an interview, reporting on a press conference or gathering hard news. As soon as she types a story she attaches a relevant photo she has taken with her digital camera and emails her editor instantly. 

Her blog is used for training purposes. All her experiences while training are uploaded on her blog especially how students perceive the training issues they raise about climate change.  Her website is; www.necjogha.org or better still http.estanakkazi.blogspot.com. 

She uses the Google search engine all the time for background information. She is also on Face Book and Twitter.  Esther uses Skype, Yahoo and MSN for chatting with sources of news. Thereafter she copies and pastes directly in a story. She prefers that to a face-to-face interview. She furthermore uses email, fm radio for tips, mobile phone and texting.

  

 

 

“The buck ends here”, Chief sub

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Ben Opolot is the New Vision’s chief sub editor. He joined the New Vision in 1994

Interview

Ali: What does your job involve?

Ben: My job is basically a quality control job here. I am responsible for maintaining the New Vision house style, which includes the visual, photos, grammar, language, content, and accuracy and general standards. My job cuts across all sections; sports, supplements, magazines and the like. Though my major focus is on the daily, I also offer supervisory and monetary oversight for the Saturday and Sunday editions. I do this through a weekly review postmortem with the staff. 

What does the staff under you do?

There are 35 subeditors. On average each subeditor lays out 2 pages per day. They receive stories from the editors through the intranet and depending on what pages they are doing follow an established layout format. After laying out the pages they physically print out the pages and pass them on to me. Currently after all corrections are made, I send them to pre press department through the network to the computer to plate process. We have been promised in the near future to get technology, which will eliminate prepress and transmit files from editorial direct to the press. 

We have however, not harnessed the available ICTs to create efficiency and a better product. There is a lack of managerial focus and drive to effect this change. We require new software to solve some few editorial snags especially automating the uploading of the website. We should be in a position to send data to the press at the same time automatically uploading the website.

Where does the buck end?

The editor in chief delegated the responsibility of the final product to the chief subeditor. So, well as the buck should end at the editor in chief’s desk, in reality it ends here.

What role does the New Media play in your day-to-day work? 

I can’t imagine the days before the advent of the computer. Editing used to be done on paper. Reporters wrote their stories by hand and used typewriters to type. Layout used to be done by cutting and pasting physically. Today, the computer does the whole process; inputting, editing, typesetting, designing, photos are all PDF-ed and sent by mail to the pre press to ready for printing without going through the darkroom!

The computer and Internet are powerful tools for grammar, spell check, Google; for verification, searches, historical context and research. Email too, has eased communication. A few years ago, information from the field used to take days to arrive at the news editor’s desk. Today, files are instantly forwarded electronically. Personally, I completed my Masters degree online. I took off just a few weeks to interact with my professors in South Africa. Other young people are also doing the same. The computer has enabled us to perform multiple tasks at the same time. It has therefore helped to retain staff that would have had to resign in order to pursue further studies.

We now have a better skilled staff that learns more about journalism online. The computer is a knowledge and resource centre. It provides us with wired news from agencies. This keeps the cost minimal. It also provides graphic services important for the design of the papers. Uganda has no libraries, so the computer/Internet is the point of reference. 

Mobile telephony cuts costs, is efficient and easy to use. We can access reporters and editors anytime while working on their stories.

As for blogging, I don’t individually blog or even read them. I feel blogs lack peer review and therefore are too opinioned. However, we can use them as sources of news stories and tips. 

Like the blogs, I find the Social Networking Sites (SNS) just exhibitionist. I know it is a tool of communication and it encourages citizen journalism. People are allowed to explore themselves and to listen to what others are saying. It is here that you get the pulse of the people without the rigid structures of newspapers. It liberates to reader.

Any other New Media tools you use? 

We also have the discussion board on our website. It is very important to the New Vision and we periodically run it in the newspaper. It is one of the places where our readers interact with the writers and also give us their opinions on contemporary issues.

The organization is in the process of developing a Short Message Service (SMS), which will integrate all our products. A significant amount of people’s lives is shifting to the mobile phone and as a leading newspaper, we must take advantage of the mobile phone especially the SMS technology to reach out to our readers and also get new ones. We therefore have to find new ways of delivering our content particularly the young people and women. Traditionally, newspapers are for men who decide when to buy it. But now with the mobile phone the woman can now enjoy the benefits through it. So the mobile especially the SMS will help to keep readers and even get many more if we can deliver the content in a way that is convenient to them. This means the business must be rearranged and skills and processes must be tailored to fit the new technologies.

 

 

Lillian's New Media

Ali Balunywa, in Kampala, Uganda

Lillian Namusoke is a sub editor at the New Vision. She joined the establishment in 2004 after completing her university education. She is in possession of a Bachelor’s degree in languages and a diploma in reporting and creative writing. The interview;

Ali: When and how were you recruited to work for the New Vision?

Lillian: I was recruited in 2004 and reported for the New Vision for 4 months before being made a sub editor after an in house training session. Mr. David Billington, a British training consultant, carries out the training sessions. 

Tell me about the sub editors’ office 

I am one of the 6 news subeditors at the New Vision. We sit in the editorial office just next to the newsroom. There are many other subeditors for the Sunday and Saturday Vision and for the other regional newspapers under the New Vision Group.

Tell me about your job 

The New Vision has its own house style, which subeditors have to follow. The fonts (Nimrod MT) and body are consistent all the time.  The layout follows the modular form, which makes comprehension for the reader easy. When we use photos to illustrate stories, they must all be the same shape on the same page.

How do computers assist you to do your job?

New Vision has its own computer system that is shared by the editorial. Writers write their stories using the Microsoft office word programme, send them to the editor for editing, they are grouped and sent to the relevant subeditor. Subeditors check for the grammar and later use the QuarkXPress programme for designing the layout.

How much work does the subeditor do?

On average a subeditor lays out 2 pages per day. After laying out the pages we exchange them amongst ourselves for further proofreading and later send them to the deputy chief subeditor. When ready, the pages are printed out, as they appear and handed over to the chief subeditor for final approval before printing 

How does the new media contribute to the effectiveness of your work?

Subeditors use the mobile phone frequently to consult with the writers over stories we sub and also for clarification with editors. Most times, stories need beefing up with background information, so we frequently use the Internet for information. Personally I use social networking sites like face book for reducing stress. We also often use the fm radios to update stories especially court cases or accidents.

 

 

“I cannot do without New Media,” Barbara

                                Barbara Among, Senior reporter, New Vision

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Barbara Among is a senior reporter at the New Vision. She is a prolific writer, blogger and New Media user. She was recruited in 2008 after working at the Monitor and The East African newspapers.

On the Internet; 

Barbara said she uses it all the time for her research. She uses many search engines including Google and Yahoo. She also subscribes to Google alerts on conflict in Uganda, Kony, Museveni, and oil refinery topics among others. She also subscribes to Africa Intelligence.com; AllAfrica.com, BBC News, The UN website (On conflicts) and Al Jazeera news feeds.

She prefers Mozilla to Internet explorer and uses the Alta Vista programme to search for news.

On mobile telephony

She is full of praises for her mobile telephone and Zain, her mobile telephone operator, through whom she has mobile access. Her phone has modes for reminders, internet for receiving jokes, horoscopes, ring tones, banking rates, stock rates and other information.

On writing stories

Barbara no longer uses pens and paper. She claims she types in her stories direct even while interviewing some one. After typing in and correcting the grammar, she sends the story direct to the editor through the intranet. Before the new system was in place, reporters used to type in stories, print them out then take to the editor hard copies, which would be used for editing.

On what New Media is close to her

She claimed that every morning she ensures that her bag has her mobile telephone, a notebook, a digital camera, a digital voice recorder and laptop.

On ICT role

Barbara claims to use different ICTs as she does her work. For example she says sometimes she conducts interviews via Yahoo chat online. Thereafter she copies and pastes and feeds the interview into the system.

She also uses social network sites like face book, LinkedIn, Yahoo Messenger, Skype,Gmail, chatting and generally to meet people.  Barbara also frequently blogs via www.bamong.blogspot.com 

Last word

Barbara passionately reminds me that she cannot do without the New Media and that if everyone could be logged in all the time, the world would be an easier place to live in and the work would not be difficult to do.

 

 

Makerere Students Embrace the Digital Culture

On Wednesday 8 April, I escorted Ben to Makerere University Faculty of ICT. During our discussions with the deputy dean, we were introduced to the communications manager. After explaining our fields of study, I was requested to make a presentation to the final year class of mass communications on the subject of the new Media. I could not let such an opportunity go by, so I immediately accepted.

We made an appointment for the following Tuesday, but it was later postponed to this week. I was indeed excited to be back to the institution I left 25 years ago. My first impression of the students was their appearance. One could mistake them for secondary school students on a day out. They were so young and seemed so vulnerable.

I was escorted to the class by the head of department, Mass Communications, Ms Marjorie Kyomuhendo. I had prepared around 20 power point slides for my presentation. The projector was connect, but alas! It could not connect to my laptop. The projector did not have a USB jack!

I immediately took control and asked the students to make a sort of circle so that we could like seeing each other. After the introductions, I told them we were very lucky because the projector didn’t work. We therefore had to improvise. I assured them this was not a lecture but a session for sharing experiences. I explained that our session would have 4 phases: the first is by them telling me what they were studying; the next was I to tell them about New Media, the third how to connect the two and last discussion points.

The discussion was interactive. I made sure everyone had something to say, however silly. And before long the ice had broken and we were all laughing. They contributed information over media and their course. I asked leading questions to enable them understand the media better.

I took them through the history of both the media and mass media, while allowing them to add their own dimensions. I used the knowledge I acquired from Aaron Barlow’s book “The rise of Blogosphere” to build a case for the metamorphosis of the media industry culminating in what is called the New Media.

I brought up examples of media theorists from Vannever Bush, Marshall McLuhan, Bolter and Grusen, Foucault, Deleuze and others. I also provide a few examples of their theories like the memex; the medium is the message, remediation, discipline societies and rhizome respectively.

Finally we came to the New Media proper and tried to define it. Everyone by now was very active and from the students all sorts of New Media examples were elicited. The mobile phone, radio, Internet, blogging, digital camera, digital television, etc where mentioned. It was quite interesting when the students made the connection themselves between the New Media and Public relations, which is their specialty.

Lastly, the students discussed the best New Media tools that enable a PR person to do a better job. And these were: FM radio, mobile phone and Internet in that order.

New Media at the New Vision

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

 

After finalizing the formalities with the administration, the human resource manager of the New Vision handed me over to the Mr. Ben Opolot, the Chief sub-editor. She made for me an appointment to meet him (Ben) on Monday 20 April 2009 at the New Vision head office.

I was there at the agreed time of 10.00am. I explained to Ben how I wanted to do my research. Since all permissions had been granted, he thought all we needed was to let the editor in chief know and off I start.

He accompanied me to the chief’s desk. To her amazement, I greeted her in Dutch as an icebreaker! The editor in chief is Ms Els deTemmerman, a Flemish from Belgium. I explained my mission and she accepted to extend her cooperation and help whenever necessary. 

Ben went ahead to introduce me to journalists who were around, allocated me a desk and asked me to draw a programme for the entire period I will spend at the New Vision. 

My first impressions at the New Vision were the modernity of the working environment. The editorial offices are situated in a modern building with open office floor space. Departments like Newsroom, subeditors, features sports and business divide the office. All desks are equipped with the latest flat screen computers, printers and air conditioning.

On each desk are a number of fixed and mobile phones. When I asked why one should own more than one phone, they explained that same network calls are always cheap, so it is advantageous for one to be connected on each network. 

The editorial room is a beehive of activity. I was told that because of the strict deadlines, journalists and editors have to move with haste all the time. On the walls of the newsrooms you find a notice saying: “DEADLINES – OR YOU ARE DEAD”! Almost all journalists have a flash disk either on a keychain or dangling on a string or necklace around the neck.

Access to the New Vision is restricted. To access any office one needs a security clearance or a smart card. Security at this hi tech organization is paramount so, it is not taken lightly. For a visitor, someone must at all times open the door whether to get in or out!