Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tanzanian online media is developing fast

Today the network has been coming and going, and we’ve experienced some power cuts as well. This is still a reality for journalists and all other people in Tanzania. You cannot rely too much on the internet service providers – and sometimes even less so on the power company.

This of course makes it more challenging to market the internet to the wananchi as a new revolutionizing means of communication, media or many other services. And if the audience is not there, then there’s no point either to invest too much time and financial resources in providing quality content online. If again there’s not much relevant content available, very many are not going to spend their energy in learning how to use the new technology. And with only few users, there’s not enough pressure on the providers of the network infrastructure to run their businesses efficiently.

In neighbouring Kenya, they now seem to have gained the momentum. We saw today some statistics showing that in Kenya there are now about four million internet users, four times more than only three years ago. In Tanzania, according to the website Internet World Stats, the total number of internet users is 676,000. That is 1.6 per cent of the population.

So it is really against all odds that the online media in Tanzania is developing fast. In 2006, only three media companies in the country had a website, and of them just IPP Media was updating its website regularly. Now, over 30 media houses or news outlets publish journalistic content on the internet, from the well-designed and focused political weekly Raia Mwema to the more sensational tabloids, such as Uwazi. The latest newcomer is Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation TBC, the government radio and TV. Some publications exist only online, such as the youth-oriented entertainment site Darhotwire.

We visited today practically all Tanzanian media websites. Some of them were of course familiar to everyone, but other media sites were news to most of the journalists in class.

The participants have now been posting their comments listing their own favourite news media in or outside the country. Mohamed Msoffe of Radio 5 Arusha explains why he enjoys so much reading the Mwananchi newspaper. Marc Nkwame from the Daily News has a nice story about the Bongo media online scene in general. Amina Juma, also from Daily News lists her favourite media and mentions also online newspapers from neighbouring Kenya and Uganda.

No comments:

Post a Comment