Might information flow be one of the most important factors for growing the media, improving health and development in Africa? Development organizations and a number of players have thought so. Unfortunately governments and other organizations have concentrated on infrastructural projects, like increasing the number of health workers, clinics and other programmes to help eradicate health and other social problems that affect Africa.
But now we are in the information age, and we understand better the importance of information and the positive changes that can come from information and media as a whole. The recent millennium assembly of the United Nations emphasized this in their statement on the right of access to information and communication.
Information underpins the learning, research, and debate that drive a country forward. Access to information is essential for describing and understanding the deficiencies of the present, building visions of a better future, developing practical ways to achieve those visions, and educating and inspiring those who must make the future. Information empowers, and those who work with information must realize that its flow, like good communication, must be two way.
The information gap between rich and poor is currently widening, both between and within countries. This can be seen between the Western Countries and the developing world, there is a rift in technology and information awareness. The digital divide is more dramatic than any other inequity in health or income. The persistence of this rift has occasioned issues like; medical libraries in sub-Saharan Africa not being well equipped with current journals and books which would help update their knowledge and expertise in the medical fiel...
... middle of paper ...
...where the community media outlets are sited.
Despite the challenges the media in Kenya face there is hope for them in the near future. The information and technology revolution and availability has positively affected the media in Kenya. Technological provided multiple information platforms that have increased the diversity of information sources for audiences; it has also brought greater efficiency in media operations and encouraged the growth of citizen journalism.
The media council has also helped by championing for stations to ensure that 50% of their content is local, such a move is meant to not only promote our local artists but also the international market content that is local and they will appreciate. Developing and investing in the production of such local programmes helps push for contra-flow and popularity of the local talent the country has.
New technology has fuelled the expansion with the growth of phone apps, social media formats, smartphones able to capture video and upload instantly onto the web. The public is now recording, documenting, sharing and viewing events as they happen, often before professional journalist or reporters. Technology allows people to view major events in real time anywhere in the world, creating a ‘global village’ in which everyone is connected (McLuhan 1964; cited in Giddens 2013). However, the mass medias of television, radio and newspapers both in print and online, continue to be the mediums the public accesses the news and events on a local, national and international
"In the modern and technologically advanced times that we live in, access to the internet is a human right and necessity to the developed world. It often helps to promote sociopolitical awareness and understand the rights that we deserve as human beings.
CNN accounts for the life of media censorship that was seen shaking Kenya’s democracy. Sevenzo accounts for the election period where the media were restricted from media coverage.
Joseph STRAUBHAAR and Robert LaROSE (2001). Media Now. Communications Media in the Information Age. 3rd Edition. Belmont, Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
In today 's world the media has enormous power. Media industries are operating in a market increasingly globalized and more monopolistic. In addition, the media come daily in our homes, deeply affecting our way of seeing the world. Adults and children and youth spend many hours a day watching television, transforming this activity into a more in all daily activities. Even more powerful is the ongoing revolution such as the development that has had and continues to have a means of communication such as the Internet.
The idea that lies behind public journalism is that citizens that lack any formal experience are able to utilize the tools of modern technology alongside the limitless Internet to practice a form of journalism that allows the audience to inform one another. There is a sense of freedom with public journalism, also known as civic journalism. In this digital age, public journalism is easier to access due to laptops and cellular devices. It is true that public jou...
Perhaps it is not too much "information," but an explosion of "noninformation" (Wurman 1989) lacking relevance, quality, and usefulness. What is needed is better judgment of the quality, accuracy, and reliability of what is received(Kinnaman 1994). According to John Seeley Brown, people may perceive overload because the information they receive does not fit into current mental models for understanding the world (Tetzeli 1994). The problem of information overload thus has both technological and human aspects. The solution is also two pronged: both technological--create better technological tools and make better use of them--and human--revise mental models and sharpen the capacity for critical reflection and analysis.
Modern technology has made information much easier to obtain. The Internet and World Wide Web have given people the ability to access all sorts of information very quickly and quite easily. This is an advantage for many people, especially in business. Scholars can quickly share information amongst each other to help them learn more about a topic for example. Students can learn more about anything they want simply by using a search engine such as Google to browse the web. In the last decade, we have witnessed an evolution of the Internet and the rise of social media. The Internet is still growing every day and only seems to be getting bigger and more complex.
Thirty years ago, if I told you that the primary means of communicating and disseminating information would be a series of interconnected computer networks you would of thought I was watching Star Trek or reading a science fiction novel. In 2010, the future of mass media is upon us today; the Internet. The Internet is and will only grow in the future as the primary means of delivering news, information and entertainment to the vast majority of Americans. Mass media as we know it today will take new shape and form in the next few years with the convergence and migration of three legacy mediums (Television, Radio, Newspaper) into one that is based on the Internet and will replace these mediums forever changing the face of journalism, media and politics. In this paper I will attempt to explain the transition of print media to one of the internet, how the shift to an internet based media environment will impact journalism and mass media, and how this migration will benefit society and forever change the dynamic of news and politics.
Joseph STRAUBHAAR and Robert LaROSE (2002). Media Now. Communications Media in the Information Age. 3rd Edition. Belmont, Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of living and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.
Consequently, new media of the future will future a prominent role in providing information as it is occurring. People will engage in fierce competition to cover a news story first. Information will be spread rapidly like a wildfire. Events will be covered as it occurs and relayed to other parts of the world instantly. Gone are the days were reporters are the experts on an event. Information will be covered by ordinary people for people in society to comprehend. News will become a more opinionated fact. Overall the world will become a place where people resort to doing just about anything for a chance at instant fame.
The mass media refers to the people and organizations that provide news and information to the public. You know that mass communication has revolutionized the modern world. The print and broadcast media not only convey information to the public, but also influence public opinion. Newspapers and magazines have long been major lines of communication and have always reached large audience. Today, the Internet takes the best of all other media and combines them into a very unique form.
The impact of the internet on journalism is one area that continues to attract the attention of media scholars. The technology has brought forth a set of opportunities and challenges for conventional media (Garrison, 1996). The last ten years have seen a lot of inventions which have greatly altered the way people access and consume news. Audiences have also “developed more sophisticated and specific demands and tastes for news delivery, thanks in part to the explosion of social media and mobile technology.” (Kolodzy 2013)
"An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political and cultural activity’ (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia).