Media & ICTs

 

I was two years old when the Berlin Wall came down. I have never been to Germany, but I understand that, after reunification, that country experienced many of the same stresses that we South Africans face today. People from the East and West who had been torn apart had to grow together again. But they did, and apart from extremist groups, all Germans now see themselves as part of one nation.

Here, talking about our separateness has become an art-form in itself. We spend more time critiquing the walls that divide us than trying to overcome them. We have become paralysed by an acknowledgement of deep-seated cultural and economic differences, yet often fail to recognise the obvious opportunities to connect to each other.

Just think of how mobile phones have improved communication and opened up new possibilities over the past decade. It’s an opportunity literally in our hands. But we’ve failed to grasp it to the full. Other countries have used mobile phones to link opportunity seekers to jobs, finances and further education. Here, cellphone providers penalise those who can only afford basic cellphones by charging higher rates for simpler technologies – like USSD – while the actual operating costs are next to nothing. I keep wondering whether big business is really serious about reuniting our country. I would like to take the CEO’s of Vodacom, MTN and Cell C with me to Rooigrond where I live, so they can understand the power that they have to change the lives of young people.

This 51-page report, published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, examines the sustainability, ethics, and quality, as well as the role of development co-operation, of citizen journalism in Africa. The study defines this kind of journalism as that produced by non-professionals and notes that it makes use of a wide range of tools including social media, the internet, and mobile phones to fill existing gaps in conventional news coverage. According to the study, new media platforms are changing how people communicate with each other around the world. However, computer ownership and internet access are still the prerogative of the wealthy in much of the African continent, but mobile internet access is on the rise and if current growth rates continue, African mobile phone penetration will reach 100 per cent by 2014. Both mobile phones and the internet provide exciting new opportunities for one-to-one as well as one-to-many communication. One concern raised in this context is the matter of quality standards and a code of ethics.

Download the report here.

Personal and social communication have changed substantially with the use of ICTs, social networks and text messages. ICTs create new scenarios, new ways for people to live and these reflect real-life problems. Issues of security, privacy, and surveillance are now part of the debate around ICT development. Women should assert their rights here too, with determination and without delay. Women may not have been an active part of ICT development when the conversation started, but the rapid pace of change online, means they need to participate now to ensure that the future of the internet is shaped taking into account women’s rights concerns.

Women know that their core aim should be to support democracy in the political, social and economic fields and, of course, in the field of communications, including the internet. Taking action around internet policies today means dealing with other issues and the rights associated with them that also affect people who are not connected. For example, if surveillance and internet censorship violate human rights in the virtual world, these rights are at risk in the real world too.

In this policy advocacy toolkit, several relevant issues area addressed regarding women’s participation in shaping the internet as a democratic space, where women’s freedom of speech is respected and valued and where they can access and develop crucial information.

Kristin Palitza interviews GABRIELLE GAUTHEY, executive vice president of global telecommunications provider Alcatel Lucent

CAPE TOWN, South Africa , May 8, 2012 (IPS) - On a continent of over one billion people, where half the population have mobile phones, the use of mobile communication and internet technologies is crucial to boost development in Africa.

This is according to Gabrielle Gauthey, executive vice president of global telecommunications provider Alcatel Lucent. She was one of the presenters at the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Review Summit held in Cape Town, South Africa, from May 3 to 4.

"We did not anticipate how rapid mobile broadband would be appropriated in Africa. There will be a computer in every pocket sooner than we think," Gauthey told IPS. She added that Kenya has made rapid progress, having already rolled out 3rd generation mobile communications

Recently, the African National Congress (ANC) released a discussion document on communications, entitled ‘Building an inclusive society through information and communication technology (ICT)’, in preparation for its elective conference in Mangaung.
 
Many media commentators will probably focus on whether the ANC has varied its position on the statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). However, the document as a whole merits serious consideration, as it is likely to have an important impact on the nature of South Africa’s communications environment.
 
What is particularly noteworthy about the document is that, for the first time, ANC policymaking on communications focuses on the state of the ICT sector, and not just on the legacy media.
 
Any forward looking policy must also include an assessment of past transformation efforts. The document provides a very useful assessment of the gains and losses since the transition to democracy, and is, at times, highly critical of the lack of transformation. Many of the sector’s key institutions are in a mess, and South Africa is underperforming in terms of key ICT indicators. The authors blame these problems on fragmented and uncoordinated policy and institutional arrangements.

 Africa has been the world’s fastest growing region over the last decade in terms of mobile penetration. While fixed line penetration has stagnated at 4% in the continent, mobile has grown at an astonishing rate to 45% with North Africa leading at 73%. However broadband is lagging behind considerably when compared to other continents.

The reason: lack of an adequate infrastructure and high costs of service provisioning. Currently the average broadband penetration in Africa is only 1.5% with South Africa leading at approximately about 3%. Owing to coverage restrictions and lack of bandwidth, large parts of the region continue to witness connectivity delivered via satellites or mobile technology. Lack of bandwidth availability and limited connectivity with rest of the world has arrested the development of Africa and has constrained the continent from achieving its full potential.

 In 2011, Women'sNet conducted 2 sets of workshops on e-advocacy techniques and digital actvism in the framework of the OWRAP Program and with the Building Women's Collective Power project. More specifically, those workshop have focused on the use of social media platforms and a set of online tools that can help feminist actvists in their advocacy campaigns. Recently, the Arab Spring, and more specifically the Egyptian and Tunisian popular uprisings of 2011, were fuelled by online activists, organising through blogs, SMS, and social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook. How can the feminist movement in South Africa can take advantage of new online and mobile tehnologies to improve their advocacy practices? The following publications start a reflexion on activism and technology in our hyper connected world.

Mary C Joyce of the Meta-Activism project summarizes in a recent blog post the key functions of technology for activist purposes: to shpae public opinion, plan an action, protect activists, share a call to action and take action digitally.

Government has called for written submissions from the public to comment on the Protection from Harassment Bill. The Bill it silent on information and communications technologies (ICTs) , except to acknowledge that electronic means can be used to harass someone. As Sally-Jean Shackleton, representing Women’sNet says,” The new Bill enables us to introduce aspects or cyber stalking, and also allows us additional means to trace perpetrators.” Find out how YOU can influence the Bill click on 'more'!

A draft Bill proposing a ban on sexual content on the internet and cellphones submitted to the South African Department of Home Affairs in May 2010 claims to have the best interests of women and children in mind. The draft Bill set alarm bells ringing in the women’s and LGBTI movement’s. The Bill was submitted to the Department , who oversee the Film and Publications Board, by a non-profit organisation called Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA). 

The Cisco Networking Academy conducted an IT Essentials trainning with six participants being deaf students.