Lise-Marie Greeff-Villet Teaching Online Journalism

October 2010 Exercise 1: Module 1

ONLINE JOURNALISM IN SOUTH AFRICA 1. Introduction

The internet is fast becoming the world’s primary source of information as well as a chief platform for interaction and discussion. And South Africa’s online media industry - a free, robust and flourishing industry with a diversity of print and broadcast media - is putting in all efforts to keep up with this ever growing phenomenon (South Africa The Good News, 2007). All the major media operators in the country, and plenty of smaller ones besides, have a healthy presence in cyberspace. Nonetheless, compared to other newspapers in developed countries, South African news sites are still lacking behind in being interactive. The country is slowly seeing an increase in multimedia integration and news companies are offering their readers more dynamic and interactive experiences, but in contrast to international media the user offering on many of these sites seem to be developing too slowly. This can be attributed to a number of reasons that include at the forefront South Africa’s problems with access to internet services (Ralephenya, 2005). The online market in South Africa is still in its development phase, with only 12% (6.1 million people) of South Africans utilizing some form of internet access – be it dial-up, fixed broadband or mobile broadband in 2010 (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2010) These low penetration rates are not only due to, but to a large extent as a result of high internet costs and the fact that South Africa is still bandwidth starved compared to the developed world. However, with the landing of new undersea cables connecting the continent (SEACOM) last year, grants of Electronic Communications Network Service licenses to over 400 organisations, a continued uptake of broadband connectivity by small and medium enterprises, as well as the slow but steady growth of internet access via mobile phones in South Africa, businesses and private users alike are expecting a revolution in internet access, costs and technology (SouthAfrica.info, 2009; SouthAfrica.info, 2010; eMarketing Trends, 2010). An improved broadband offering will not only allow for increased numbers of users to connect more often and spend more time on the web, but also, knowing that previous limitations regarding high quality visuals or video streaming are no longer an issue, it will encourage an increasing number of individuals and corporates to embrace rich media, making greater use of video and audio as well as other interactive functionalities on their web sites. Another obstacle that South African online media corporates often have to overcome is the gap in experience and skills that exists in terms of developing feasible business models on which to build successful online news delivery services.

The paid content model in South Africa, for instance, has not been that successful. Two South African top news sites have had to shift back to delivering free content after they tried to lock off some of their content to local and international readers. Even though everyone wants to keep up with the Jones’s, publishing houses in South Africa are slowly learning the basics of online economics and realizing that to be viable, multimedia integration needs to be well thought out and planned, and that for new media, online business models should be uniquely developed for the medium at hand. In terms of technical proficiency though, young South African online experts are revolutionising South Africa’s media landscape - developing world-class online applications, services, platforms, blogs, blog aggregators and social networking websites that can appeal to a wide variety of people and that have received international recognition (South Africa The Good News, 2007). For the purpose of this exercise we will take a look at the following South African news web sites to investigate how they have incorporated multimedia and interactive functionalities onto their sites to functionally compliment the content and promote the quality of the user experience on the sites:

• www.news24.com • www.mg.co.za • http://www.kwevoel.co.za/

2. News24

News24 is probably South Africa’s most popular online source of current news. The site is the most prominent of a family of web sites run by Naspers, the largest media group in Africa. Other sister sites of News24 include Women24, Sport24, Careers24, Health24, Food24 and Wheels24 to name only a few. A recent study into the future of media and entertainment channels in South Africa, found that of the top 20 sites visited by users in South Africa, only five were South African sites. Apart from the obvious frequent use of search engines, social networks are among the most visited sites, and South Africans also use the Internet to get information, as evidenced by the high rankings for sites such as Wikipedia and News24 – the only news media site on the top 20 (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2010). The table below offers a glimpse into the top 20 sites most visited by South African users as recorded early in 2010.

News24.com provides, amongst other services, the following interactive functionalities to their users:

• Up to the minute current news with the option to receive it on your mobile phone as the news breaks. News24 Home: www.news24.com

• The option to follow News24 news on their social media profiles as well as receive the news via e-mail as the news breaks. News24 Home: www.news24.com

• The tools with which to share News24 content on your social media profiles. i.e. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Senior-staff-at-The-New-Age-resign-20101019

• Content Recommendations Through your social networks

By listing Most Read / Most Comments / News in your area / Top rated blogs

• Providing a platform for citizen journalism and though sharing through MyNews24 – Letters / Blogs / Polls: http://www.news24.com/MyNews24

Blogs

Opinion Polls

• Galleries provide content complimentary imagery, News in pictures, as well as interactive User Galleries: http://www.news24.com/Galleries

• The multimedia section allows for a combination of broadcast footage, clips compiled

for online only by News24 journalists, as well as videos submitted by News24 web users: http://ww3.news24.com/Videos/

• The News24 site has a specific sub-site dedicated to gaming: http://www.24.com/games

• News24 does not utilize much podcasting or sound/music clip downloads, but these are featured on many of the other sites in the 24.com family, that are obviously also linked to from News24 .com, such as Channel24.com and Fin24.com. The 24.com family

Podcasting

Music Downloads

The other sites in the 24.com family definitely add value to News24 itself as users, through News24, have a one-stop “portal” to information not only on hard news, but health, finance, properties, focused sport, motoring, travel, entertainment, etc. Each of these sites also offer more interactive functionalities to web users as appropriate to the content they carry such as BMI calculators on Health24, personal finance tools on Fin24, maps on Travel24, online job applications on Careers24, online bond applications on Properties24, and much more. News24 also mirrors its news offering in another major South African language, namely Afrikaans, on Nuus24.com.

3. The Mail and Guardian online

The Mail & Guardian Online was the first internet-based news publications in Africa and has received numerous accolades and awards its quality content. Today, it is a fast-growing site, taking its place as one of country's top three biggest news sites. M&G Online is owned by M&G Media, which publishes the M&G newspaper. The London-based Guardian Newspapers Limited holds 10% of the company. The M&G Online works closely with the newspaper, but has its own dedicated editorial staff to produce breaking news on a daily basis to complement the analytical, in-depth feature articles from the newspaper.

The M&G Online runs numerous sites including the flagship news site Mail & Guardian Online, as well as M&G Jobs, Thought Leader, Sports Leader, Tech Leader, News in Photos, The Teacher, and M&G Mobile.

Mail & Guardian Online provides, amongst other services, the following interactive functionalities to their users:

• Up to the minute current news with the option to receive it through their newsletter as well as options to create your own personalized news dashboard: http://www.mg.co.za/

• The option to follow M&G news on your cell phone and receive the news as it breaks. http://www.mg.co.za/page/mobile-services

• The option to follow M&G news on Twitter and receive the news as it breaks.

• The tools with which to share M&G content on your social media profiles. i.e. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-10-19-sudan-hints-at-delay-to-south-independence-vote

• Content Recommendations

• Galleries provide content complimentary imagery to breaking news, News in pictures, as well as reader galleries: http://photos.mg.co.za/

• The multimedia section allows for a combination of broadcast footage, video clips

compiled for online only by M&G journalists, as well as podcasts: http://www.mg.co.za/multimedia

• Providing a platform for opinions, comments, analysis and though sharing: http://www.mg.co.za/section/opinion

4. “Die Kwêvoël” “Die Kwêvoël” is a very small community newspaper in a small town called Thabazimbi, in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. They are so small in fact that they run their online news site on WordPress. Yet, even they are trying to keep up with modern online media trends by using multimedia and new media functionalities to compliment their written content. They offer extensive photo galleries; unique multimedia clips produced for the web site; content recommendations through most popular, most commented and latest article listings; the option to follow news on the Kwêvoël social media profiles; and even the option to download the full paper in .pdf format online.

• www.kwevoel.co.za

5. Conclusion With improved infrastructure, important lessons learnt, and an eager new generation of young South Africans emerging from the wings, the country’s online media industry is set to make remarkable strides and to grow dramatically when domestic markets elsewhere are stagnating. News web sites in South Africa are proliferating and these web sites increasingly offer more interactive ways of accessing news and delivering multimedia integration – and in so doing providing ways for web visitors to not only consume the media but also interact with it. Furthermore, both citizen journalism and traditional journalism is slowly taking their place in the South African online media landscape as important but diverse information forms in their own right.

References

eMarketing Trends. 2010. [Online] Will growth in South African Internet usage improve user experience?. http://www.emarketingtrends.co.za/2010/01/will-growth-in-south-african-internet-usage-improve-user-experience . 19 October 2010. PriceWaterhouseCoopers. 2010. [Online] South African entertainment and media outlook: 2010-2014. http://www.pwc.com/za/en/publications/entertainment-and-media-outlook.jhtml 19 October 2010. Ralephenya, S.I. 2005. [Online] Research Project: How interactive are South African news websites compared to other international news sites? University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. http://saoj.org/wiki/images/8/88/Ralephenya.pdf. 19 October 2010

SouthAfrica.info. 2009. [Online] Internet access to double by 2014. http://www.southafrica.info/business/trends/newbusiness/internet-260309.htm. 19 October 2010.

SouthAfrica.info. 2010. [Online] Africa set for 'internet revolution. http://www.southafrica.info/africa/africainternet-160910.htm. 19 October 2010.

South Africa The Good News. 2007. [Online] South Africa Online. http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/newsletter_archive/south_africa_online_2.html. 19 October 2010