POLIS describes itself as an international forum for research and debate in journalism and society; based at the London School of Economics and the London College of Communication. One of the aims of POLIS is to increase understanding of the crucial role journalism plays in "improving governance, fostering open debate and empowering the public."
The conference hosted on 22 March 2007 on "Development, Governance and the Media" was designed to further this aim by providing a space for structured debate between organisations promoting and strengthening the role of the media in development and multiple stakeholders including: civil society organisations and other development related communities, media practitioners, academics etc.
The structure of the conference included plenary sessions, a structured session for the exchange and debate of perspectives of a range of journalists, and breakout sessions focusing on specific questions/areas relating to the broad topic of the conference.
The Association for Progressive Communications was invited to comment in one of these sessions; "Media and new technology: can the digital revolution boost the impact of African Media on development and governance?" The session was chaired by Gerald Milward-Oliver (The Anima Centre) and also had Prof Robin Mansell (Professor of new Media, LSE)
APC’s contribution was in response to a briefing paper (prepared by
Gerald Milward-Oliver and Malgorzata Zielinska from the LSE) that was circulated to registered attendees, prior to the conference. This contribution was as follows:
"APC concentrates its policy advocacy work on the infrastructural challenges facing African countries. The framework we have adopted for our work is that of a Layered Approach which interprets the full complement of ICTs (including hardware, software, services etc) as constituting an interconnecting ‘open access’ network of three layers – physical, logical and content.
We advocate at the physical level for open access to broadband networks at affordable prices; at the logical level we advocate for access to FOSS; and for open access to knowledge at the content layer. We believe that without these layers being made accessible, the challenges mentioned in the briefing paper will persist and any impact the digital revolution has on democracy and governance will remain limited in scope and scale.
Specific to the discussions of this break-out session, we would like to pick up on three main themes in the briefing paper: 1) the look towards mobile in delivering the digital revolution; 2) the distinction between ‘old’ media and ‘new’ media; and (3) the source/direction of
interventions.
1) The role of mobile
There is an assumption that the use of ICTs and digital media in connecting people in Africa depends on the spread of the internet. Due to its explosive growth, mobile is seen as the technology most people are going to us to access the internet. Whilst mobile telephones certainly have a role to play, as the technology currently stands, they are unable to deliver the level of interactivity most participatory internet applications demand. There is a need therefore to appreciate the gap that exists between internet connectivity and the ‘web-maturity’ of mobile phones in our discussions.
2) The distinction between ‘old’ media and ‘new’ media
Whilst useful for analytical purposes, we believe that the distinction can be ‘distracting’ in practice as it might be interpreted by some to mean that new media will replace old media. This is unlikely to happen – past examples support this view; commercial use of the web stimulates the use of postal services, and TV has not replaced cinema.
Our experience has been that old media is starting to make use of websites, blogs, RSS feeds etc (i.e. new media) for distribution of their content. Radio stations use the web to communicate with listeners as well as to access information for their programming.
The focus of initiatives should therefore be on creating environments that facilitate access to both forms of media rather than focusing on specific technologies … in other words; the focus should always be on expanding choices.
3) Direction of innovation/improvements
As highlighted in the briefing paper; in spite of the challenges faced by Africa’s media and general population, “connections" are still being made. There is a saying that "necessity is the mother of invention" … people will always work within the conditions in which they live to effect the changes they desire. Whilst it is important to continually improve the availability and access to tools that can facilitate such changes, we need to be mindful of the direction in which such ‘improvements’ are introduced … whether ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’, and create space for ‘bottom-up’ approaches."
