Rupert Murdoch is a typical Western media mogul whose ideas about changing role of newspaper industry in the age of internet perfectly meets the conditions in that part of the world but never in most African countries. It may be true that the print media in the Western world is facing stiff competition from the digital media in both news and advertisement, in Africa issues of accessibility, computer literacy and language still give the newspaper industry an upper hand.
His well written speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors back in 2005 suggests that newspapers should create websites that will host different information portals that could be used by the emerging large market of youths who prefer to get news and other information through the internet. Yet, taking the case of Tanzania, the youth are not a large news market as compared to people in the 34 to 50 age bracket that also use the internet more than the younger age.Besides, this age bracket is the largest newspaper market.
Non--the-less, his caution for improvements to meet audience-centred information demand and format in which the information is delivered is applicable in Africa as well.If the people in Africa have to participate effectively in production and consumption of resources, including information resources, their views, needs and interests have to be valued by the print journalists and others.
While Murdoch's suggestion for print media industry to partner with video programming industry as a strategy to increase taste of news and visual entertainment is credible but the capital base for most of the newspapers in Africa is little and will require pre-determined efforts by financial institutions to support this effort.
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