John Matovu Aminah Zawedde Das Pamela and Herbert Ruhunde.pdf

64 Strengthening the Role of ICT in Development Volume VIII
There is a great need to build the capacity of people to enable their use of
internet and basic ICTs such as mobile phones whose benefi ts are amplifi ed by the
fact that the spread of mobile technology in many rural areas has occurred much
faster than with other information and communication technologies (ICTs).
There is also a need develop local content in local languages and applications in
high utility value for the community. Areas to look into include: health, education,
market information, agriculture and local administration.
Although an expanding body of scholarly work addresses technological issues
regarding journalism, few authors combine such insights and research into a
broader framework of thinking about journalism and media production processes
as a whole and this is where the gist should be.
Similarly, work on new media and journalism signals increased interactivity and
a further blurring of the hierarchical relationships between producers and users
of news as the main characteristics of the changes digitalization and convergence
bring to conceptualizing journalism [Pavlik 2001].
What sets the sketched developments in society and technology apart in
their impact upon contemporary journalism is related issues of control and
transparency. Control on the one hand is about initiatives to remove primacy of
authority over the news agenda or even the storytelling experience from the hands
of (professional) journalists in favour of more responsive, interactive and inclusive
journalistic practices. Transparency on the other hand relates to the increasing
ways in which people both inside and external to journalism are given a chance to
monitor, check, criticize and even intervene in the journalistic process. One element
enables and follows the other, of course: more shared control over newsgathering
and storytelling increases opportunities for surveillance and procession criticism.
The point here is that a rethinking of journalism and the professional identity
of journalists is necessary not so much because there is something wrong with the
profession, but rather because it is essential in order to maintain a conceptually
coherent understanding of what journalism is in an increasingly complex and
liquid modern society [Bauman 2001].
Stverak [2010] argues that these fears are unfounded because traditional
news media reporters and editors are being devastated by a fi nancial crisis, not a
journalism crisis. Somebody has to fi ll the void.
He argues that those who work with citizen journalists in online news ventures
know better than anyone what a tough, disciplined calling it is. That is why they
hire professionals and rigorously train citizens.