New media became very powerful in all aspects of Human life. Its adaptation may either benefit or harm our daily activities such as business, information process, education system and even socialization.
There is no exactly date which clearly spells out the date when new media arrived in Tanzania. However, it is estimated that social media arrived in Tanzania in the late 1990s and early 2000. Trottier and Fuchs (2015) states that social media first appeared in Tanzania in late 1990s towards 2000 when people in Tanzania started to use internet due to the advancement of technology in the country.
Images from Internet
Before coming of new media, radio television and magazine were very powerful in disseminating information. However with the help of advanced technology and internet accessibility, new media became more powerful as a new means of communication. It was estimated on March 2021 that number of internet users in Tanzania is about 29 million.
Despite of the steady state of facilitating instant communication, giving journalists new experiences to their work, new media is seen as the threat to traditional media and brought misconceptions and myth to mainstream actors who resist embracing digital journalism in this digital era.
The very common complaint is the issue of trust. Most of journalists who work on the mainstream media believe that social media are not reputable like radio, television and magazine. The reason for this myth is a driven force from the audience. In Tanzania many audience trust their traditional media more than online and social media news sources. More importantly most of fake news comes from online sources than traditional media.
Everyone is aware of citizen journalism which is performed by citizens who are internet users. Some of professional journalists feel like losing their jobs. The effect of digital disruption, we are all journalists now who can broadcast by using our smart phones. The media landscape is becoming more concentrated and number of paid journalists is dropping as legacy media organizations struggle with falling revenues.
Social media is just for younger generations and my customers are older is among the misconception that mainstream actors have especially in newspapers business. Mainstream actors believe that elders don’t have time to spend on internet, but the truth is everyone is online nowadays so your business should be online too.
Therefore as journalist one should embrace digital skills to cope with digital technology and it’s developments. In Tanzania, some of mainstream media have already see the potential to operate in all platforms, traditional and new media.
Written by LatifA Ali
Content Creator | Editor
Digital Journalists
Boresha Habari Project