New Media as Digital 'Pavement Radio' Promoting Political Change in Zimbabwe

London.
The final speaker at the Transforming Audiences conference is Dumisani Moyo, whose interest is in citizen journalism in the age of digital pavement radio in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, of course, has experienced a series of crises in recent years, which can be traced back to the democratic deficits inherited from its colonial history.

The shrinkage of communicative space in Zimbabwe has been widely documented in recent years; this was driven by legislative and other means. How have ordinary Zimbabweans adjusted and reacted to this? Media remain seen as important elements in the country's political discourse, and were noted as such in the agreement that led to the establishment of the current unity government. There has also been a rise of various forms of citizen journalism, which supported the political shifts in recent years and continues to push for further change; even here, however, professional journalists have objected to the idea of citizen journalism and see the concept as undermining their own professional roles.

In the African context, what is now called citizen journalism is not a new phenomenon, but an extension of what has been called 'pavement radio': the social transmission of political information across informal personal networks. Citizen engagement in news storytelling has not come about as a result of new technologies, but has a much longer history; what has happened recently is simply the digitisation, the technologisation of pavement radio at least in urban areas. That said, the new technologies have radically transformed such practices and opened up new opportunities for political information and action.

All of this happened against the backdrop of political crisis, the 2008 elections, and the five-week delay in announcing the election results. During this delay, there was a virtual news blackout for political news, and this gap was filled by a parallel market of information supported by digital pavement radio (using SMS and Web technologies); alternative communication networks were faster in diffusing information than the mainstream media. This is even in spite of the still very limited penetration of Internet and mobile technologies - for mobiles, for example, there is a recognised 'single owner, multiple users' phenomenon.

The Zimbabwean diaspora also played a very important role; they retransmitted information back into the country. Further, political jokes also became a common vehicle for the transmission of political information. And some of the information which was transmitted over digital pavement radio originated with NGOs.

Technorati : Transforming Audiences 2009, Zimbabwe, change, citizen journalism, pavement radio, politics
Del.icio.us : Transforming Audiences 2009, Zimbabwe, change, citizen journalism, pavement radio, politics