Digital madness; a reality check from an insider

CARDIFF, UK: There is a massive chatter flying around attempting to explain ‘digital migration.’ It is a major turning point no doubt it warrants the heavy debate. Adding to this appears to be an academic exercise. This I will gleefully oblige.

We must first defeat a major fallacy though which we have premised our analyses; the media is opposed to digital migration. It is my experience i invite my colleagues to agree or disagree, there is no passing day in the newsroom that technology fails us. Ideas are endless but somehow we are defeated by combination of technology not stretching enough to allow us to do simple things; like a Skype interview or Google hang out without something going horribly wrong. If you succeed you have terrible resolution and static video clearly an abuse of broadcast quality. I don’t know of a single boss that i have worked with both at KTN and NTV that is not frustrated by technology. Obviously, they would want not an upgrade but a complete enabling infrastructure so that those newsroom ideas can flourish.

Being the person who first imagined and conceptualized what we hoped would be the first television show that was to keep head above water for news production to connect our ‘connected’ viewers with news makers. My first show on #Thetrend was a complete mess. For instance, we had planned to have a Google hangout stream and have 6-8 participants in a night. First the internet failed; digital migration apparently solves this. Secondly, we shipped all our participants to Nation centre; the picture quality was too unstable too erratic it would have been torture to put it on air. In the end, I wasted my guest’s time, who trooped to social media to publicize this major fail. I understood their frustrations, I was attempting something new and brazen we simply didn’t have the capacity to pursue. In the end, our technology simply collapsed.

I want to imagine anyone occupying a decision making office will be thrilled to have not a stretch but a complete upgrade. Believe me it solves 50% of television production pain. I am aware there is a possibility that there might be a caveman who still wants to hold on to good old analogue. In that case these types are in the minority of minority.

If your business is television, keeping up with technology becomes your second job. Not too long PD-150 (camera type) was a massive revolution in the newsrooms; it solved the problem Betacam couldn’t. Today Sony Z7 and Sony NX70 are the terms of engagement. The PD is ancient. If there is any industry that changes with technology then it has to be television, if only that you MUST.

 

That explains one part but clearly it doesn’t explain why Alejandro and his mujer chock us at every juncture. To this charge, an admission of failure to invest in local programming should be accepted and shared. What do I mean? The cost of producing local content has simply been painfully ridiculous. No one can explain why a local drama costs more than Alejandro in his hacienda.

This is not just a media problem but we as a country cannot explain something’s that appear innocuous but dangerous. How do we explain for instance, why a farmer in Sao Paulo, 6000 good heaven miles from Kenya transports his sugar, and prizes it competitively against my people from Mumias? How this makes sense is something beyond my comprehension. The same is true as to how our friends producing television content at home have to compete with Spanish soaps, which let it be said, are cheap and easier to come by. Blame I am afraid has to be shared: Years of low or no funding at all by the state, Medias complete looking the other side, sadly siding with cheap imports clobbering audience with Philippines and Nigeria shows

Digital Migration, Autocorrects.

Questions have been asked about Media’s fidelity to Kenyans in relation to the programming. Has it been fair or obnoxious? Some have raised debate about news coverage, has it been slanted or otherwise? Others have thought the industry has been arrogant and pretentious. These debates can and should be discussed, but, the answers clearly lie elsewhere.

I am reminded of a gentleman in Central Kenya; he had a knack for harvesting his neighbour’s fruits. The husband laid a trap and true to word, his wife wandered and lost her way from her plot ten one room straight to the neighbours. The husband and the community converged and the man was pinned down by the community as the jilted husband delivered blows akin to the ones a snake discovered would be treated. The black eyed fruit snatcher later exclaimed to the press Makosa imefanyika.

It was Thomas Jefferson who said ‘If I had to choose between government without press, and press without government, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the later.’

James Smart is currently pursuing Masters in International Journalism at Cardiff University. www.jamessmart.co.ke