Everybody wants new things

by Anorth Mabunda

“In with the new, out with the old,” says Michael Salzwedel in the 2010 Rhodes Journalism Review.

Have you ever noticed how weird it is to drop your plans just to wait for prime-time news bulletins on e-TV or SABC 3? Honestly, we are all tired of being controlled or limited by certain individuals, we all want to have our voices heard, and we need control over the “platform, space and time”(Newton: DCI).

Radio came up with a brilliant idea of updating its audience every thirty minutes and establishing talk shows where listeners can comment on air, but because of our piling daily tasks and the pervasive entertainment (e.g. music), we just can’t concentrate.

Another compromising effect is the agenda setting theory of the media, the media are known for their tendency of making us relate to their rhythms while neglecting the rhythms that readers and listeners want dance to.
“They (audience) expect the media to give an accurate representation of themselves” writes Irene Costera Meijer in the 2010 Rhodes Journalism Review. Irene argues that today’s audience expects constant updates, a broader selection of topics and a greater variety in design instead of news on fixed times and in tightly directed formats. Hence they opt for the new media.

Let us look at the political side of life, everybody wants new things, former president Thabo Mbeki was sacked from his seat before the end of his term because he opted for another term and for more than 24 years the Swazi’s are busy struggling to topple the feudal monarch system of King Mswati III, why? The answer is res ipsa loquito, people want new things, they want to have a say, they are tired of being passive all the time, they want mahinya-hinya(mixture) as we call it in my mother tongue.

Quote of the day: “Kids need to see newspapers as something that informs them-where you can learn (new) things that relate to your life.” Patti McDonald, Publisher of Avusa Education