Mass Communication Theories

 

CHAPTER ONE

UNDERSTANDING MASS COMMUNICATION

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Introduction

Mass communication is a discipline that deals with sharing ideas, thoughts and messages to a large and heterogeneous group of people through the use of various communication tools such as television, newspapers, radio, mobile phones, iPods, computer etc. Sharing ideas, knowledge and thought to unknown people is a bit complicated and needs a person who can think properly. It is very tricky because audiences have different cultural backgrounds which in one way or another may influence the way they interpret media messages. The message delivered can be understood contrary to the intention of the sender or mass communicator. For example the appearance on YouTube of an ant Islam film produced in the US has sparked protests and attacks across parts of Asia, Africa and Middle East, in which many people have died. I can’t conclude that it was the intention of communicator to reinforce such as massive conflicts in the society. 

 

Likewise, Ten Commandments published on Akangura Paper  sparked Rwanda Genocide and claimed the death of 800,000 civilians while many more fled the country as refugees simply because the audience interpreted the message differently and reacted to it negatively.

 

Hitler used newspapers, radios, loudspeakers in the streets, his amazing public-speaking skills, cinema, books and music to disseminate his propaganda. He invaded a little radio station in Poland claiming that they were talking about taking over Germany. So France and England became involved and hence World War 2 erupted.

 

Today the power of media is on the hand of every person who has never seen the inside of journalism classroom developing content for mass consumption. What do you expect when such a powerful institution falls on the hands of people who cannot think properly? For sure I tell you the world is in danger because kichaa kapatiwa rungu.

 

Classification of mass media

Mass media refers to a means of communication that operates on a large scale, reaching and involving virtually everyone in a society to a greater or lesser degree. McQuail describes the mass media as the organized means for communicating openly and at a distance to many receivers within a short space of time. It is impersonal communication source that reach large and heterogeneous audiences. As oil, Murphy (1977) asserts that media of communication keep the world running smoothly by helping individuals adjust to the reality of lives. They keep society on and healthy by suggesting solutions that are socially acceptable. The media gives all of us something to talk about.  Again mass media can rip the society apart through propaganda campaigns and publication of seditious materials.

 

Isn’t mass communication a fallacy?

Mass communication is a term formed of two different words, ‘mass’ and ‘communication’. Oxford Dictionaries define mass as   a large number of people or objects crowded together whereas the term communication comes from Latin word "communis", meaning sharing of idea, thought and feelings. People are said to be in communication when they discuss some matter, or when they talk on telephone, or when they exchange information through letters. Basically, communication is sharing information, whether in writing or orally.

 

Mass communication for that means is sharing of idea, thought and feelings with heterogeneous and unknown people. Communication among these people is usually realized through discussion. This brings in my question, isn’t mass communication a fallacy? Do senders of ideas and thoughts get ample time to discuss with their audience? After all is it plausible to discuss with the people whom you don’t know? When watching news bulletin do you participate in the discussion or you remain a passive receiver of news?

 

Harbarmas came with his theory of public sphere claiming that mass media plays a very good role of bring the public together in a public forum to discusses issues of their interest. This is possible with delayed feedback or through the use of facebook.

Classification of the Mass Media

Everywhere in this book I have been discussing that mass communication is possible when we communicate with large and heterogeneous audience by using technologies such as newspapers, radio, tv, computer iPod and etc. But this is too general for that means we need to know specifically in which category each instrument of mass communication fall. In this therefore I have classified mass communication tools into three major categories; print, electronic and social media.

 

1.     The Print Media

Paper based media such as newspapers, magazines, books and pamphlets that carry messages to the mass by appealing to the sense of sight. One common thing about the print media is that they involve the pressing of ink on paper using plates and blocks, and special machines. To my view this is the most boring type of media that most of people don’t enjoy. It is very uncommon to find a reader for example reading cover to cover when he buys newspaper or a book. Some are saying that Tanzanians have no culture to read books and if you need to hide money you hide in books it is a safe place.

 

2.     The Electronic Media

Media base on devices that can transform sound or light waves into electrical signals, which are reconverted to things that can be heard or seen on radio or television. This kind of media according to what I see it is very cheap and loved by many people. A person can spend more than 4 hours consecutively watching soap opera, wrestling matches, football, Bongo Movie or listening to Clouds FM. You don’t need often money to watch bongo movie but you often need money to buy newspaper. 

 

3.     Social media

Internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a concept that takes the network as a platform for information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the Internet or World Wide Web[1].  Social media technologies take on many different forms including magazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microb logging, wikis, social networks, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. They are in different forms

 

4.     Wikis

These websites allow people to add content or edit the information on them, acting as communal document or database. With a wiki, any user can edit the site content, including other users' contributions, using a regular Web browser. The term comes from the word "wikiwiki," which means "fast" in the Hawaiian language. Visitors can also create new content and change the organization of existing content. The best known example of a wiki Web site is Wikipedia, an online dictionary building collaboration[2].

Academic writing and formal communication does not encourage the use of Wikipedia. In 2012, the director of TBC apologized publicly after his station used false statistics from Wikipedia,

“Alisema takwimu hizo zilichukuliwa kutoka katika mtandao wa WIKIPEDIA, ambazo zilionesha idadi ya Waislamu wakiwa asilimia 32, Wakristo asilimia 52 na dini nyingine asilimia 14. Alisema baada ya matangazo kurushwa hewani, walipokea barua kutoka kwa Katibu Mkuu wa chama cha Tanzania, Muslim Professionals Association, Pazi Mwinyimvua”.

These statistics were nearly causing religious conflicts in the country. Be careful with wikiwiki.

5.     Blogs

Blogs are online journals on newspapers with entries appearing with the most recent first. Michuzi is a common blog known to many in Tanzania. The good of blog is that any one of you can open it, but the problem is how to updated consecutively.

 

6.     Microblogs

Microblogs are social networking combined with bite sized blogging, where small amounts of content (updates) are distributed online and through the mobile phone network. Twitter is the clear leader in this field.

 

7.     Content communities

Content communities are communities which organize and share particular kinds of content. The most popular content communities include YouTube. It is very familiar among youth who often download and upload some video. The impact of YouTube happened early September 2012 when one person in US uploaded ant Islamic film. Within a short time the world sparkled into riots and death of many people.

 

8.     Social networking

Social networking sites are sites which allow people to build personal web pages and connect with friends to share content and communication. The biggest social networks are Facebook, MySpace and Bebo (Mushing, 2008, p. 112).

 

Generally social media is most preferred by many people but the problem is expenses. For instance you need money to access internet services a situation which most of Tanzanians cannot afford this. It kind of media that is highly used among college and high school students. Something very interesting some employees are sometimes very busy with face book instead of providing services to people.

 

Food Thought

Food for thought; does mobile phone fall under the category of mass media?

 

CHAPTER TWO

MEDIA POWER IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

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The power of media goes back to 5000BC when people learned to cast messages into written languages on clay tablets and stones. Media enabled people to organize their lives in a rational ways as recording historical events and use the recorded information as a point of reference to solutions of their problems and became less dependent on the whims of their gods. This power of media was negatively embraced by the authorities (gods) as they regarded it as, “subversive, destructive and sinful” (Hierbert and Gibbons, 2000, p. 7) therefore all matters about writing were put under the authority control and it was made difficult and impossible for ordinary people to cast writings on a stone. Through this the authority realized it’s powerful and permanence on information and communication control.

 

However, about 2500 BC a form of paper (papyrus) was introduced in Egypt and attacked the power and permanence of the authority based on the stone because the technology allowed ordinary people to cast their messages and ideas (Harold Innis, 1950 in Hierbert and Gibbons, 2000). Having seen too much freedom of writing to the majority ordinary people would bring challenge to the authority, Egyptian Pharaoh restricted writing to a privileged profession of scribes. Moses was among the few scribers who had access to freedom of writing that is why when he (MOSES) received Ten Commandments caved on stone he transferred the Commandments on the papyrus and produced the first five books of the bible (Torah). Likewise Moses restricted his works (the Bible) to privileged priests.

 

About 700 BC, the Greeks developed a 24 character alphabet and the majority of common people learned to read, write and organize their society, with more equal justice, reducing the power of despotic authorities and equalizing the classes.  In this period of reading and writing posed threat to the Catholic Church, for this means its leaders feared that indiscriminate study of the Bible could lead to changes on interpretations, which might challenge the authority of the church.

 

In 1450, a Germany printer Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printer which printed the Bible and enabled it accessible to many people. This again posed a challenge to the church. The priest Martin Luther translated the Bible into common languages and allowed many people to access it. We are told that when the greater members of common people could read the Bible, their questioning of the absolute power of the mother church led to a revolt against the Church of Rome, commonly known as Protestant Reformation (Hierbert and Gibbons, 2000).

 

Also the Gutenberg invention enabled the widespread of knowledge produced by books and  lead to number of Revolution such as Copernicus Revolution (Jacob, 1988,p.10) , Revolutions in America 1776 to 1783 and in France 1789 (French Revolution). These revolutions and other many were stimulated by increase of knowledge among common people. Publication of Magna Carter in 1215 made common people to know that human rights were not guaranteed by anybody except God.

 

In 1844 wired media were introduced to send information from one place to another and overcome the geographical distance. From phone developed radio in 1930 in which various programs were aired and people got to know what was happening from different corners of the world.  World War II has been called the radio war (Hierbert and Gibbons, 2000).

 

After radio the world witnessed TV, especially Video recordings which brought down the Soviet Empire and breached the Berlin Wall. Thanks to TV because it has changed how democracy is practiced. Hinchman, and Meyer (2005) and Louw (2005) discuss the radical changes in political communication that have taken place since the beginning of radio broadcasts that brought the voice of candidates into the living rooms of the public. They also describe the visual impact since television brought also the faces of politicians directly to people.

 

Finally the power of media manifests itself via the internet.  There are ongoing discussions, conferences, researchers and symposium regarding the influence of social media on the revolutions in Arab World. You Tube disseminated the ant Islamic Film which sparked fire in deferent parts of the world.

 

The picture that we are getting here is that media is a very powerful institution and any authority knows this.  In Tanzania when Nyerere became the first president banned all media claiming that such powerful media could not be allowed to operate in socialism regime (Sturmer, 1998).

 

One of the US presidents, Jefferson once said: … “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter. This shows that media are more powerful than any other institution is the nation including the government.

 

Having realized the power of media, many western countries learned to work closer with media for the interests of their nations. Baffour Ankoma a classical columnist of the NewAfrican asserts that in Western democracies, national stability is founded on the calculation that knowledge is power, and the more the masses know about the workings of the state, the less stable is and this being the case media should be closer to the government so as they could not report information against the government agenda.  That is why across the Western world, the media has taken its Fourth Estate role to mean working closely with the other three estates of the realm for the good of the country and people (Ankomah, 2008, p.11). Logically you can’t expect the media which work closer with the state to throw stones to the state.

 

Food for thought: Why do you think the media is so powerful than any institutions in the government?

 

CHAPTER THREE

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

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Introduction

A common image of a modern college student is of tight jeans, with very short blouse ending on umbilical cord, carrying on an expensive smart phone with headphones, chewing and walking majestically while their fingers are very busy with buttons of Nokia, Mchina, BlackBerry, Samsung or Motorola. It is common for a modern college student to woke up with these gadgets, go to college with headphones on their ears unable to say hello to passers-by, spend their day busy either of the gadgets and go back home alike, dinner with soap operas and go to bed with soft music commonly known as chombeza time. Reading books with many pages would be an abomination to such a person who is always busy with gadgets. When examinations approach, modern college students cram to death and forget everything soon after each exam. How a modern college student does assignment leaves a lot to be desired. Google does everything instead.

 

Pondering such life style there is no doubt that a modern college students might be suffering from information overload therefore they need immediate cures to such malade.

 

What is information overload?

Information overload is the state in which a person gets more information beyond his ability to consume and analyze it critically. We all know that information is power and a person without information is like a man who is in hell. However, the power of information perishes when people fail to utilize it effectively. This occurs when a person gets too much information and fails to concentrate on one item. From morning to evening people are very busy receiving and replying back to a couple messages.

 

The reality about information overload

Basing on a proverb, “Where there are plenty of trees there are no builders” I convinced to believe that information overload is a threat to our society.

 

Whether we like or not, information overload has negative impact to our modern world. As an adage goes “penye miti mingi hapana wajenzi” (where there are many trees no builders) is reflected on the general knowledge our youth have. A college student knows a lot but shallow. The technology pumps in too much staff to read, to watch and listen.

 

The conglomeration of messages has changed the reading culture. In the name of modern communication technologies students no longer go deeper before they rush to another piece of information. Something that is even worse is that some students have developed a culture of reading while listening to music. We have cases where students declaredly publicly that they cannot read without listening to music. Anyway we need a study to understand this.

 

 

A modern college student has no timetable to control his life. I say this through life experience of which you can also try. When you text student during class hours and you will promptly get feedback. There is no doubt that a student who responds to your messages during class hours cannot concentrate on what is taught because no servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” Luke 16:13. The point is, a student can either concentrate of sending messages.

 

Because of information overlord I fear that our nation in the future will be taken off by leaders with shallow knowledge. It is very disappointing when parents spend a lot to money for the education their young who suffer from information overload. We are in a danger of getting leaders who know a lot but very shallow. Our college students study in difficulty and sophisticated busy world where no time to relax. Therefore telling a person who suffers from information to think properly will be equally crucifying him for nothing. What kind of nations should we expect when is taken by Google graduates?

 

Way forward

Telling a person to stop using social media is like telling cha pombe to stop from smoking. Last week Tanzania journalists were advised not to use social media. It is unquestionable truth that there is no world survival without social media to those who have tasted the tune. However, we need to develop some strategies to make a person control these social media and this nothing else than sensitizing uses on social media literacy. Media literacy will enable social media users enjoy the technology for the wellbeing of their society. As a matter of fact we should not be fooled by media technology as an adage goes, “a fool collects a wise selects”. We need social media literacy to make users become critical consumers and disseminator of information on social media.

 

We need to remember that information is power when we know how we use it but it can change into a dangerous weapon when we misuse it. The world witnessed The Tahrir Square Revolutions because of information. Rajan Rakesh in his article in The East African November 21-27, 2011 argues that aids have failed in Africa because those who provide aids hide information on how they budget and allocate their aids to developing world.

 

What is media literacy then?

Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages across a variety of context (Livingstone, 2004). In this context of information overload we need to have some skills before we start consuming any messages coming to us. Media literate people are able to exercise informed choices, understand the nature and services and take advantage of the full range of opportunities offered by new communications technologies. They are better able to protect themselves and their families from harmful or offensive material (O’Neil, 2010).

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

HOW MASS MEDIA KILLS DEMOCRACY IN TANZANIA?

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Introduction

Whether we like it or not the media especially mainstream in Tanzania has contributed to the natural death of democracy in the country. My point of reasoning is that in democratic society it is the rule of the majority which rules the country. The only mechanism that can facilitate this rule is the media being acting as the voice of the people, i.e. bringing the voice of the majority in public sphere instead of increasingly being the voice of rich guys and successful politicians in urban areas. People in peripheral (in rural Kibondo, Nkasi, Kaisho just to mention a few) need media. But how many journalists report from such areas?

 

Two perspectives regarding media and democracy

 

Media Promotes Democracy

In modern society where everything is complex media remain the only tool that would bring together Africans to discuss matters of their interests because the culture of individuals coming together is pure African ways of doing things. It is important to remember that in African community issues affecting life are approached communally (Kasoma, 2002). Media can be compared to a village square, central meeting or “master forum” of the various public arenas, such as town hall meetings, judicial courts, and church services just to mention a few (Ferree et al., 2002, p. 10 Gerhards and Neidhardt, 1991). The mass media facilitate and institutionalize a continuous societal communication between members of science, politics, the economy, churches etc., in which different perspectives can be applied to a variety of topics.

 

Media Kills Democracy

However, some scholars blame media to have failed to unite people in the society. Adorno and Horkheimer in Tester (1994) allege that media have turned the mass audience into a collection of isolated individuals. In the name of radio people have forgotten to speak to each other. Marshall McLuhan in his book, “Understanding Media: The Extension of Man” (1964) is on the opinion that the technology keeps people apart. Tester (1994) argues that the media make people lazy cowards who are incapable even of feeling any need to imagine, any kind of enlightenment.

 

Dorothy in Tester (1994) argues that for men then, watching television is many ways an activity that is kept separate from the interaction and relationships of family life, but women see the matter very differently indeed for them watching television is a fundamentally social activity, involving ongoing conversation, and usually the performance of at least one other domestic activity (ironing) at the same time, many of the women feel that just watching television without doing anything else at the same time would be an indefensible waste of time. Women like faction but men like facts (news, current affairs, and documentaries). Men define home as a place to get rest after very busy day while women defines home as a place to work and put the house in order.

 

Indeed, the more those terrible events are shown on the screen or the more terrible events are reported in the press, the less of an impact they are able to have upon people. All human behavior is directed to the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain (Lupia & McCubbins, 1998, p. 23). Some use media for diversion i.e. escaping from routines or daily problems. They like love stories rather than historical war films.

 

Media cannot promote democracy because it has negative perception among the audience. Generally the picture media and journalists have to the public in Africa and some parts of the world is not pleasing and this is a historical phenomenon. In Grecian and Roman times messengers “journalists” who did not master the art of persuasion were put into the second class citizens (Schramm, 1988 in Fourie, 2005). In the Middle Ages, (poet, singer), who failed to translate daily events and political and diplomatic developments accurately were recognized as vagabonds. In Tanzania journalists who fail to fulfill the needs of the society are called kanjanja, waandishi and walala hoi.

 

Media critic Nick Davies in his article, “Our Media have Become Mass Producers of Distortion” argues that an industry whose task should be to filter out falsehood has become a conduit for propaganda and second hand news.

 

Some scholars perceive media as “offering satisfaction at the lowest level”, and one media critique Friedrich Nietzsche argues, “the rabble vomit their bile and call it a newspaper (Carey, 1996 in Fourie, 2005). The media have increasingly become the accuser, the jury and the judge all rolled up in one as it pounces on one victim after another in the name of press freedom and democracy (Kasoma, 1996).

 

Some audience do not value much the media believing that mass mediated information in general is incomplete, slanted or in other ways  colored by the intention of communicator (Scheufele, 1999,p. 105). Borman says some scholars don’t trust media because they report the distorted reality. People need journalism to give them facts that help them make sense of situations and that they can act upon, so the public is so shocked when news turns out to be untrue (Broersma, 2010,p. 25).

 

Investigative reporter Nick Davies has aroused a great deal of attention with his book Flat Earth News: An Award Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in Global Media (2008) that journalism has been internally eroded and reduced to churnalism. His point of departure is that because of scarce in budget that face many media organizations, the number of reporters has declined so much they cannot accurately gather and check news. They have to depend on press agencies, official sources and PR agencies to supply the raw materials that are recycled virtually unedited in news paper columns.

 

Broersma (2010, p.25) doesn’t trust the media content because the journalists don’t appear on the event rather they relay on the sources who can choose to deceive the reporter because there is no way that a journalist can force a source to tell the truth. This has made some media critics like Luyendijik to believe that even if reporters follow all the procedures correctly, they will still end up with a distorted picture of reality.

 

Mfumbusa (2008) doesn’t trust African journalists because they have no clear theoretical framework that controls their daily routine.

 

Negative perception about media according to Fourie (2005) is often expressed in the dialogue between characters in soap operas and situation comedies when they refer to journalists and the media as follows: “count your words in front of a journalist”; “who can believe the media?”; “don’t trust a journalist”; “be careful of journalists”, and so forth. 

 

John Stuart Mill, de Tocqueville and Ortega y Gasset, shared a concern that, under the guise of liberating the masses and the privilege of freedom of expression, journalists were contributing to a mass society in which a majority would gain power without having the necessary intellectual, social and cultural skills to lead the masses. They see the media as a threat to democratic institutions, to elite cultural values and as contributing to the reduction of the autonomy of the “best people” (Ortega, 1930 in Fourie, 2005).

 

Way forward

Media has been praised for being the key player for survival of democracy in society. Some have even equated media with democracy. But through life experience I don’t want to believe that mass media promote democracy in Tanzania for 100 percent, instead it kills democracy in various ways.

 

First of all media in Tanzania has created the culture of silencing its audiences. When people consume media messages are automatically keeping quite. For example today TV remains a principle speaker of the family members. A person with remote control keeps on changing the channel until all members of the family go to sleep. Nobody remembers what he watches on the other day. There is nowhere people from various households come together and discuss issues they watched from media. So the media keeps on pumping in messages to audience endlessly which at the end of the day audience fail to remember what was serious.

 

Second democracy always insists on participatory communication approach but our media are top down approach oriented. About 80 percent of media programs come from top officials, politicians and successful businessmen based in Dar es Salam. This is media injustice.  The majority of the audience in other regions in Tanzania remains passive consumers of information from Dar-es-salaam. This kills the power of journalists to set agenda for entire public. Even Star Tv the only big TV station outside Dar es Salam has modern production studio in Dar es Salaam instead of Mara or Kigoma. People around mining companies to them minerals remain a curse but Star TV rarely whistles for this.

 

In one of my study in Kibondo region I was trying to explore why Tanzanians don’t take collective action against ongoing fraud in the country. I was surprised that people have information and they were able to mention some key players in fraud but they have nothing in common that could bring them together and think of taking action. They just get information in isolation and interpret it in isolation.

 

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

THE ROLE OF FACEBOOK

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Introduction

The development of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter has dramatically changed how people interact with one another.  The development has opened up the room for participatory communication where audiences are no longer passive consumers of media messages but ‘pro-sumers’. The tradition role of information generation and distribution assigned to key players in journalism and mass communication guided by professional tenets such as gate keeping is no more functioning.  Instead people who have never seen the inside of journalism classroom or newsroom develop content and sometimes command extremely high responses and attention from information fanatics who give feedback to their content (Mushinge, 2008, p.112). Regulation through draconian laws and bureaucracy in newsrooms are no longer a threat to anybody.

 

The good thing with Facebook is that  it has given people the convenience of being able to connect with others all over the world without having to step a foot out of their homes and also the rare cases that crimes are sometimes solved through the help of a social media site (By Alyssa B. and Nick M.).  Some scholars see Social media as “social lubricant” in the sense that it helps people who struggle with relationships— the shy, the lonely, and people with low self-esteem— connect with others in a comfortable environment. Shy people have difficulty finding topics to talk about but today Facebook gives them a starting point (Forest and Wood, 2012; Baker and Oswald, 2010).

 

Thanks to social networks because the world now is enjoying freedom although we should not forget that too much freedom or freedom without restrictions (negative freedom) is dangerous on today’s world. The idea is that people can use this unlimited freedom to destroy the reputation of people, organization and society at large because media always have power to control the minds of the people. There is no doubt therefore that we need social network regulation if we real need to live in peace and tranquility.

 

But since regulating social networks in traditional ways (using draconian laws, detaining, threats and censorship) remain difficult and impossible, I am on the opinion that media literacy to users would make it. We need media literacy to enable the youth make intelligent use of it like doing away with using social networks for recreation (Liu, 2010).

 

Understanding Social Media

Social media refers to mobile and web-based technologies for creating highly interactive platforms via which individual and communities share, create, discuss and modify user generation content (Kietzmann, Herkens, McCarthy and Silvestre, 2011). The common social media include microblogging, wikis, social networks and social networks. They are in different forms. According to Mushinge (2008) Wikis allow people to add content or edit the information on them, acting as communal document or database. With a wiki, any user can edit the site content, including other users' contributions, using a regular Web browser. The best known example of a wiki Web site is Wikipedia, an online dictionary building collaboration. Mushinge defines content communities are communities which organize and share particular kinds of content. The most popular content communities include YouTube and Social networking sites are sites which allow people to build personal web pages and connect with friends to share content and communication. The biggest social networks are Facebook, MySpace and Bebo (Mushing, 2008, p. 112).

 

To my knowledge Facebook is the leading social media to have many users compared to other forms of social media such as MySpace and Bebo and much of my discussion in this paper will focus but not limited on facebook.  Facebook originated in the United States in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg  in his dorm room at Harvard University (Markoff, 2007), but surprisingly more than 80% of current Facebook users now live outside the United States, and the majority of new growth is occurring internationally, with Facebook available in over 70 languages (Wilson, et al, 2012). In February 2012, Facebook had over 845 million users (more than the population of Europe) who spent more than 9.7 billion minutes per day on the site sharing four billion pieces of content per day, including uploads of 250 million photos, and Facebook is now integrated with over seven million websites and applications.

 

Sad stories about social networks (Facebook)

I see social networks like a three year little boy playing with his daddy’s gun, one mistake a boy can end the lives of many. The idea behind this is that facebook is very dangerous when misused but very productive when well applied. Seven sad stories about social networks in general and facebook on particular are discussed here under.

 

1. Social networks: An enemy to critical thinkers

The use of networks among university students has become a quotidian activity that forms part of their daily lives. The majority connects to the networks several times a day (53%), with the most intense occurring between 19.00 and 00.00 hours (Gómez, Roses & Farias, 2012). Today, hope you can I agree with me,  a common image of a modern college student is of tight jeans, with very short blouse ending on umbilical cord, carrying on an expensive smart phone with headphones, chewing and walking majestically while their fingers are very busy with buttons of Nokia, Mchina, BlackBerry, Samsung or Motorola. It is common for a modern college student to woke up with these gadgets, go to college with headphones on their ears unable to say hello to passers-by, spend their day busy with the gadgets and go back home alike, dinner with soap operas, go to bed with soft music commonly known as chombeza time. A modern college student’s school bags are full of CDs, DVDs and spare batteries for their gadgets.  When examinations approach, modern college students memorize to death and forget everything soon after each exam. How a modern college student does assignment leaves a lot to be desired. Google does everything instead. Reading books with many pages would be an abomination to such a person who is always busy with gadgets, because he has no time. 

 

The sad story about social network comes when the majority of students use social networks while reading and doing assignments. A study by the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (2010) reports that students use social networks during lectures, while walking around campus, whenever they need to coordinate with friends and listen to music while  studying. One student quoted saying;

Our cell phones have become such a large part of our lives, it is the one thing I always have with me at all times. It becomes a normal task to look at my phone every few minutes, yes minutes. I am constantly on my phone. On average I probably send a text message every minute or so. I am ashamed that I couldn’t go without my phone for 24 hours…

 

A question is, what should we expect from such university students who are busy with such social networks to the future of our nation? As I know university is a place where a person is prepared to be critical thinker for the welfare of the society and this is developed though wider and deeper reading and researching. A study by Carr (2006) concludes that there is no serious reading and thinking to people addicted with social networks.   

 

2. Social networkers have no sense of privacy or shame

Online generation has no sense of privacy or shame; the children of the internet age are ready to bare their bodies and souls in a way their parents never could’ (Sunday Times, 2007). It is a common phenomenon to find a university student posting half naked photos on their walls unaware that such photos can have negative impact as well on the real world. A story about Diana Tembo, published on THIS DAY, March 19-25, 2012 justifies the statement above. Tembo says:

 I took a picture of myself in a mini skirt with my feet propped up on the seat. It sent my male ‘friends’ wild on Facebook, with many of them commenting about my sexy thighs. But little did I know that my husband had sent me a friend request using a fake name and that all along, he has been monitoring and reading my posts as I flirted with men.

It is said that the husband asked her why she was showing her thighs to other men on Facebook like a prostitute.  This shows lack of sense of shame. Such cases abound among facebook users in Tanzania.

 

3. Social network is time-wasting and socially isolating

It is commonly held that at best, social networking is time-wasting and socially isolating (Livingstone, 2008). Studies show that youth online time varied from five to ten hours per day, but purely for enter­tainment (Liu, 2008). Worse, these users socialize through the Internet and it takes away from the in person socialization that has been around forever (Kaitlin, 2010). It affects our social interaction by changing the way we interact face-to-face. Social networks kill socialization as Arnold, 2012,p.1) puts:

As I sat down with my husband and children at our favorite restaurant I was looking forward to finding out how everyone’s day had gone and to just have some enjoyable family banter. However, as I looked around the table, all I saw were the tops of my family’s heads, they were texting, playing games, and surfing the internet with their cell phones. My youngest daughter, who is 9, had her tablet and was playing angry birds. Not a word was exchanged. I asked them a question; everyone held a finger up to me to hold me off for a few more minutes.

 

4. Social networks have no ethical concern

Studies in social media report players pretend to be someone else or at least stretch their own self-presentations, are common experiences of adolescents and misrepresentation was a natural part of online culture (Shyles, 2010).  This appears that there is little ethical concern about online lying. People in general are more apt to lie online and the majority fully expects others to lie.  But in a normal circumstance lying is not allowed.

 

5. Some users don’t consider the consequences of posting everything on social media

I am not sure if people consider the consequences of putting something onto a social media site. According to the 2012 annual technology market survey conducted by Eurocom Worldwide, “Almost one in five technology industry executives say that a candidate’s social media profile has caused them not to hire that person.”In her article Recruiting, Reinvented: How Companies Are Using Social Media in the Hiring Process, Lisa Quast writes:

My husband and I have trained our three daughters on the importance of posting only appropriate information on any type of social media. This includes not posting certain inappropriate pictures of Saturday night’s party on Facebook and not posting or Tweeting anything when they’re angry or in a bad mood. Now, managing your social media profile has become even more important – a 2012 survey demonstrates that your social media profile could make or break your chances of being hired. 

 

Alyssa and Nick (2010) ask whether people ever think about the consequences something as simple as firing off a tweet, uploading a video on Youtube or posting a photo of ourselves on Facebook might bring. People don’t spend the time thinking about that when they post anything, because they forget how the world of media blends with the “real” world. They don’t think of it like that. They think of it as their own little personal world online, when in fact, anything you put online becomes a part of everyone’s world. And, by default, anything that’s online becomes part of the “real world.”

 

The text bellow extracted from a Tanzanian facebook user is a reflection of Alyssa and Nick concerns:

Yoyote unaetamani Nchi Iingie Vitani... WE NI KENGEEEE!
Unayemchukia Kikwete kwa sababu ya Ukristu wako... WE NI KENGE!
Unayemchukia Dr. Slaa kwa sababu ya uislamu wako... WE NI KENGEE!
Unayeipenda/kuichukia CCM kwa sababu ya uislamu wa Kikwete... WE NI KENGEEE!
Unayeichukia/kuipenda CHADEMA kwa sababu ya Ukristo wa Dr. Slaa... WE NI KENGEE!
Unayeshabikia wanaochoma makanisa... WE NI KENGEEE!
Unayefurahia kile kitoto kukojolea Quruan tukufu... WE NI KENGE!
Unaependa nchi iwe ya kislamu... WE NI KENGE!
Unayeota nchi iwe ya kikristu... WE NI KENGEEEEE!
Unaeidharau imani ya mwenzako... WE NI KENGEEE!
Unaefikiri dini yako ni bora sana kuliko ya mwenzako... WE NI KENGE!
Unayepost fb mambo ya kuponda imani ya wenzako... WE NI KENGEEE!
Unayefurahia upuuzi wa mtu kwa sababu tu yeye ni muislam/mkristu... WE NI KENGE!
Unayetaka rais muislam/mkristu badala ya uwezo wake wa kuongoza... WE NI KENGE!
Unayenichukia kwa sababu ya ukweli huu... WE NI KENGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This is very good message but presented notoriously. We need to know that notorious posts spread quickly that serious once as once posted can be viewed by friends who then post it to other friends, friends also post to other friends, it gets in the hands of your employer, you lose your job, your wife leaves you, and your family collapse.

 

6.     Social media becomes addictive drug

The moral panic aroused by the internet has led to a popular reference to the net as an addictive drug, in particular opium. That is, ‘The real threat is not concerned merely with the bodies and minds of those addicted but also their family and society’s moral order (Liu, 2011). Taking this into consideration the Chinese government officially defined internet addiction as a psychiatric disease and it has been sponsoring clinics to treat addicts (The Guardian, 2008) and many parents have sent their addicted teenagers to such clinics so they could be ‘reborn’ free of the obsession. My concern is that prevention is better than cure and this is very dangerous especially in Tanzania because we have no any center to cure the internet addicted.

 

7. Social network (facebook) a jungle of every sort of evils

The first issue of University Magazine, May 2012 higlighted five things that people are likely doing with Facebook;

1.                  People are engaging in love affairs without knowing each other. It is common for people to talk about love affairs and when they meet they have to undergo sexual intercourse and spread HIV.

2.                  Face book is equally an online forum for prostitute (uwanja wa fisi or Vitunguu). Some girls post half naked pictures to induce men approach them for sexual motives

3.                  Some people use face book as dictionary of dirty words.

4.                  Some people cheat their sexual status, pictures, level of education, place of work and even their age.

5.                  Time stealer of most university and college student because most of them spend much of their time on face book. I fear that some might be consuming much time with face book than with books.

Way forward

As the literatures anywhere in this paper report that social networks among students is inevitable and it becomes odd for one to live without. The society is scared of too much use of social networks among the youth and seems to have no solution to it because controlling the matter remains beyond their ability. Much concern is on the fact that our relationship with the world of media is one of duality; we dictate what media is, what stories are told in movie theaters and on the five o’clock news, and our own world is shaped accordingly (Alyssa, and Nick, 2010). However, Public policymakers in Western world especially in Europe hope that media literacy skills developed through social networking will protect youth from the online risks associated with transgressive representations of the self and abusive contact with others (Livingstone, 2008). It is through media literacy that can build up better understanding of how the media work in the digital world for the youth to survive every sort of risks.

 

So, what is media literacy?

Media literacy is generally defined as the ability to access the media, to understand and to critically evaluate different aspects of the media and media content and to create communications in a variety of contexts (European Commission, 2007). Having a critical approach to media as regards both quality and accuracy of con­tent (for example, being able to access information, dealing with advertising on various media, using search engines intelligently); being aware of copyright issues which are essential for a ‘culture of legality’, especially for the younger generation in its double capacity of consumers and producers of content Koltay (2011). Media literacy could be a cure for this.  When you are media literate, you have clear maps to help you navigate better in the media world so that you can get to those experiences you want without becoming distracted by things that are harmful to you. You are able to build the life that you want (Alyssa and Nick 2010).

 

Conclusion

Guys don't use Facebook to tell the world your stupidity because there is no privacy out there. The reality shows that social networks especially Facebook has become the latest home breaker in town. It is wrecking relationships and causing divorce, with many victims blaming relations hatched through internet at the expense of their families. An old man, says, “I would not allow my wife to join that thing. If I ever find out she is on Facebook, I will divorce her on the spot.” The man says that he plays around with women on Facebook and knows from experience that this is not the right place for a married woman. This is another impact of facebook that the possibility of getting married while on facebook remains uncertain. You should not be surprised therefore that, a considerable number of men interviewed would not marry a woman with facebook account. The message is when on facebook you need to behave positively as well because there is no privacy online. Mind you constructive ideas will sell you while destructive ideas will kill you.

 

CHAPTER SIX

PERSUASIVE MESSAGES

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Introduction

If advertisers remain the number one source of income for media survival in Tanzania and probably in other parts of the world over there is no doubt that audience will remain very potential player for this survival. It is upon media professionals to increase audience through ethical ways and not Machivelian approach, the end to justify the means. They have to develop contents that would at the end benefit media people, advertisers and the audience.

 

Media people should not be moved on by the aspect of amusing the audience to death and forget everything. I say this because some media stations in Tanzania concentrate on amusing audiences to death. Studies show that human being lives in order to enjoy and nothing else. People go to school, work hard etc in order to live happily. Media uses this advantage (human interest in happiness) to make money from advertisers. Amusing more than informing people on existing opportunities and how to approach them to me remain illogical and unethical. We need kind of media which exposes injustices to enable the public make intelligent decisions.

 

So what?

Media people should not take advantages of modern man’s weakness of leisure oriented rather should strive to build a society in democratic tenets. Some people like to read or hear gossips and that is life to them but it is the role of media to help such people to do away with such kind of mentality. Malcom X once said, “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power; because they control the minds of the masses.” Taking Malcom into consideration, it is upon media to use this power of controlling people’s mind for the wellbeing of the society.

 

Maximizing audience is an art

The Masanja show “Ze Comedy" induces millions of Tanzanians closer to advertiser’s shops. This is manifested during commercial breaks. But the question that any journalist or any media institution should also think is how much the program worthy to the society? Is it legitimate for the millions of Tanzanians to keep watching Ze Comedy? The answer should be YES if and only if the program informs the audience for better. How much does the audience learn and what kind of lesson they get from, “Ze Comedy”.

 

The point of departure is that rhetoric remains a strategy number one for audience maximization. Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations[3].  Rhetoric typically provide heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations, such as Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals namely; logos (reasoned discourse), pathos (appeal to the audience's emotions) and ethos (moral competence expertise and knowledge).

 

Speeches by Chief Joseph, “Surrender Speech”, Socrates, “Apology” and Julius Nyerere are examples of rherotical representations.

 

 “Surrender Speech”by Chief Joseph,

 

Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are – perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

 

Worthy Excerpt from Socrate Apology

 

Someone will say: Yes, Socrates, but cannot you hold your tongue, and then you may go into a foreign city, and no one will interfere with you? Now I have great difficulty in making you understand my answer to this. For if I tell you that to do as you say would be a disobedience to the God, and therefore that I cannot hold my tongue, you will not believe that I am serious; and if I say again that daily to discourse about virtue, and of those other things about which you hear me examining myself and others, is the greatest good of man, and that the unexamined life is not worth living, you are still less likely to believe me.

 

In Tanzania Nyerere is the most Orator of its kind since independence. His speech touched the feelings and emotions of Tanzanians to join the Kagera war. In 1978 he delivered a speech from Nachingwea broadcasting live through Radio Tanzania:

huyu mtu Amini, ameua watu wengi.

Mtu huyu ni mshenzi, ameua watu wengi.

Na sasa tutampiga.

Uwezo wa kumpiga tunao,

Sababu ya kumpiga tunayo

Na nia ya kumpiga tunayo.

Na sasa tutampiga!”

The way you communicate has a lot to do. Richard Mugamba, investigative journalist from The Guardian on Sunday uses rhetoric in his articles to such an extent once you start reading you can’t forget. Read the excerpts

It was a public holiday, the day when all Tanzanians remember the death of Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere who died twelve years ago in London’s Saint Thomas Hospital after succumbing to Leukaemia, but to Adam Robert, a 14-year -old albino, it was a sad and tragic day, the day his attackers came for his blood, fingers and bones. October 14, 2011, will always remain in Adam’s memory, not as his birthday, but as his death day, the day his assailants came after him, attacked him and ran away with some of his body parts, leaving him in terrible pains and an everlasting psychological torture. It’s the day of Adam’s tribulation.

 

As darkness overtook the sun, indicating that the night has just approached in Nyaluguguna village, located about 50km from Geita town, two men pondered what was about to happen in a few minutes that might change their lives from the shackles of poverty to the millionaire club, should their plan go as planned. One man thought about millions of shillings, which can roughly give him dozens of cows, enough to make him one of the richest people in this village, while the second was pondering what he might earn after getting his albino’s body parts. At the same time, a young albino boy seated close to the two men was wondering how a father can dine with a stranger who wanted to kill his son just some few hours later. To this boy’s mind, the figures were just not adding up, but he just left time to tell what next.

 

Public relations, lobbying, law, marketing, professional and technical writing, journalists and advertising are modern professions that have to employ rhetorical practitioners.

 

The point of argument

The role of media in business world is to bring consumers closer to sellers of services and brands. Or let we put like this, media has the role of bringing advertisers closer to their consumers.  No advertiser would go to a media with few or no audiences at all. So getting more advertisers media need more audiences. The successful media is that with many audiences.

 

But what is the problem?

The problem with our media is that they highly use Machiavellian approaches’ to maximize their audiences for the sake of advertisers. They are ready to use even non-serious programs to hook audiences. Mkasi by The East African Tv probably is the number one program in Tanzania to use vulgar language, “Kwa marayamwisho umejamiiana lini?” (When was your last sexual intercourse?). Assume such a question is asked when you are in the family with your children or parents. I say family because in Tanzania TV watching is a family and not individual matter.

 

To my knowledge media people should some time be thinking that the audience is not such a passive human being who consumes every sort of silly content instead,  the time will come when such kinds of programs will be wiped out and hosts loose jobs. Likewise newspapers which spend much of their time reporting people’s affairs negatively in the name of profit making their end is also near.

 

What kind of information?

Today we are in the fastest and very busy world. The dictum that the fittest will survive is no more an issue. Instead the fittest and fastest are those who will survive. How faster a person is, counts for his survival. People have no time to read very long and complicated articles in the newspapers or watch very long and complicated documentaries; instead they need very brief and informative piece of information. Jenerali Ulimwengu once complained that in Tanzania udaku newspapers sell more than his serious newspapers. What Ulimwengu fails to understand is that we are in the world different from theirs where a person could read and enjoy Shakespeare’s wisdom. Can you emagine Nyerere translated the Merchant of Venice? Can you dare?

 

To cope with modern world, media people should develop ways to deliver the same information in very brief and concise manner. People need information to make intelligent decisions.

 

Conclusion

Audience maximization for the media survival is inevitable in this world of competition. This being the case media people have to use ethical and legitimate ways to establish more audience rather than amusing them to death. Aljazeera probably is the leading television with many audiences. The audience goes to Aljazeera not because of entertainment but serious programs it offers to its audience. The point that I am trying to make is that audiences cannot be hooked by entertainments, gossips and leasure all the time. So with this, media professionals should be careful because I have a dream that the time will come when there will be more the death of audience.

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

MUSHROOMING OF MOBILE PHONE: WHO IS A LOSER?

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Introduction

Have you ever sat down and calculated how much resources lose because of your mobile phones? Have you been spending time asking how much you spend on your mobile phone? Have you been asking yourself how much time you spend on your mobile phone? Have you reviewed the kind of messages you often receive and send? What about the purpose and interests of your messages? Where do you see yourself in today mobile phone world? Are you a loser or winner? If a looser, have you ever counted your loss? If a winner where do you see yourself in future? Can there be life without mobile phone? Bare with me to pose such silly and boring questions, but this is reality.

 

Do you own kimeo?

Kimeo is a Swahili negative name referring to a mobile phone which is sold very cheap (a connotation of less value material). Most of we Tanzanians are proud of a person who uses very expensive brands ushc as mobile phone, car, and dresses etc. “Kavaa kiautu cha bei mbaya”. One day my second year students were very much concerned with my poor mobile phone and promised to buy me an expensive one. Having mobile phones among Tanzanians is one thing but the price and kind of mobile is another thing. It is very usual to meet a person who is on unemployment pay with very expensive mobile phones. Whether expensive or cheaper what I know people buy mobile phones for communication purposes. However, my concern is the kind of information these mobile phones facilitate.

 

To my understanding, mobile phones contribute in destroying people’s ability to write correctly.

I luv u to mean I love you

Whn d u cm 2cm to mean when do you come to see me?

G9t to mean good night

K to mean Okay

I don’t mean that this is bad, but the problem comes when a person uses such informal communication in serious communication. For example it has become very common to find some students use such an informal communication in serious writing such as final examinations. As an adage goes, a practice makes perfects; the more one practices bad writings the more perfect they become in writing badly.

 

Expensive cellular phones for cheap messages?

We don’t need survey to know how cheap messages circulate via mobile phones of many college students. In ceremonies, churches, conferences and lectures people are always busy with mobile phones on their hands. To my experience people who chat with mobile phones all the time in one way or another might be chatting cheap messages. I associate cheap messages with messages ranging from merely greetings to gossips.

 

The question is did you spent such amount of money and top up to chat such a chip message? Have you ever asked how much do you invest in chatting such kind of messages? Some people are laughing via mobile phone daily (ha ha ha ha ha ha or teh teh teh teh teh). This is a world of mobile phones where everything is paid for. We have to pay for gossips, greetings, and everything. The good thing of this is that mobile phone companies exploit us to the maximum without our understanding. It is like the tale of madam, house girl and financial institution, read this article and enjoy how technology exploits a human being.

 

Madam steals your salary, cell phone companies steal your credit…….

Many people tend to get oppressed because of their ignorance. And we tend to blame them for “encouraging” the oppressors because of their own actions, or non-action. The case of many a house-girl is a good example. She is usually picked up from the village during Christmas holidays when “Madam” kindly offers to employ her since she has dropped out of school due to lack of fees.

 

Seeing her off, her mother advises her to be well behaved and not to misuse the chance she has been given. Mama further advises Madam to keep the girl’s salary for her so that she does not excitedly waste the money in town. And off to the city they go, on her first ride in a private car.

 

Work goes on for one year until Christmas season. Girl wants to go and visit her home, and of course show off the new class acquired over 12 months of city diet, different hand-me-down clothes and watching television. She asks for her accumulated salary. Madam at first pretends not to have heard. On the eve of departure day, Girl asks for her money again. She is asked if she is a thief. What about all the clothes she has been given? What about the medical bills paid when she fell sick? And hey, what about the hair salon bills paid to style her up to the day she was taken to attend the neighbour’s cousin’s nephews are wedding?

 

After the deductions, Girl is given the equivalent of one month’s salary. Before departing for the village, her luggage is harshly inspected to ensure she takes nothing that is not hers…..

 

You may not be much smarter than this girl if you have a mobile phone or a bank account in Uganda. You had airtime on your phone and every night before you retire, you ensure there is enough credit in case you need to make an emergency call. Finally the emergency comes, maybe in the form of thugs shaking your gate. You try to call the local police OC, and a disembodied voice says you do not have sufficient credit to complete this transaction…..

 

What has happened is that your credit was taken away to pay for some silly update of ring-tones that you never requested. You trustingly kept your credit with the phone company. They used it for your “benefit” getting you a ring-tone that you hate.

 

Another way to become a house girl from the village is by holding a bank account in Uganda. Whether you withdraw money or not, your balance keeps reducing due to services rendered to you without your knowledge.

 

And these days, if you have a loan the bank will change the interest – of course upwards – without asking you. So as you call the exploited house-girls ignorant, you may not be very different from them.

 

Do mobile phone users need ethics?

Hans Kung once said that there is no world survival without ethics. Ethics is needed to every person and every discipline because it is through ethics that people can be able to make strong decision for the wellbeing of the society. 

 

Ethics is scientific study of morality. How we make decisions about morality. Morality refers to morals, customs, standards or principles that are accepted in a particular society. A person who goes against morality is referred to as an immoral person. For example abortion is immoral among Christians.

 

Ethics begins where morality ends. For example if at all abortion is a bad, ethics need to study it and give out empirical or rational justification on whether abortion is good or bad.  In a nutshell ethics helps us to understand what is bad or good. For example, is it bad to spend time in chatting cheap messages with a friend? This depends on how you argue. Those who consider overchatting as bad they will stop doing it while those who perceive it as good, will keep on chatting.

 

Likewise one would consider buying very expensive mobile phone as a good idea while another one would term it as bad. Now when two perspectives contradict to each other we therefore have to approach ethical theories for clearing such ambiguity. The following ethical theories determine who is an ethical person;

 

1.         He who uses methodological reasoning in making decisions

According to Socrates (470-399BC), justice and good are identified through methodological reasoning. He once said “unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates meant that unless you look at yourself with a critical eye and have the courage to question your own motives and behaviour then you might as well be dead. A student who buys a mobile phone worthy 1 million and fail to sit for final exam because of 50,000 T.shs he might as well be a dead walking creature.

 

2.         He who uses three parts of the soul in making decisions

According to Plato (470-399) justice consists of the proper interplay of three parts of the soul namely reason, spirit and appetite. Reason thinks, when it does this well it has wisdom.  Appetitive desirers control our basic needs, when it does this well, it has temperance (self-control). Spirit shows emotions (fear, anger, respect) when it does this well it has courage. Therefore reason controls the high spirit and both control the appetitive. There are so many desires for which we need to be careful of and control our desires through reasoning (Read the book by Mpagaze (2012), Ethical journalism: a voice of the voiceless, , p. 12). Everyone would love to have a smartphone as fulfilment of self desires but has to consult the reason party to chech whether it is possible.

 

3.         He whose moral virtue lies between extremes in making decisions

Moral virtue according to Aristotle (384- 322BC) lies between extremes/ balancing. He said that ethical character is the totality of the expression of the cardinal Greek virtues: justice, temperance, and courage. He believed that virtue lies between two extremes one good and another bad. Here Aristotle is even very interesting for he insists moderation on everything. Possessing very cheaper mobile phone according to Aristotle is again a problem.

 

Conclusion

Mobile phone is very important in this sophisticated and busy world but we should not be exploited. Mobile phones should not tell us what to do.Hans Kung once said that he was very unhappy when he realized a man to be controlled by technology, while Carry showed high concerned when he realized Google to be making most of us stupid.

 

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

Mass Media and Development

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Introduction

Whether we like or not, fifty years after independence significant majority of Tanzanians are out of living hope (wamepigika). You know why? About 41 percent of Tanzanians do without one meal every day. Apart from food intake, many of our children are stunted because of malnutrition. Health and life expectancy is generally lower.  In cities, housing and basic services are worse. Education system produces many job seekers and not creators because students memorize without understanding and those few who are professionally talented emigrate for green pasture. Decrease in investment by nationals in the country remains a routine. 

 

Fifty years after independence Agriculture commonly known as backbone of the country’s economy is in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) because people go hungry while we have every kind of fertile land and water bodies. We are surrounded with water bodies but our agriculture remains a rain-fed. Should we believe on what economist Malthus (1798) that Africa will never have food production in relation to the population growth? Read the editorial of Baruti Newspaper.

 

Personal security leaves a lot to be desired. Do you know what? Personal security is low and violent crime increasing: police seem unable to control it. Worse, top officials are killed. Walking in some corners of the cities in Tanzania is equally committing suicide.

 

Fifty years after independence natural resources have become a curse to most of Tanzanians. People are raped, killed and others are infected with contaminated water from gold mining plants. Leaders don’t see anything wrong to sign crazy contracts for their personal benefits. Probably this is Whiteman business which is nobody’s business.

 

Fifty Years after independence the majority of Tanzanians suffer from Economy of Affection syndrome. Do you know why? Because of Economy of Affection we have so many leaders who are the results of technical know who and not know how. You can’t imagine when academic prefect of this country pronounces 'One- Nineteen Sixty Four’ to mean 1964 and declares that Tanzania is the union of Zimbabwe and Zanzibar. Slip of the tongue? I don’t know. 

 

Fifty years after independence, where did we go wrong? Should we keep on blaming on “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa?” No. Should we crucify Nyerere who defined development in the context of land, good politics and people? Yes. Do you know why? He ignored information and communication. Remember an adage, “information is power? Nobody can develop if he has no effective communication. Ann Radcliffe (1764 - 1823) once said:

A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness.

This shows that information is the food of our minds and through it one gets knowledge for intelligent decision making. One of the US presidents, Jefferson once said:

Had it been left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.

 

Today US, is the world prefect in democracy, economic, technology etc because communication and information were made very potential players in building their nation. In Tanzania Nyerere didn’t allow freedom of communication although he used media for independent struggle. Zidumu fikra za mwenyekiti wa chama na zawengine zidumae dominated the media of Nyerere Kingdom and reinforced the culture of fear among Tanzanians (Rome Rucuta causa finite). 

 

Aids in most African countries fail because of lack of effective communication on those who provide aids and those who receive. According to Rajan (2011) aid can be more effective where citizens, journalists and parliamentarians are able to access information and shape the way aid is spent.

 

Amartya Seni in his various studies regarding development contended that no famine has ever occurred in a country with free media. This reflects the adage that communication is power. Since communication is power let’s use it for social development.

 

What is development?

Each person judges well what he knows and is a good judge about that; hence the good judge in a particular area is the person educated in that area and the unconditionally good judge is the person educated in every area. Socrates (p. 275)….1095a.

 

From Socrates point of view, I am eager to define the term development on the bases of the knowledge I acquired from my school mentors, scholars and extensive reading. I will categorize the definition into four dimensions: political dimension, economic dimension, religious dimension and social dimension.

 

Social dimension

The term social means something concerned with the mutual relations of human beings or of classes of human being. Social dimension in the context of development is a very first indicator whether a society is developed or not. It is determined by the status of the societal members on the following basis, division of labor, health services, and education.

 

Division of labor

Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and like roles. In Plato's Republic, the origin of the state lies in the natural inequality of humanity, which is embodied in the division of labor. Plato says:

Well then, how will our state supply these needs? It will need a farmer, a builder, and a weaver, and also, I think a shoemaker and one or two others to provide for our bodily needs. So that the minimum state would consist of four or five men (Read The Republic).

 

The idea is that the services in the city wouldn’t be of higher standard because these four professionals would be doing the other tasks out of their professions and the results would always be of poor quality. For that means a society with few specialized people is considered underdeveloped. Primitive societies for example specialized in hunting, fishing and gathering societies. The common pattern is for men to participate in hunting and deep-sea fishing and for women to participate in gathering, shore fishing and preserving. The major characteristic of subsistence societies is that individuals are homogeneous. The idea is that when we have such society we apparently consider it underdeveloped.

 

Coming back to Plato we find that a developed City should have different professionals with different specializations. Plato once said “more plentiful and better quality of goods are more easily produced if each person does one thing for which he is naturally suited, does it at the right time, and is released from having to do any of the others. Therefore a developed society should have professionals who have specialized in their field. For example when we live in a society where a teacher teaches all the subjects in a school we must doubt about the quality of content he will be offering to his students. For example Plato says “does one person do a better job if he practices many crafts or since he’s one person himself-if he practices one? Therefore we don’t expect a teacher of physics to teach Kiswahili because the thing to be done won’t want the leisure of the doer but the doer must of necessity pay close attention to his work rather than treating it as a secondary occupation. Oytega is against the idea of specialization because he believes that specialization makes people to be ignorant of many things in their societies. What is your view?

 

My critique to Oytega is that he fails to note that we cannot be all things to ourselves and to others. We cannot be doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, farmers, politicians, stonemasons, and theologians. It is true that we are called to power. Yet the reality is that there is a point beyond which our sense of self determination not only becomes inaccurate and prideful, but increasingly self-defeating. It is true that we are created to be individually unique. Yet the reality is that we are inevitably social creatures who desperately need each other not merely for sustenance, not merely for company, but for any meaning to our lives whatsoever. These, then are the paradoxical seeds from which community can grow (Peck, 1987, p. 55).

 

Therefore what I want to say is that developed society is marked by the extent in which division of labor (specialization) is put into consideration. And specialization is very important in this information world where everything is fast and there is no time to wait for slow people. A slow person here means a person who has no any specialization. What is your specialization as university student? Rember a jack of all trades is master of none.

 

Education

The aspects of education that I refer here is that ability of a person to use a science of knowledge he acquired from school to solve problems within his society. A developed society is marked by how many people are well educated because academic gives them everysort of freedo (Academic freedom). Academic Freedom in the sense that the availability of academic system which produces job-creators and not job-seekers (problem solvers and not creators). The kind of education which equips students with ability of systematic problem-solving science based on research culture. Producing people who have academic freedoms to exercise fully their skills effectively with efficiency is academic normative of any university all over the world.

 

Where are we?

Instead of building the capacity of solving problem confronting their societies, education in Tanzania and African in general has been for decades used as an instrument of oppression.  Do you know why? If you happen to read the book by Paulo Freire, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” although reading is not our culture, you will overtly see how the education has become an instrument of oppression. Oppression in the sense that, our education system is suffering from narration sickness. The teacher narrates and the students receive without questioning. Freire says;

The outstanding characteristic of narrative education then is the sonority of words, not their transforming power. Four times four is sixteen; the Capital of Para is Belen”. The student records, memorizes and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four time four really means … (p.52).

Do you remember when you used to memorize, “Kilimo cha kakao…Ghana? Did you ever ask your teacher for example why in Ghana and not in Tanzania? Don’t you see if this was oppression of your minds? Teachers think on behalf of students. This is pure colonization of minds if I am to use the words by Steve Biko.

 

The logic behind is that memorization to pass examination with flying colors and get good job remains the tenet of Tanzanian education system. Students don’t read books to learn new ideas but concentrate on past papers to pass exams. I remember one of my professors said: “The most stupid student is he who studies past papers”. This is the culture and some students pay a lot of money to buy exams instead of books. Niccollo Machiavelli’s Theory, “the end justifies the means” is applicable in Tanzania academic backyard because to get good job depends on the clean certificates you have. Today we have people with good certificates which don’t reflect their professional performance.

 

Cases in which university students plagiarize research to get their degree abound. They fail to understand that research is the engine of any university that is why developed countries governments rely on universities to solve their problems but African governments don’t bring problems in universities. Do you know why? Many movements’ leaders and presidents in African are graduates from African universities so probably they know all the ways.  For example road accident is claiming to cause the death of ten people every day and in 1998 and 2007 scholars from university of Dar es Salaam conducted research on the issues and provided the recommendations on how to solve the problem but no any implementation was taken by the government (From Bunge Session, July 2011).

 

Fifty years after independence our universities have been producing medical doctors, but heart surgeries are done in India. Business and economic courses are offered in many Tanzania’s universities and colleges, but our economic situation remains terrible. People are graduating from journalism institutions and universities of which are expected to work as watch dog of the government, champions of democracy, rule of law as well as voice of the voiceless but our journalists have assumed mercenarily role of politicians.

 

We train engineers of every kind, civil to mechanic but fifty years after independence we have not seen the Tanzania made cars. Something even worse there is no dream that one day we shall drive the made in Tanzania car, mobile phone, music system etc. Probably efforts are being done, let me not despair, because despairing is for the defeated.

 

Fifty years after independence the country goes without reliable electricity although we have hundreds of electronic engineers graduating each year.

 

The tender for road constructions are secured by foreigners while our native engineers are wondering with their clean certificates. Tanzania Board of Engineering is busy in collecting membership fees. Toothless or their engineers are poor. “Our Engineers have no facilities” is often a response when asked why they don’t secure tenders. Why can’t they use their skills to manufacture theirs? We should not be going to colleges and spend a lot of money learning how to use the technology that was invented by others, rather we need to invent ours.

 

“Nachukua computer course nimemaliza Microsoft” are popularly words from many form four leavers in Tanzania paying a lot of money learning how to consume the product of Bill Gates and get certificates for completing computer courses. Who should be rewarded this certificate if not Bill Gates?

 

ICT condition in Tanzania is under Intensive Care Unit although people are attending ICT courses and graduate with clean certificates. We need to know that lack of internet in this age of information technology makes we Tanzania remain losers in this Global Village or Flat World. Do you know why? Almost everything we do, in our everyday life, is influenced or controlled by ICT system. The ICT has guaranteed freedom to people for collecting, handling and distributing information all over the world through emails, blogs, Face book, cell phones, voice mail, teleconferencing and video conferencing.

 

Sokoine University for Agriculture has been there for years but the tale of Tanzanians to go without food is very common. Something even worse is that some local agriculture products are more expensive than those we import.  Agree? “mayai ya kuku wa kienyeji ni adimu” is a popular statement among house wives in Tanzania. Some meat and milk to significant majority of Tanzanians remains a feast. This shows that we are doing nothing to widen agriculture sector in the country. The tale of Kilimo Kwanza is even very interesting because the project promotes the use of modern technologies such as tractors worthy 12 millions. Can our parents in villages who have failed to pay 70,000 tshs for yeboyebo school fees be able to afford a single tractor?

 

Geologists’ graduates are happy to be employed and work under the supervisions of a Whiteman. What do you expect the colonizer of yesterday to do for you today?

 

Worse, education system traces its problems in colonial days, while colonial education taught a child to walk millions of kilometers to run away from his home, today education in Africa teaches people to still from their homes. I say this because education is growing and public theft is grand. Don’t play with academic theft, because it is too advanced to realize. Joseph Mihangwa published very interesting article under the heading, wasomi kizimbani kwa kusababisha njaa,” because they have collaborated with multilateral institutions and wetern countries as agents of hunger in the country.

 

2.         Health services

Health service is a social dimension that measure whether a society is developed or not. Distance from home to hospitals, one doctor per number of patient, extent of death mortality of malaria issue, HIV/AIDS care and Medicine costs are indicators of health development of any society.

 

Generally health services in Africa and Tanzania in particular leave a lot to be desired. Population control is very challenging as we grow more and produce less, scarcity of physician per population, life styles have become the enemy to life expectance, maternal mortality toll remains high, and other poor social basic needs make an identification of Tanzania as a poor country.

 

According to the World Bank, the rate of population growth in Tanzania – about 3% – is one of the highest in the world. In addition, the rapid increase of population intensifies pressure on the institutions responsible for providing basic services such as sewage disposal, clean water, schools and medical care.

 

Scarcity of physicians to take care of our health is another disturbing health issue in Tanzania and many developing countries all over. Harsh languages of nurses force people to opt for miraculous cure such as rushing for the cupful of herbal drink offered by the Rev. Mwaisapila Ambilikile of Semunge Village in Loliondo commonly known as kikombe cha babu. In Tanzania population growth surpasses food growth. If we go back to Malthus that population growth in Africa will never meet food production.

 

According to abstract by Ministry of Health, published in The East Africa Newspaper of April 11- 17th, 2011, the existing health falicities in mainland Tanzania require approximately 126, 000 health workers. However, only 35,202 professional health workers are currently available. Recent statistics show that in Tanzania one medical doctor should attend the population of 25,000 while the international standard should 14 medical doctors for the population of 10,000. In some parts of Tanzania, the situation is even worse. In Kigoma for example the average is one medical doctor per 308,000 of the population, in Mara 167, 000 and Tabora 132,000. Worse even the few medical professionals we have are treated like dog that’s why brain drain is so intimidating. Generally in Africa 20,000 medical doctors emigrate. The story below explains problems facing health colleges in Tanzania.

 

Where are we? Where are we going?

At the time of Uhuru, not a single doctor was being trained in Tanzania. Now, my research methods class at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences has 150 students. They are pursuing their second degree. In three years, they will be specialists in a diversity of medical, dental, public health, basic science, and pharmaceutical fields.

 

Other universalities in Tanzania also train doctors and health specialists. Yes, in the past 50 years, our national has travelled a fair distance. I encounter eager, diligent students. Some do a remarkable job. Some find the academic battle rather onerous. And some somehow wiggle their way through. It is all in a day’s work. People are on the move, no matter what. Interacting with my students, I am filled with pride, joy and gratitude in having been born in this blessed land. I see in their faces a cause to celebrate, to join hands, to sing and dance, to pursue our dreams, to revel in our tranquillity, to persevere, to march forward.

 

Not that all is well and dandy. Many, perhaps too many, growing pains and aches remain. In 1989, my class had 10 students. I assigned weekly reading and homework. I followed the progress of each student. Each read and critiqued a published paper every week. Apart from lecturers, there were discussion sessions. That is how a postgraduate class ought to be.

 

With 150 students, who have a much weaker foundation, and with no teaching assistants to conduct the discussion sessions and mark weekly assignments, that approach is simply impossible. Grading two continuous assessment tests and the final examination implies that for an equivalent of three whole weeks, one does nothing else. I cover less material that before. My students do not get as much immersion into the health literature as before. What I teach now is not, in breadth and depth, at the level it should be. Yet, I find myself exhausted at the end of the day, unable to do more.

 

My dilemma reflects the situation in most of the subjects taught at my university and, in fact, at all universities across the nation. Students’ number has expanded sharply, but the number of lecturers and teaching resources has not. Some universities have a department with 20 or so academic staff, yet none has a doctoral degree.

 

Quantity has overwhelmed quality. We churn out doctors and specialists whose training, skills; knowledge and aptitude leave much to be desired. No one attends to the maintenance of good academic standards, in teaching, student performance and research. External examiners are now a façade. It is a matter of you scratch my back, I signed, conducted and analyzed in a markedly sub-standard fashion and whose practical applicability is quite wanting, can still secure a masters degree.

 

Is it just a question of lack of resources? Last week I had to bunt around from office to office for examination booklets. The supply had run abysmally low. Our department has no paper for photocopies. Yet, there is abundant money for futile retreats, seminars and celebrations. A lot of funds are poured into superficial projects. We have just gone through a multimillion-dollar curriculum review exercise. Yet, hardly any department has changed the substance of what it teaches. The funds went into expensive offices, modularizing courses, defining competencies, travel, fat allowances, and the like. The form has changed; the content has not. A once in 50 years type of endeavour has, I feel, gone down the drain.

 

Every academic has a litany of such complaints. Perhaps they are growing pains. In time, we may learn our lessons and improve. Rome was not built in a day. On the other hand, instead of being growing pains, they may signal structural flaws in the very direction we are moving. Two things make me inclined towards that perspective: For one, there is a re-emergence of intellectual sycophancy. Everything western is worshiped in academia. At times, it is quite crude. Three weeks ago, I attended an hour of a whole week’s session conducted by three professors from well regarded US universities. These education specialists had come halfway across the world to enlighten us, the teachers in the School of Public Health, on the matter of how to teach effectively.

 

It was an astonishing session. The lecturer treated us as freshmen undergraduates; wasted our tie in play-acting, and at the same time showed a profound ignorance of public health issues. I raised critical comments. But I was in a minority of one. Everyone else went along with the charade. For the visitors, it was a tropical holiday. For our academics, there was food, the chance to build contacts, secure trips abroad and get more funds.

We search for donor dollars and lose our sense of self-worth and dignity. We compromise our intellectual independence. Our research and academic priorities are set externally, not by ourselves.

 

Extensive reliance on financial incentives permeates academia. Hardly anything takes place without an immediate or potential financial inducement. Basic responsibilities are cast aside or poorly fulfilled. Well-paid external work and donor funded projects have supplanted effective teaching and supervision of students. There are two key lessons we should draw from the speeches of Mwalimu Nyerere. He regularly implored us to think for ourselves, to cultivate a spirit of independent inquiry. He also urged us to stand up for our rights, and to never compromise our dignity.

 

If the intellectuals of our nation fall short on both, blindly succumb to the mental dependence and cheap inducements of what is but a new form of colonialism, where are we going to be 50 years hence? Our academics complain about the misdeeds of the politicians, but then turn around to replicate the same type of practices. On this 50th anniversary of our birth, we must ask: How do we serve our nation well? Is this kind of “progress” acceptable? Do we not need to set an example for our students to emulate? On this joyous occasion, as I ponder on these questions, I am deeply troubled as well.

 

Unplanned Pregnancies

African Population and Health Research Centre’s report shows a quarter of 40 millions pregnancies that occur in Africa are unwanted or unplanned. It means in every four children, one is a result of unplanned pregnancy. Do you know why? The report says it is because of low uptake of contraceptive.

 

Unplanned pregnancies lead to unsafe abortion. For example young girls who find themselves pregnant are expelled from school, a stark reality that is seen as instrumental to a young girl’s decision to abortion. In a study conducted in Machame, contends that there is a feeling among the residents that abortion rates are higher among secondary school students than other categories and about 3,000 of these girls drop from primary schools every year because of early pregnancies.

 

The majority of women admitted in hospitals are subjected to abortion issues. In one of the study conducted by Justeen, Kapiga & Asten (1992) reveals that of 300 women who were admitted to a hospital in Dar es Salaam, 34 percent of them had practiced illegal abortion. In another study done in Dar es Salaam, Mpangile, Leshabari & Kihwele (1993) show that about 35% of the respondents interviewed had admitted intentionally terminating their pregnancies. Further it is believed that up to 30 percent of beds on obstetric wards are taken by women who have had unsafe abortions.

 

The problem might be even higher because the information on board is about those who go to hospitals. Many women in rural areas never reach hospitals Leopold Tibye, a doctor in Marie Stopes Tanzania (MST)'s clinic in Dar es Salaam who has worked in Tanzania's remote rural areas said that he witnessed the desperate plight of women who had perforated their uterus with a bicycle spoke or who had severe infections after forcing cassava roots into their cervix.

 

Maternal Mortality

Globally 600,000 women die annually of pregnancy-related causes. Every day in Tanzania 24 women die for reasons related to pregnancy and delivery. Each day in Africa 700 women die of pregnancy cases. The major causes are harsh health nurses, lack of transport, unqualified health professionals, overpopulations, distance from homes to hospital lack of seriousness among health workers and their truants.

 

Breast Cancer

Breast and cervix cancer has increased in recent years, as one out of eight women has cancer. Cancer treatment is very expensive as proper dosage required six units of drugs and each unit cost 180,000 Tshs. And there is only one hospital over the country and it is based in Dar es Salaam…..Ocean Road. Many people go to hospital when the disease has already reached an advanced stage.

 

Other basic services

Fifty years after independence Tanzanians are facing difficulties in accessing clean water, adequate shelter, and personal security. There are frequent, electricity blackouts, inadequate parking space in cities, very flowing sewage, congestion of motorcycles which do not observe traffic regulations, roads with potholes, pick-pockets and gangs of armed robbers, streets with strong smell of uncollected garbage, more beggars singing gospel songs to impress passersby to offer them money, disabled, street-children, hawkers, cows and goats which contribute to traffic jams, and the increase of illegal income-generating activities like prostitution.

 

A lot of squatter settlements with lack of necessities as sanitation facilities, reflected in the song “Hapa Kwetu Mbagala”. In most cases poor families rent a single room and share the kitchen and sanitary facilities. More than four people live, cook, eat and sleep in one room. Pit latrines have multiple purposes as used for bathrooms as well as garbage pits and stores.

 

Fifty years after independence, Tanzania remains a society with every sort of fear, gossips and witch hunting.

 

Economic dimension

A developed nation strives to empower its people through entrepreneurship business so that they can do away with the mentality of employed by the government (read New African). There should be availability of plenty capital, these capitals should be easily obtainable, the cost should be kept low, good infrastructure to access markets, communication system, electricity flow, sound banking system.

 

Fifty years after independence doing business in Tanzania remains miserable. Do you know why? High cost of capital, bad supporting infrastructure of energy, transport, communication, and uncertain supply of technically trained personnel, bad conditions for marketing and services in the interior and rural areas (The economic support is concentrated in Dar es Salaam or in larger cities where there is no shamba), poor ability storage of food,(The Statistics on food security say that Africa loses 20 to 30 per cent of its grain harvest due to poor storage), power cuts make daily life an ordeal, urban crime is rising in the darkness discourage the small entrepreneurs in the country. Financial institutions are not user friends to many small entrepreneurs in the country. Why? These institutions are there to make the loan beneficiaries even poorer. In Kibondo some primary teachers earn less than 30,000 after the deductions of crazy loan. In Mwanza there is a saying among small business people that if you want to run bankrupt go the secure loan from FINCA.

 

Political dimension

W. Phillips Shively in his book “Power and Choice: An introduction to Political Science” (1997 p. 6) says that the two defining characteristics of politics are (1) politics always involves the making of common decisions for groups of people and (2) those decisions are made by some members of the group exercising power over other members of the group. My focus when I talk of politics I consider how decisions are made and how the powers are achieved. A society which is developed its politics is always made on the basis of John Locke belief that freedom rights should be the epitome of any nation[4].

 

Development can be therefore understood politically as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrasts with narrower views of development, such as identifying national product, or with the rise in personal incomes, or with industrialization, or with technological advance, or with social modernization Sen (1999, p. 3). Development requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom: poverty, as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or over activity of repressive states. The unfreedom links closely to the lack of public facilities and social care, such as the absence of epidemiological programs, or of organized arrangements for health care or educational facilities, or of effective institutions for maintenance of local peace and order (Read White article in Journal No. 3 of African Communication Research) the violation of freedom to participate in the social, political and economic life of the country.

 

We expect a developed society discharges freedom to his people. People are given freedom of thinking because human being have endowed with the ability of reasoning. There should be a room where everyone’s ideas are welcomed in order to achieve justice. Justice is fairness and is achieved through dialogue. The society should base its decision on merit and not on the basis of economy of affection, clientalism and big-men culture (Read Goran Hyden, 2006).

 

Note: negative freedom should not be practiced at all [Read Isah Berlin, 1969].

 

What made the protection of individual liberally so sacred to Mill? In his famous essay he declares that, unless the individual is left to live as he wishes in the part [of his conduct] which merely concerns himself, civilization cannot advance, the truth will not, for lack of a free market in ideas come to light, there will be no scope for spontaneity, originality, genius, for mental energy, for moral courage (Isah, Berline, p. 6).

 

Can mass media help on these?

A person who does not communicate with others, his/her head is full of darkness...Unkind is he who does not speak… An ugly, talkative person is better than a beautiful person who is reserved” [Kofi Asare Opuku, 2011]. The bible tells us that even God used to talk as he was creating the world; “let there be light; and there was light.”

 

We spend much of our time with media more than our friends, families, teachers, parents and priests. The idea is that information enables us chat what we like and dislike. Communication is an important tool in achieving socio-political and economic developments. Okunna (2002, p. 293) argues that communication is so closely interconnected with development that there can be no development without communication. The above postulations cannot be faulted because of the roles communication play in the development enterprise. Nwodu (2002) outlines some of the roles:

1. Creating a climate of development by adequately informing the people and encouraging them to embrace positive changes that can enhance their well-being.
2. Encouraging people to aim high as well as developing new taste to the point of desiring good things in life.
3. Focusing people’s attention to developmental process thereby sensitizing their maximum participation in development effort.
4. Helping the people to understand and appreciate government policies meant to enhance their living conditions.

 

Media Selection for Development

For communication to have any impact in the developmental initiatives of any society, appropriate media must be selected to reach out to the development targets at the right time. Such a multi-media approach will, for sure, respect the research-and-experience-supported fact that because of the high illiteracy factor among rural dwellers, and the problems of overcoming geographical and language barriers, the electronic media, especially radio, seem to be the most effective media for promoting rural development. But it will also recognize that the print media (especially rural newspapers) and the traditional media or folk media like drums, market places, town criers systems and others, also have vital contributions to make in building the communication grid needed for balanced development.

 

It is only with this kind of recognition that each medium will be given its rightful place and attention in the developmental communication equation.

 

In selecting the media for development, a thorough understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each medium of communication will be required. One needs to understand above-the-line(use of communication channels like television, radio, newspapers and magazines) and below-the-line(use of communication channels like posters, town criers, minstrels, social groups, etc) aspects of communication before deploying them for developmental purposes.

 

The fact remains that both the traditional and mass media are crucial to the promotion of developmental programmes. This is so because, regardless of their appeal, they complement each other in the business of development. This is why communication researchers, scholars and practitioners recommend a multi-media approach for effective publication and promotion of development programmes.

 

Conclusion

If we need Tanzanians and Africa in general to witness sustainable development we need to invest on information. Journalists are the bridge between government and citizens need independence in all processes of accessing, processing and dissemination of information. Journalists need investigative journalism skills, financial freedom and security to their job of information. Journalists in US through Water Gate Scandal were able to overthrow the government and life went on. Banning and threatening journalist’s freedom won’t help any more. In Egypt the government sought to ban media was a solution, instead the public shifted on social media and the world witnsed its collapse. Social media is even worse because there is no gate keeping.

 

Once Kwame Nkrumah said, “seek political freedom first and the rest will follow,” but to me I would rather say seek first strong media institutions and everything will be ok.

 

 

CHAPTER NINE

MASS MEDIA AND THE VOICE OF THE VOICELESS

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Introduction

The major role of professionals in mass communication and journalism in Africa is to fulfill the needs of the voiceless, oppressed and marginalized people (Mpagaze, 2012). This will make democracy in Africa and Tanzania in particular a reality because, democracy by definition must ensure people’s freedom are exercised in a meaningful sense and can only be achieved when the citizenry is informed, engaged, and participating (McChesney, 2002).

 

To get the picture of what is in the society media doors should be opened for all people in the society for vibrant debates. These debates with all people in the community will open the room to the elected officials, what kind of solutions will be in their best interest. Since the individual citizen cannot attend every problematic situation, the media are entrusted to professional journalists who are expected to be skilled in rapidly entering into these situations and reporting back truthfully and comprehensively what the public must know (White, 2008).

 

But who are the voiceless? Voiceless in this book refers to all those people who are facing economic, social and political injustices and are excluded from enjoying the national cake. The majority voiceless in Tanzania live in rural areas and urban squatters like Manzense in Dar es Salaam, Igogo in Mwanza, Ujiji in Kigoma just to mention a few.

 

The voiceless in urban live in settlements without such necessities as drainage and sewage systems, garbage collection with difficulties in accessing clean water, electricity blackouts, inadequate parking spaces, overflowing sewage, congestion of vehicles which do not observe traffic regulations, roads with pot holes, pick-pockets and gangs of robbers equipped with razorblades and knives to attack passers-by, streets with the strong smell of uncollected garbage. Their streets are very chaotic with more beggars, disabled, street-children, hawkers, cows and goats, all of which contribute simultaneously to traffic jams.

 

Doing business among the voiceless remain difficulties because of high cost of capital, bad supporting infrastructure of energy, transport, communication, uncertain supply of technically trained personnel, bad conditions for marketing and services and  poor ability storage of food . In Karagwe banana farmers have no market to their produces; in Ruvuma sacks of maize are rotten while people in Dar es Salaam go suffer hyper inflation.  In Nyakanazi one sack of cooking charcoal is sold for 1500 Tshs while the same 30,000tshs in Mwanza.

 

At a standstill the voiceless cannot access bank loans because they lack guarantors, assets, businesses and, salaried employment. And those who happen to secure bank loans they face consequences of interests. Some of the teachers in Kibondo Kigoma leave their workplace to go and moonlight for the extra money since their salaries are too low to service their bank loans.

 

Health services to the voiceless leave a lot to be desired. It is common to voiceless family watching their children dying because they cannot pay the high hospital bills. If you don’t have money today, your disease will lead you to grave (Narayan, 2004 p.10).

 

Long distance to health care centers, “unofficial fee”, lacks of drugs and rude health personnel are some common problems the voiceless face when they get ill. In other words the voiceless are treated like dogs when they are in need of health services. Narayan gives an account from Tanzania:

 

People everywhere report that they are abused at health clinics (…) Men, women and youth state over and over that they are treated like animals, worse than dogs. They report that even before they could explain their symptoms, they would be shouted at, told they smelled bad, and were lazy and good-for-nothing. An older man desperate need of spectacles braved the abuse of a nurse for two days until he got his glasses, but he said he would never again go back and be so humiliated (Narayan, 2000, p. 97). 

 

Overpopulation remains a stingy to many voiceless in Tanzania and Africa. The report “Population Dynamics and Poverty in the LDCs: Challenges and Opportunities for Development Poverty Reduction” (2011) says that the world’s 48 LDCs have a large and rapidly growing youth population, with some 60 percent of their population under the age of 25. Probably these people in LDCs do misinterpret the Biblical Scriptures which reads:

 

Then God blessed them and, God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, have domination over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over everything that moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28). 

 

I can now agree with Galilee who once said that the Bible was not meant for common people, rather wise ones. It means understanding the bible one needs to go beyond literal meaning.

 

Finally the voiceless go to schools with no facilities but with teachers who emphasize on memorizing docility. Instead of building the capacity of solving problem confronting their societies, education in Tanzania and Africa in general has been for decades used as an instrument of oppression of the voiceless. 

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

[2] http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/wiki

[3] Corbett, E. P. J. (1990). Classical rhetoric for the modern student. New York: Oxford University Press., p. 1.; Young, R. E., Becker, A. L., & Pike, K. L. (1970). Rhetoric: discovery and change. New York,: Harcourt Brace & World. p. 1; For more information see Dr. Greg Dickinson of Colorado State University.

[4] State/nation

A nation is a large group of people who are bound together and recognize a similarity among themselves, because of a common culture; in particular a common language seems important in creating nationhood. A state, on the other hand, is a political unit that has ultimate sovereignty – that is, a political unit that has ultimate responsibility for the conduct of its own affairs