New Media: (Mis) Informative

I heard somewhere that, ‘…humans cannot, not communicate…’to relay a message is a natural reflex to the individual. Be it the reclusive philosopher, who will one day present society with a book. The skinny jean, colour blocking teenager walking through the city in this fashion statement.

Communication, over time has been a means of education for many a civilization, that very civilizations preservation of heritage, their culture and way of life. From as simple as ‘Gogo’ telling stories to children, forms of media have since advanced to what we, today refer to as ‘traditional media’, the TV, Radio, the printed press, etc.

The setback with this type of media is that information is centralized and someone or some people determine what people know. An example is the amount of from Matabeleland on national radio and television. Looking back at the 90’s there was a balance of national art being broadcast, then one day it just disappeared. Whereas its beauty is that almost everyone is reached with the same message, although it is a one way communication process since no feedback is fed back to the information disseminator.

With time, humans advance into the age of new media, where information is at the tip of each person’s finger…literally, as people twit, pock and Google. Researchers say it is an age heralded by Jesus himself, the Age of Aquarius. Where knowledge is decentralized, where each of us has a voice. We are constantly informed and entertained by the fact that a comedian is cooking ‘lay fish’. And we can Google what ‘lay fish’ is. Communication has become even simpler because we wait not for 3 months for a letter from the UK. We can hold group chats or phone calls. Girlfriends can tell now that their messages have been read now. That the not replying is deliberate.

The problem with new media is that there are so many people talking at the same time and no one listening. At the end of the day no one is informed or learns anything. We are all empowered to start our own virtual thing now.

‘Hey, I don’t like Kalabash, so let me start my own blog. And I will call it … um… Sh..aba…laK. yes shabalaK. With a capital K.’

So many ideologies are being thrown out there with the hope that at least someone will catch one. People do not talk to one another anymore. Teenagers would rather be online on their phones, the older but not too old on their pads and tabs. And the problem with many of these platforms is they try to use unintelligent ways to attract attention.

As accessible as new media can be, like any other system it is flawed. Even though the same people that centralize and hog information can still do this with new media, like the Copac site not allowing downloads of the new constitution when we are supposed to access the it there. The more dangerous thing is a mass of uninformed people, putting out information, or better yet, misinformation.