Japan from Tanzania
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=38274
- Japan has donated 29,725 tons of rice to Tanzania in the past 5 years.
- 10% of that aid was dispersed to Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous island.
- Money collected from the selling of Japan’s rice is managed by Tanzania-Japan Food Aid Counterpart Fund and a number of projects have started benefiting from the funds
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=37832
- Japan has finished their HIV/AIDS control project in Tanzania
- they aimed at contributing significantly to the expansion of HIV/Aids services, such as voluntary counseling, testing and treatment, to reduce new infections in the country
- Japan will continue to support other projects as needed.
- The project was started with a grant from Japan.
- The collective effort has strengthened STI treatment and enhanced control of HIV
Tanzanian Media…Is it free?
Press Freedom
Newseum gives Tanzania a 48 out of 100 in the Press Freedom Map.
- There are 537 registered newspapers (several of them are state-run), 12 TV stations (one of them is State-Run), and 4 national radio stations that are considered “sympathetic to the government”
- Only 1.5% have access to the Internet.
- Close to 70% of the population is literate.
What does this mean?
- It’s easy to see why Newseum rate’s Tanzania’s media as partly free. There is great variety in the media scene..TV stations, newspapers, radio stations, etc.
- The constitution states the importance of freedom of the press. However, there are great restrictions against media outlets that criticize the government.
- The government withholds advertisement from critical newspapers, meaning that their primary source of income is severely prohibited. This is an aggressive way to ensure that newspapers fall in line and provide watered-down versions of the news that the government approves of.
- By law the government has the power to create and close down newspapers “in the interest of peace and good order”
Media and demographics
- Tanzania is home to many privatized media outlets that are always at risk of being censored by the government.
- The island of Zanzibar is semi-autonomous with a different president than the mainland, but has even more strict media regulations. They only receive news from the mainland and lack a media outlet that focuses strictly on them.
- With one of the poorest economies in the world in terms of per capita, the life expectancy is 52 years, which means people neither have the time or the resources to become media literate and be able to judge the credibility of the media they are fed.
Changing Ideologies of Press Control
- Tanzania falls into the Authoritarian model of press control.
- The government has a great deal of control over what gets published often shutting down companies that criticize it.
- The press functions separately from the government (with the exception of the state-run media companies), but functions
“for the good of the state” meaning that dissenting opinions are not published and if they are, usually lead to the newspaper or station being shut down. - The government openly censors publications and jails journalists.
Examples
- It’s virtually impossible to find dissenting media organizations that actively publish in Tanzania. Many of the blogs I found that criticize the government and the state of the media were based out of other countries.
- I compared the news of the privately ownednews conglomerateIPP Media with that of the Daily News a state-run publication. Aside from having many of the same articles, they all had the same tone and agreed with that of the Daily News.
- None of the editorials on either site provided challenges to the government in any way.
- It was interesting to see that none of the websites have a “Politics” section as many American news organizations do.
- Both websites didn’t cite to any outside sources nor did it provide bylines for many of the articles.
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=40613
Web evaluation for Tanzania media
Daily News
- 1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on the site 2:
This website doesn’t link to any other sites for references. In fact, sometimes it
doesn’t state the author’s name and just states that it’s a Daily News Reporter.
- 2. Show that there’s a real organization behind the site 3:
It is primarily a newspaper. This is the online edition. Upon further investigation I found out that it is a government-runned company. It states “A Daily News Reporter” for some of the bylines
- 3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide 4:
This site is maintained by Tanzania Standard Limited, a print media house owned by the the Government of Tanzania which publishes the nations top leading newspapers Daily News, Sunday News, HABARILEO and SPOTI Leo.
- 4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind the site 3:
I’m hesitant to call any newspaper that is owned by the government an honest and trustworthy source of news.
- 5. Make it easy to contact you 5:
The company states various numbers and emails for all of their companies
- 6. Design your site so it looks professional 3:
It could use some more graphics. Although it’s pretty straightforward I feel like I could have designed this website with minimal skills about web design.
- 7. Make your site easy to use—and useful 4:
The share link is covering the Rate Card link making it hard to find out the pricing for it’s print publication. A webmaster pays attention to these details. Otherwise the site is very intuitively navigated through.
- 8. Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently) 5:
At the top of the Home page it has a timer of the last time it was updated. The articles are organized chronologically, there are various articles from different sections that were added today.
- 9. Use restraint with any promotional content 5:
The advertising is very subtle and appropriate for a news organization. There is also a classified section aside from the advertising on the page.
10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem 4:
There is an error with the Rate Card link. No typos or anything major that might stick out.
The DAILY NEWS website has some room for improvement. The first thing that caught my attention was how plain it looked. Surely, the content should represent itself, but people like to be visually stimulated while reading the news. Take for example CNN and it’s various colors and pictures, it acts as a welcome mat for anyone interested in its site. The site provides a few polls about some political moves the President is making. Currently, Tanzania is in the process of writing a new constitution. The DAILY NEWS is a government owned media organization, which instantly puts it’s credibility in jeopardy. As history has shown, the government can manipulate the media to enforce some of it’s own interests and opinions. Tanzania currently hasst a 47 rating (partly free) according to Newseum with only 1.5 percent of the population having access to Internet. Less accessibility to internet also translates into a lower rate of media literacy, perhaps this is why the site doesn’t link to other sites and gives no sources for it’s information other than the government itself.
THE CITIZEN
- 1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on the site 3:
None of the articles link to any other sites. An accurate and transparent website would have an email for the journalist in case anyone wants to question the information presented.
- 2. Show that there’s a real organization behind the site 3:
They have various addresses where the webmaster, online business manager, and the news desk can be reached, but there contact link is a little hard to find.
- 3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide 4:
Contrary to the DAILY NEWS it has an international news section of the site. There are various sections including entertainment, business, sports, and opinion/ editorial. Some of the articles are too short.
- 4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind the site 2:
There is contact information for the webmaster, news desk, and online business manager (for advertising), but some of the articles lack byline. Also, some of the bylines aren’t separated from the story.
- 5. Make it easy to contact you 4:
As I preciously stated, there is contact information for the webmaster, news desk and online business manager, but no direct contact for the journalists themselves.
- 6. Design your site so it looks professional 3:
There site looks well maintained at first glance. There are a lot of graphics and colors, but they lack serious maintenance in the articles. The majority of the articles don’t have any images or graphics and the paragraphs are very cluttered. Sometimes they lack proper indentation.
- 7. Make your site easy to use—and useful 4:
Content is well organized under the proper tags. The home page features many articles from different sections (Sports, Entertainment, etc). You can easily navigate through the different sections. There are no pictures or graphics for the articles.
- 8. Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently) 5:
All the articles are up to date and placed chronologically. They also have a Breaking News sections with up to date information on the Tsunami warnings being constantly updated.
- 9. Use restraint with any promotional content 4:
The fist thing at the top of the website is an advertisement. Other ads surround the entire site, every link you click on leads to a different advertisement. However, the ads are appropriate for a news organization.
10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem 3:
Some of the paragraphs aren’t properly indented and the bylines and article content often run into each other.
Compared to the DAILY NEWS, I found this website to be more credible. It not only showed international news, it provided some context to the stories they were explaining. Some of the negative characteristics of this site however, was that there were no images for the majority of the articles, some of the paragraphs ran into each other, and there were no outside sources cited for their articles. When a website doesn’t pay attention to grammatical details, how can it pay attention to the news?
One thing I noticed was the types of news they covered. The DAILY NEWS, a government run news organization didn’t have many articles under the politics section. This is predictable because in Tanzania, according to Newseum, the government has strong restrictions against websites that cover sensitive subjects. The Citizen had more coverage on political issues. Images help tell the story and create relationships between the story and reader, The Citizen lacked images for the majority of their articles. With no pictures readers might lose interest in the article.
Un-American
Un-American
Four Seventy 