Briefing Paper - Promoting Research Uptake: New media versus traditional media

Abstract

This paper was presented at the IPS Africa Changing Lives: Making Research Real Forum held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 21 – 22 February 2011.

Key points:
1. Traditional media houses are losing circulation numbers and advertising revenue internationally. This trend is not followed in Africa, with circulation numbers of newspapers increasing by 13% in the past five years
2. While the internet has shown strong growth in Africa, cell phones have a much higher penetration on the continent, making it an ideal source for reaching untapped markets
3. These markets and distribution platforms will not, with current business models, make up for the loss of revenue to traditional media platforms. Cell phones could be a valuable tool for information sharing by government and developmental organisations
4. Use of new media still limited as understanding of the tools grows and access to the internet increases

Citation

de Jager, T. Briefing Paper - Promoting Research Uptake: New media versus traditional media. IPS Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa (2011) 9 pp.

Briefing Paper - Promoting Research Uptake: New media versus traditional media

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2011