The future of broadcasting and the

Internet in South Africa

Prof Christo Doherty

Head of Digital Arts

WSOA

University of the Witwatersrand

Main points

• The Internet became the Web which is becoming the Net - a broadband networked world

• On the Net - content is not king

• The significance of Google’s success - making connections between people and information

• P2P and Web 2.0 – people developing their own connections

• Learning to live in a connected world

South Africa

and the networked world

• Internet access in South Africa has been limited due to

political and economic factors

• Behaviour of SA Net users is no different to the rest of

the world, though the audience is smaller

• This presentation looks at broad trends which will

impact on broadcasting in SA in the same way as elsewhere

The history of the Net

• The Internet became the Web

• The Web was massively overvalued – dot.com

became dot.bomb!

• But left behind infrastructure for a broadband

networked world – the Net

NYTimes.com

the fallacy of convergence

• On the Net - content is not king

• It’s not about convergence

• The perplexing case of NewYorkTimes.com

and the failure of the USA newspaper

business

The prehistory of the Net –

there once were portals

Yahoo –

when a portal wasn’t enough

Google

The significance of SEARCH

The consequence of search –

disaggregation of content

Napster and the rise of

Peer2Peer networks

• Napster connected people to each other’s music,

bypassing the distribution systems of the record

companies

• It’s not just about free content – it’s about

escaping the control of gatekeepers

• The Net is profoundly anti-hierarchical

Facebook etc

connecting people to people

• Once people are connecting to each other, the

Net is born

• Facebook etc stimulates the proliferation of

networks

The Net as the

network of connections

• The Net is about maintaining connections

• Not about content – even User Generated

Content – but about staying connected

• Connection is life

Broadcasters tripped-up by the Net

• Reality shows and audience counter-strategies

• Broadcasters try fake amateur content – the

backlash against LonelyGirl15

Even Google are struggling …

• YouTube – the cost of bandwidth and the

problem of a sustainable business model

Lessons from a networked world

• Audience profoundly hostile to authority and commercialism

• Electronic swarm is fickle and unpredictable

• Unlike radio & TV which are systems set-up to make a profit, the Net has come into being in a more spontaneous way

• Broadcasters who understand the centrality of connections will find a way forward

Thank you

christo.doherty@wits.ac.za