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Limukani Ncube
Bulawayo Bureau
“The media and entertainment landscape is ever-shifting and evolving to become more personalised, more interactive, and more user-created.
“Much of that evolution is being driven by the needs and desires of Generation Z — or those born between 1997 and 2012.
“Many members of this digitally savvy cohort were raised in technology-filled homes and had early and regular access to smartphones and tablets, on-demand digital content, and gamified learning and entertainment experiences.
“In turn, using digital technology comes quite naturally to Generation Zs, and they often gravitate toward more social and immersive media,” writes Jana Arbanas from Deloitte, which has been monitoring the media technology industry for some time.
It is, therefore, not off the mark to assume that media organisations the world over have been held captive by the “needs and desires” of Generation Z. Furthermore, striking the right code with Generation Z will ensure a sound base for profitable audience interaction going into the future, as digital transformation forges ahead.
The media in Zimbabwe is also grappling with fulfilling the needs and desires of Generation Z, with the elephant in the room being earning money from digital platforms to fund journalism and sustain businesses.
“Media and entertainment companies and brands should consider paying attention to this budding Gen Z cohort as they mature into adulthood and gain purchasing power.
“Currently, Gen Zs make up approximately 20 percent of the United States population—and they are more racially and ethnically diverse, and on track to be more educated, than any generation before them.
“Recognising the diversity of this generation, their increasing spending power, their passion for advancing social issues, and their evolving, digitally focused entertainment preferences could likely be crucial to companies looking to win favour with this young cohort,” added Arbanas, in an online journal.
The assumption has been that young journalists have to be the change agents for digital transformation, as they belong to the cohort of Generation Z.
Expectations have been that they foster innovation and stretch existing boundaries of the profession to attract young audiences and improve business sustainability.
However, while the influence of Generation Z has been felt across the board, influencing news dissemination platforms and news content itself, the same cannot be said of the financial rewards. The media, locally and abroad, has been grappling with monetising digital platforms, with the most popular social media proving a hard nut to crack in terms of monetisation.
In fact, social media has been a boon and bane. It has afforded the media vast opportunities to access limitless digital audiences, and it has also led to a decline in revenues and circulation of print media products.
Revenues on digital platforms have also been growing at a slow pace.
As a result, journalists believe social media has been “eating their lunch”.
It is behind that background that mainstream media organisations in South Africa last year started a process to claim a share of the spoils from social media platforms.
They argued that media organisations produce news content that drives audiences on social media platforms, yet the financial rewards from that large traffic volume do not go to media organisations, but to the owners of social media platforms.
The South Africa Publishers Support Services had taken a leaf from other media organisations in Europe and America that have started to get a fair share of the spoils from Google and Meta for publishing their content on social media.
“In South Africa, lawyers for the Publishers Support Services, an industry group, have begun drafting a bargaining-style agreement and showed Google a draft, which has not been made public.
“At the meeting, held at GIBS Business School, scholars and journalists criticised the opaque drafting process, noting that the wider media fraternity and the public should have a right to comment.
“Google has not provided details of the discussions, however, some South African publishers have been told by Google that the company will work directly, through Google News Showcase, as it did in Australia, with the 10 biggest publishers, and that others will be covered by a fund created by Google,” reported Poynter News.
Marianne Erasmus, who leads Google’s news publishers and partnerships team for Sub-Saharan Africa and Israel, told the media, “Google is having constructive engagements with South African publishers but it is at an early stage and nothing has been agreed to date. In the meantime, we continue to support the South African news ecosystem with access to tools, tech, and training.”
However, as digital transformation gathers pace, there is growing global momentum for social media platforms to pay for the news they use on their platforms, with Australia already benefiting.
Poynter News reported that “in the spring of 2021, Australia passed “world-first” legislation aimed at the power imbalance between large tech companies and news publishers.
“Since then some US$140 million has been paid out to Australian publishers. Global interest in such laws is building. Canada passed its C-18 law in June and the United Kingdom is likely to have new competition rules in place….
“The US has lagged, as the bipartisan Journalism Competition and Preservation Act has yet to be passed and California’s push has become a two-year bill, giving lawmakers more time to work out the details.”
A conference dubbed “Big Tech and Journalism,” organised by Michael Markovitz from the GIBS Media Leadership Think Tank, was held in South Africa last year in an attempt to help policymakers and others involved in drafting agreements to improve upon what Australia and Canada have done.
The declaration of global principles drafted at the meeting calls for more transparency as to how payments should be calculated, for smaller outlets to be included, and for the funds received to be spent on journalism, according to Poynter News.
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