Despite massively expensive bandwidth costs, and uncompetitive Internet penetration, new media are changing the way that news is communicated in South Africa.

For example the the Supreme Court of Appeal judgement handed down this morning (12 January 2009) on whether Judge Nicholson was correct to rule against the Director of Public Prosecutions decision to re-institute charges against Jacob Zuma. The decision was delivered in Bloemfontein, between 10 and 11 AM, by 11h38 I was able to find snippets at conventional media websites which appeared to be taken from broadcast scripts. Whether on-line or broadcast these are mass media items, brief, de-contexualised, lacking a basis for discussion.

I could also find blogs including professional media blogs however both carry more detail, and give an opportunity for analysis. A good example is Roy Hartley’s blogpost The Wild Frontier, which contains a fairly detailed recounting of the judgement including quotations from Judge Harms.
Its not simply a matter of space, its a different style, a sub-editor hadn’t been through the post with a red pen (or blue pencil for that matter), eliminating all the detail because “it will confuse people”.

Instead there is a basis for discussion, including on-line discussion, which could enable citizens to discuss news and form opinions before having them formed by large media corporations.

Now if I could just find a South African online forum for respectful discussion…