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Raymond Jaravaza, [email protected] 

Information, Publicty and Broadcasting Services Minister, Dr Jenfan Muswere, has warned that print media must evolve in response to advancements in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) or face collapse.

Delivering a lecture at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust)’s 11th Annual International Conference on Communication and Information Science yesterday, Dr Muswere noted that the traditional print media industry is declining rapidly, with sales of newspapers in the country plummeting from over 100 000 to less than 10 000 per day.

He underlined the dominance of social media platforms in advertising and marketing, and their impact on international trade, and called for the development of home-grown social media platforms to safeguard national and African sovereignty.

“The phone, artificial intelligence, broadband and information science have completely transformed the way we live, handle transactions, and make decisions as countries and individuals.

“There is a total shift in marketing from the old print and broadcasting media to social media platforms, which now control and dominate advertising and marketing. Social media now dominates international trade and marketing, so it is very important for researchers and academics to work together to achieve data sovereignty,” said Dr Muswere.

Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp are owned and operated by Meta Platforms Inc, an American multinational technology conglomerate based in California. TikTok, another giant social media platform, is owned by ByteDance, a private global company founded by Chinese entrepreneurs.

“Universities must take the lead for Zimbabwe to develop its own social media platforms, as reliance on social media platforms owned by international giants will continue to threaten the sovereignty of our nation and other African countries,” he said.

Dr Muswere acknowledged the efforts of the Second Republic and President Mnangagwa in advancing technological advancements and innovation financing models to align the country with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“His Excellency Dr Emmerson Mnangagwa introduced innovation hubs and resourced innovation financing models under the Universal Services Fund bankrolled by POTRAZ. 

“He also launched the new ICT policy, and working together under his leadership, we were able to develop the National Broadband Plan. We finalised the new Artificial Intelligence Policy and the new Media and Communication Policy, and soon the President will launch all these policies.

“Sovereignty is no longer defined by physical borders, boundaries, and perimeters because disruptive technologies and the utilisation of information science and artificial intelligence have altered the physical perimeters of our borders. This conference should champion home-grown solutions because, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the more external countries or institutions collect, retrieve, generate, process, and analyse data through the Internet economy, the more it affects the decision-making of African countries,” he said.

Asked in a plenary session what steps the Government is taking to protect print media from “extinction”, Dr Muswere said it’s up to them to adapt or face extinction.

“The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones but because someone was innovative enough to start a new revolution that reflected the changes in the world at that time,” he said.