3rd Note

As I was reading a pullout from a newspaper today, I noticed that half of it was filled with advertisements and the other half, with reviews on IT products and services. I browsed through the latest prices for laptops, computer parts and all the snippets on the latest technologies offered by international and local service providers. How time flies, I said to myself with all these hard-to-keep-up-with technologies that keep on emerging every single day. This hip scenario is a far cry from what we used to experience in the mid-90s. At that time, the word “computer” itself can imply the financial status of a family because of the price tag. Well, fast forward to 2010, now the computer has become affordable and is a must-have for a household. Almost every single home owns at least one personal computer or a laptop nowadays. The information technology sector has grown tremendously and has molded our State into a very competitive ICT (Information & Communication Technology) player in the country. International microchips producers and computer memory manufacturers had long supplied us with job opportunities by setting up their factories here and directly boosted our economic growth. Internet services are also getting affordable and have opened up endless boundaries for young entrepreneurs to use web services as their marketing tools. We know about iPad, Blackberry and all those high tech gadgets because the media feed us with the latest updates almost every single day. But still, the reporting on our local ICT development in media is still under par if compared with those in neighboring countries. What we can see, hear and read today are only coverage on ICT events or extracts from speeches, gadgets promotions and also reviews of ICT happenings from international papers. Benefits and challenges of utilizing ICT that are faced by the community, especially those in rural areas – these are the things that should be highlighted as well, on a regular basis. It would be most interesting to know, how ICT influences or impacts the people’s lives today. We would like to know, are our Tuai Rumah using spreadsheets to record any death or birth in their longhouses? If not, how can we help to change that, so they will have a proper profile of their villagers? And what is the progress of the RIGHT programme participants started by SAINS a few years back? Did they succeed in helping their own circle of community? Or how do we know if our local kek lapis entrepreneur from Petra Jaya or handicraft craftsman from Bau is maximizing the ability of the Internet to market their products? If they are, perhaps sharing their experiences would serve as an eye-opener or inspiration to others. The mass media would play a most useful role here. Success stories are not the only ones that should be shared. We also need to address the challenges faced by those who are still being left out in terms of enjoying the fruits of ICT development in the state. There should be a measuring tool or some kind of benchmark for people to know how much we have achieved in ICT and the local media could become that medium to provide the rakyat the much needed information. By this age, ICT should not be regarded as an intimidating subject for media practitioners with all the jargons and difficult translations. It should be a daily subject, a norm, as how we anticipate politics and entertainment news in our media. The reporting on ICT should be able to make readers excited to know about ICT updates just like the excitement created when the England soccer team qualified for the 2010 World Cup. ICT news should be the catalyst to move our society to be more knowledgeable and to steer them on the right track to a K-economy based society. This year, SAINS and AZAM, together with UNIMAS are setting up a “virtual” network to link the media practitioners, focusing on those who are interested in covering ICT development and its impact on our communities in Sarawak. This network formation will provide them with the necessary up-to-date information and related activities for them to help enhance the current reporting trend on ICT development in our local media. With this network, we hope that more news on ICT development around the State will be highlighted in our media. Maybe by doing this, not only our society will have a much better understanding on ICT, but hopefully it can elevate their skills and further use those skills to make a better living. Mark Nyambang is a communication officer with Angkatan Zaman Mansang Sarawak (Azam).The 3rd Voice, initiated by Azam and the Sarawak Development Institute (SDI) is published fortnightly. Feedback can be channelled to deborah@azam.org.my or add the Azam Facebook group link.