Presentation by Nalaka Gunawardene (Science writer, Blogger and Media Watcher) at National Media Summit, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, on 25 May 2012, during session on New Media Policy Challenges and Responses.

1. New Media,
Old Minds:
A Bridge Too Far?
By Nalaka Gunawardene
Science Writer & Media Watcher
Columnist (Ravaya, Ceylon Today)
nalakagunawardene.com
National Media Summit,
University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka: 25 May 2012

2. Coverage…
 What really is New Media today?
 What numbers/coverage?
 Perceptions vs. reality
 Lessons from recent media history
 5 Survival Tips for Information Society!
 What’s to be done?

3. What does New Media mean?
 Itdepends!
 Many devices,
modes, systems
 Mostly digital
 Analog-digital
hybrids too
 NEW is a matter
of perception!

4. When Worlds Collide…
Mass Media Sri Lanka:
 Analog media still
dominating SL market
 Digital media rising…
 Also: hybrid media
 Global media/ICT trends
take time to arrive in SL
 But delay is shortening…

5. Global invention & LK arrival…
Mass media type or Mass/ commercial start Ceylon/Sri Lanka’s
communications in the world commercial
technology adoption
Newspapers printed Early 17th cent Colombo Journal
with movable type France, Netherlands 1832
Fixed telephone The Telephone Co, UK Oriental Telephone
services 1879 Co. 1881
AM Radio Netherlands, 1919 Colombo Radio Dec
broadcasting USA & UK, 1922 1925
FM Radio USA, 1937 SLBC's City FM
broadcasting Nov 1989
Terrestrial TV USA, 1929 ITN, April 1979
broadcasting

6. Mass media type or Mass/ commercial SL adoption
communications start in the world
technology
Mobile telephone NET, Japan, 1979 Celltel, 1989
services (commercial)
Email only Internet MAILBOX, MIT, 1965 LEARN, 1990
(academics only) ARPANET, 1973
Commercial Late 1980s Lanka Internet
Internet/web WWW 1990 Services, 1995
connectivity (dial-up)
Broadband Internet Cable modem service Sri Lanka Telecom
connectivity (higher by Rogers Comm., ADSL, 2002
speeds, always-on) Canada, 1996
3G mobile telephony NTT DoCoMo, Japan, Dialog Telekom
Oct 2001 2006
First compiled by Nalaka Gunawardene in 2009

7. A Tale of Two Worlds?
 This is the way

8. Media in Sri Lanka:
Perceptions vs. Reality
TRUE OR FALSE?
 Radio is still the most widely FALSE!
used mass medium in rural SL
 Internet is an elite, expensive
medium accessed by less than FALSE!
5% of Lankans
 Average Lankan households
spend 17 times more on TRUE!
telecom & internet services
than on books, newspapers
and magazines

9. Household electronic items in SL
Radio TV VCD/DVD Personal None of
% % % Comput these
er % %
All 75.4 80.0 35.9 12.5 10.1
Sri Lanka
Urban 76.5 86.9 48.7 23.6 6.4
Rural 75.6 79.3 33.5 11.2 10.1
Estate 69.4 70.5 39.8 2.2 17.4
Sample size: 22,500 countrywide (except 3 N&E districts)
Source: Sri Lanka Household Income and Expenditure Survey
2009/10 by Dept of Census & Statistics; www.tiny.cc/HIES910

10. Household expenses:
More on telecom, less on print/post…
 When different telecom related
expenditures are combined, they
amount to LKR 750/month (USD 7)
 Average LK household spends 17
times more money on telecom & Full discussion on
Internet services than on books, LIRNEasia blog:
newspapers and magazines
http://tiny.cc/2u5u
 LKR 4/month spent on postal ew
services by average household
Sample size: 22,500 countrywide (except 3 N&E districts)
Source: Sri Lanka Household Income and Expenditure Survey
2009/10 by Dept of Census & Statistics; www.tiny.cc/HIES910

11. Internet Use in Sri Lanka (TRCSL data)
http://www.trc.gov.lk/information/statistics.html

12. Mobile phone subscribers in Sri
Lanka: 1991 – 2011 (TRCSL data)
 This is the way
http://www.trc.gov.lk/information/statistics.html

13. Fixed Access Phone Growth in Sri
Lanka 1990 – 2011 (TRCSL data)
 This is the way
http://www.trc.gov.lk/information/statistics.html

14. How many Internet users in LK?
 Answer depends on which source & analysis!
Telecom Regulatory Commission of SL, at end Mar 2012:
 Internet & Email Subscribers (Fixed): 375,000 (provisional)
 Internet & Email Subscribers (Mobile) 711,000 (provisional)
 Total SUBSCRIBERS: 1,086,000; Total USERS? X 2? X 3?
http://www.trc.gov.lk/information/statistics.html
Internet World Stats, quoting ITU as source:
 2,503,194 Internet users as of Dec 2011, 11.8%
penetration, using ITU statistics, cited in:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia.htm#lk
 1,235,080 Facebook users by end Mar 2012

15. How many Internet users in LK?
“It seems very probable that the
number of Internet users in Sri
Lanka should be between 2 – 2.5
million, but due to the inaccuracy
of the available data in Sri Lanka it
is not possible to narrow it down
further.” - LIRNEasia, 29 Feb 2012
http://lirneasia.net/2012/02/number-
of-internet-users-in-sri-lanka/
See also LIRNEasia’s Sri Lanka Broadband Report for InfoDev:
http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.1113.html

16. New Media phases in Sri Lanka…
DENIAL/ No thanks, we can manage very well
REJECTION without it!
SUSPICION/ HELP – This threatens our culture,
VILIFICATION religion, children, national security!!!
SLOW May be it has some uses after all…let’s
ACCEPTANCE give it a try
THRIVING How did we ever manage without this?
We have tamed the medium!
HOW CAN POLICY-MAKERS MANAGE “SWINGING MOODS”?

17. Case Study:
Parallels with Sinhala Chitra Katha?
 Called comic strips in English:
but not all of them ‘comical’
 1951 Oct: Lankadeepa started
Neela by G S Fernando
 Modelled on Tarzan stories
 1952: Susil Premaratne starts
another Lankadeepa comic
 1954: Lake House Group follows
with their own CK
Source: Chitra Kathawe Wansa Kathawa by Sunil Ariyaratne, 2007

18. Sinhala Chitra Katha Evolution…
 1950s: Pioneers: Adapting western
formats & styles - populist &
fleeting; embedded in newspapers
 1960s: Innovators: more artists &
writers join & indigenise the genre;
classical stories (history, religious)
 creative story telling
 1970s: Entrepreneurs: All-CK
newspapers & magazines (‘like
printing money’)  bubble bursts!

19. Who killed Sinhala Chitra Katha?
 Creators’ failure to adapt &
evolve with times
 Greed of publishers who
diluted medium
 Cynicism of mainstream
writers & artists
 Small size of Lankan market
 Television’s arrival (1979 )

20. 3 Phases of a New Media in LK
1. Introduction 2. Assimilation 3. Survival Test
 Arrival & early  Localisation  Novelty wears off
adoption by young through language &  Uneven quality
& open-minded context and opportunistic
 Old guard cries foul, entrepreneurs
 New creators and
cautions against it!
users emerge  erode market
 Policy makers &
innovation  Some users &
regulators caught
by surprise, puzzled  Some try/find ways practitioners lose
 Business model not to make money interest, drop out
clear, usually  Policy & regulatory  Market competition
embedded in responses (may be eliminates some
existing venture good/bad/mixed) pioneers

21. LK Policy Response Dilemma:
Quick/blundering or Slow/Measured?
 Policy makers & Regulators:
 Struggling to keep up with technology & market
 Under pressure from ‘Luddite’ type social activists
 Fear of new, unfamiliar, unknown
 Having to be ‘seen’ as ‘in charge’/taking action!
 Tend to rush in: myopic (even comical) responses
 Academics must research, analyse & advice
 But are LK academics thought-leaders in ICT?
 Soviet-style info/media control is Gone for
Good with USSR!

22. Information Society:
Much more than mass media!
 Who really owns information flowing
through telecom/media networks?
 What safeguards for privacy?
 Balancing public’s right to know and state’s
need to restrict sensitive information
 Technology standards, inter-operability
 Cutting across language, gender barriers
 Issues of cultural identity, integrity, diversity

23. As Info Soc grows, so does our e-
shadow: How many of us realise it?

24. Mapping cyberspace connections…
Visualising Facebook friendships: Map by Paul Butler, Dec 2010
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=469716398919

25. Go out & colonise?
“When the web came around in the early
1990s, it was first seen as a place for geeks,
paedophiles and the military. We had to go
in and ‘colonise’ it -- to show what it could do
for social justice & development. Now web 2.0
is also being dismissed by some as a place
where geeks and paedophiles frequent.
Maybe. But we just have to go in and reclaim
it!”
- Anuradha Vittachi, co-founder,
OneWorld.net
http://uk.oneworld.net/article/view/113231

26. If WE don’t ‘colonise’ Wikipedia
with our content, who will?

27. Survival Tips for Information Society #1
Accept the new transparent world!
“WikiLeaks Cablegate is only the
latest reminder that we are living in
a world where few, if any, secrets
can be guarded…
Whether we like it or not, welcome
to the Global Glass House!”
- ‘Open Letter to Sir Arthur Clarke’,
by Nalaka Gunawardene,
Groundviews.org; 16 Dec 2010
http://tiny.cc/GGHouse

28. Survival Tips for Information Society #1
Get used to a WikiLeakable World!

29. Survival Tips for Information Society #2
Harness Geek Power!
 Info soc created & shaped by geeks:
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, 1,000s more!
 Very smart people -- but also very
individualistic, sometimes anarchic…
 Can we harness their genius for
society’s greater good, not just
corporate profits or rebellion?
 Wanted: Public Interest Geeks (PIGs!)

30. Survival Tips for Information Society #3
Keep an eye on ‘Drivers of Change’
 Technology
 Demographics
 Consumer behaviour

31. Survival Tips for Information Society #4
Ease up & cheer up!
 Trend: Informed yet very
informal journalism…
 LESS hierarchical & rigid;
MORE relaxed & irreverent
 Funny & cheeky tone is fine
 I-Me-Mine first person
journalism is perfectly OK
 GET USED TO IT!
 http://tiny.cc/IMeMine

32. Survival Tips for Information Society #5
Beware of ‘New Media experts’!
 Everything in ‘Beta’ mode
 Future: An Undiscovered
Country (but we can draw map)
 Can’t future-proof ourselves, but
can be better prepared.
 Try everything, see what works!
 Watch, emulate, adapt…
 Finders are keepers in Info Age?

33. A Choice of Futures…
 Alarm & Despair: loss of cultural
identity; invasion of privacy; data
mining by corporations; rise of
authoritarianism, death of
Anonymity, etc.
-- OR --
 Cautious Optimism & Hope: always-
connected, networked world
presents many opportunities to do
good in the public interest.

34. That’s it, folks! Now let’s talk…
Email:
alien@nalaka.org
Blog:
http://nalakagunawardene.com
Twitter:
twitter.com/NalakaG
Cartoons & illustrations used in
good faith. All data sourced.