Two Weeks in Africa: Media Thoughts
December 22nd, 2008 by Alec McNayrPosted in Advertising, Business, Content, Media | No Comments »
I just returned from two weeks spent in Uganda. I was part of a team of 47 people that traveled to Africa to host Christmas parties for 2000 orphans. We brought decorations, games, prizes, and an individual gift for each child — perhaps the first present they’d ever received.
We went to support Watoto, a non-profit based in Kampala, Uganda that pairs a household of 8 orphans with a mother that cares for them — as family — through University. Some of the children there were literally found in dumpsters and in the street. These same children will be given the resources and challenge to grow to be leaders in their community, country, and continent.
It was a powerful and meaningful time for me and my wife, to see a third-world country. We saw daily reminders for us to appreciate the opportunities and resources we have in America. Things like drinking water (93% of Ugandans have no access to reliable drinking water), electricity (many Ugandans have mobile phones, but have to charge them at charging booths – they don’t have power in their homes), and relative financial security (Uganda has out of control inflation and a 45% jobless rate).
For more personal perspectives, check out my personal blog at AlecandKatie.com, but here are some thoughts on media while I was there:
- I just read that there are 147 million people in America that regularly consume online video, but I’d be surprised if 147 total people watch video online. Most middle-class early-twenties people I talked to had heard of YouTube, but had rarely used it.
- Bandwidth is slow, slow, slow. Our guest house had a 56k modem that only occasionally worked. That, and I only saw old clunker PCs. A Gateway here, an Acer there. As far as the wired internet goes, Uganda is 1994 America.
- The middle-class youth do, however, use Facebook. I’ve already connected with some of them.
- Everyone is connected to a cell phone constantly. As America shifts from landlines to mobiles (no one my age has a home line anymore…), Ugandans never really had a phone system, so their pay-as-you-go model really works. There are billboards advertising 3G phones, but how fast can they be?
- There were ads all over Uganda — many houses and businesses are fully wrapped [painted] in colors and logos. They building owners don’t get paid — the painting is a service that looks nicer than the worn down brick. Therefore, there are Zain/Warid/MTN (mobile carriers) and Juicy Fruit buildings everywhere.
- Coca-Cola has posters, billboards, and ads all over Kampala — and each ad features the exact same photo and tagline: “Deep Down Refreshment.” It’s a lesson in consistent branding.
- There was only one movie poster up around Kampala (the largest city in the country, mind you), for Quantam of Solace, which had opened a month earlier.
- When asked about television, few people watch it regularly (who can afford a TV, much less getting your home custom-wired for electricity?). When pressed to name popular shows, our Ugandan hosts mentioned Lost, Prison Break, and Desperate Housewives.
Living and working in New Media in the USA, you can get the sense that everyone lives and breathes online, but the truth is that millions of people around the world have different experiences, methods of media consumption, and levels of access. It’s important to get out of your world for a few minutes (even if it’s a trip to your parents’ house) to see how your work translates.
Who cares about your gorgeous HD video if they don’t have the mobile bandwidth to view it?
