The need for local content

The lack of local content is evident across all media and information channels. One needs to spend just a few minutes in front of a television or computer screen to notice the overwhelming presence of content coming from content providers in the developed countries. Content does not flow of its own accord; it needs owners or originators with the motivation to create, adapt or exchange it. Obviously, the agencies that ‘push’ global or non-local content are more powerful and resourceful than those disseminating local content. With a few exceptions (e.g. the telephone, community radio)

While the importance of local content has often been raised in many international meetings and by numerous donors and cooperation agencies, concrete initiatives and expertise in this area are scarce. Many, if not most, content initiatives using ICTs tend to ‘push’ external content towards local communities. In other words, they mainly provide ‘access’ to other people’s knowledge. With a few exceptions, new technologies are not used to strengthen the ‘push’ of local content from local people.

New technologies for diseminating information are springing up but it is important to note here that, while everyone is impressed by the potential that the new ICTs offer for sharing and exchanging local content, in many cases the ‘new’ technologies are still tape recorders, radio, television, newspapers, or telephones. ICTs and the Internet are still a small percentage of the ‘toolkit’ used to create and communicate local content but never the less the Phrase “Local Content is for Local People” is phasing out because through ICTs, local content is reaching everybody!