Film editor turned freelance designer, copywriter and operator of Zimbabwe’s first consumer advocacy website ConsumeriZim. He spoke to Open Source about the future of media and film in Africa.
OPEN SOURCE: How do you integrate social media platforms into your work?
Film editor turned freelance designer, copywriter and operator of Zimbabwe’s first consumer advocacy website ConsumeriZim. He spoke to Open Source about the future of media and film in Africa.
OPEN SOURCE: How do you integrate social media platforms into your work?
JOE RUZVIDZO: All my websites are integrated with social media accounts, including the ConsumeriZim blog which has its own social media accounts. The Facebook page is pretty stagnant because I hate Facebook, but the Twitter account is up and running. We’re actually integrating WhatsApp in order to capture all the people who don’t have Twitter and Facebook.
OS: What challenges do you face in terms of relating social media to the work that you do?
JR: Getting people engaged, because my work, is all crowdsourced at the moment. We need to start creating more content. At the moment it’s basically just consumer complaints so we’re crowdsourcing the information. The problem is getting people engaged, you have to get them involved.
OS: What strategies do you think would be most useful in developing social media integration?
JR: Advertising. People need to know where you are so that they can come to you. People need to know that there is a platform for this. They need to know that you can get this problem solved in this way. The only way right now is to use the mainstream media.
OS: Why do you think the Highway Africa conference is important?
JR: It is important as a place that teaches traditional journalism and is frequented by the mainstream media who now get to interact with people like me who are not mainstream media. It’s actually kind of tearing things up and maybe then we can both come together and build actual integrated systems that work.
OS: With your past in the film industry, what are your thoughts on film in Africa?
JR: I don’t work in film anymore and that’s for a reason. There is no money in it. You cannot pull an all-nighter as a film editor which is what I was doing and only get R200.
OS: Do you think that is why the film industry in Africa is dwindling?
JR: Yes. There is no finance. It was rising in Zimbabwe for a bit but that was only because of one particular couple who came from America who built a film studio and produced all these films. They were providing the money and resources. People want to make films; they just don’t have the resources. Once that couple moved to Tanzania, the budding industry was underfunded.
OS: Is there any way to revitalise the industry with what you’re doing now in social media?
JR: Only crowd sourcing can help it at this point but crowd sourcing in Africa involves getting people to actually be able to send you money which now involves money transfer platform integrations and all sorts of things. That’s a multifaceted problem in itself.
