Owing to its economic growth and development, Ohangwena has several shops and outlets that sell newspapers to the public on a daily basis. The presence of Puma service stations at Ongha, Onhuno, Omafo, and Oshikango, of a Shell service station at Eenhana (the Onawa
4 service station), and of four other private service stations in the region contributes to the
greater availability of newspapers in the region. There were also some big retail chains such as the Shoprite U-Save at Okongo, Eenhana and the Shoprite at Oshikango, as well as Pick n Pay supermarkets at Okongo and Oshikango. Some small-to-medium retail shops sell newspapers too, for example the Onawa Mini Market, the O’Save Mini Market, and OK Grocer (a chain of special supermarkets at Ondobe, Eenhana, and Okongo). However, all these shops are aligned along two main roads: Eenhana–Erundu and Ondangwa–Oshikango. This means that only young people who live in or near these four towns or visit them regularly can buy newspapers.
I visited several outlets and retailers and found that they mainly sell the following newspapers: the Namibian, a daily that sells very fast in all the areas of the region (but all of them receive a limited number of copies); the New Era which is a state newspaper; Die Republikein, an Afrikaans newspaper that usually carries many job ads in both the private and the public sector, yet only a few copies of it come in, as not many people are fluent in Afrikaans. Other available papers include Kundana, a newly established newspaper written in Oshiwambo; the Sun; Confidante, a tabloid; and Informante, a tabloid sometimes distributed for free. I observed that newspapers are delivered very late, usually after 9 a.m., and sometimes do not reach areas such as Okongo before 2 p.m. The Friday newspapers sell faster than any other weekday editions, because more often than not they advertise a lot of vacancies. In some areas people have to buy their newspapers in advance, or else they would not get any. All these newspapers are available online, including on Facebook and Twitter. Young people with smartphones or mobiles that can access the Internet read them electronically; but in order to be able to do this they need to have enough data bundles on their mobiles.
Mr Log works at one of the retailers that sell newspapers in the town of Eenhana. When I enquired about his sales, he told me that, at their shop, the Namibian sells faster than any other newspaper, and this on a daily basis. On average, the newspaper is delivered around 10 a.m. every day. I also learned from Mr Log what newspapers his establishment usually receives every morning and in what numbers: 95 copies of the Namibian (250 on Friday); 5 copies of the Republikein (8 on Friday); 30 copies of the Sun (40 on Friday); and 20 copies of the New Era (30 on Friday).
I was interested in finding out from the sellers which age groups buy which newspapers.
I discovered that newspaper buyers are, for the most part, young people and that they buy especially the Friday edition. I also spent a few days surveilling open spaces such us hiking points and recreational facilities where young people tend gather; I was on the lookout for youths reading newspapers and I wanted to observe their habits around this activity. The majority of these youths live in towns; very few come from rural areas. I noticed that only
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of reading the news or anything else. Yet Vesa, a 31-year-old from Oshikango, gave me a different perspective. Vesa was reading a newspaper at a hiking point. When I asked him why he would buy a newspaper, he said:
Well, I buy newspapers for two reasons: basically to know what is happening in the country and the world at large and to search for job opportunities.
Rega is another youth who shares Vesa’s sentiment, and this is how he expressed his views about newspaper access and affordances:
In Ohangwena, we do not have enough access to newspapers. You can only buy them at Oshikango, Eenhana, Ondobe, Okongo and Ongha. Most of the youth living in the villages have no access to this. Most of them do not even have an interest to buy the newspaper. (Rega, 29)
I spoke to one of the young entrepreneurs in the region about the sorts of newspapers he buys as a businessperson and about the reasons why he buys them. He, too, revealed more than a strictly local interest in ads:
I buy the New Era newspaper daily, simply because of the construction business I am current doing and most of the government tenders are being advertised here […] I also buy the Namibian regularly, just to keep up to date with what is currently happening inside and outside the country. (Linga, 30)
He continued:
To be honest, I do not like reading long stories. I always scan the stories but the short stories I finish them. I do not think most youth care about reading, especially newspapers. They only read about sport, criminal activities, fashion, entertainment, etc. Final year students and unemployed graduates scan newspapers for one reason only – jobs.
I asked Mary, a shop owner, about her views on how widespread the habit of reading newspapers was among the region’s youths, and she gave me this not very encouraging outline:
Many youth do not read newspapers as far as I know in my region. Since some have no access to them […] they mostly listen to the radio whereby constituency councillors does air some but limited information. […] People have no access to newspapers because the Ohangwena region is poor in terms of development, those who are staying at villages cannot read newspapers every day, because there are no outlets/markets that sell newspapers there. (Mary, 31)
4 Young people from rural constituencies such as Omundaungilo and Epembe feel
technologically disadvantaged as a result of poor network coverage, and yet their first port of call for getting the latest news is the mobile phone – not the newspaper. This is quite remarkable.
My findings show that young people buy the Namibian and New Era because these two advertise more jobs and than any other newspapers. The same goes for Friday newspapers: youngsters purchase them in greater numbers because Friday issues provide more information of the kind this public is interested in. It is clear that the majority of those who buy and read newspapers do it for the sake of the latest news (local, national, and international), vacancies, tender advertisements, and entertainment pages. This conclusion is consistent with a research conducted in the United Kingdom that revealed that young people’s reading of newspapers is largely focused on entertainment and sports pages (Harcourt & Hartland, 1992; Buckingham, 1999).
The findings further indicate that newspapers are not the most suitable communication platforms for transmitting political messages to the young in this region, since most of them live in rural areas, where newspapers are a luxury. In Ohangwena, newspapers serve only a few young citizens who reside in urban areas. What is more, newspapers are in short supply: daily deliveries for sale throughout the region are too small for there to be enough newspapers even for these few urban youths. Finally, most youngsters in this restricted group do not really buy newspapers for political information, but for employment opportunities and current affairs in the region.
4.5.4 Are New Media Taking Over the Role of Traditional Media for Democratic