It is quite hilarious to hear the MBC lament over the fact that it is being debarred by the opposition coalition party of doing ‘its duty’ which it says is to inform the public. This situation is not only farcical but reflects a fundamental shift in the informationscape and the manner in which information is received and ultimately consumed. Today the Mauritian audience is faced with a diversity of sources, a variety of information outlets and perhaps more importantly the advent of new media. Such a situation makes the audience less willing and tolerant to media, messages and approaches that do not necessarily reflect their needs and expectations.

Indeed the advent of new media, the uptake of citizen journalism, the spread of mobile telephony and the growing technology footprint have caused major disruption to established legacy media, requiring them to reinvent themselves and be more introspective. In fact, one media system that has been in the direct firing line is the state / national broadcaster. Having for decades evolved in a highly protected and privileged environment guaranteed by revenue streams such as the licence fee, a fair share of the advertising market and an understanding that it was too indispensable to fail. It is interesting to note that in a number of African countries namely Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana and Zambia, there is a conscious shift to change the status of the state broadcaster into that of a public broadcaster. Is this shift a mere PR stunt or does it reflect a fundamental concern among these state broadcasters that the business as usual approach is no more relevant?

Coming back to the MBC, the latter has always been a source of contention especially when it comes to the manner in which political news is treated. This situation usually aggravates during elections. It is interesting to note that since the last two elections (2005 and 2010) the Mauritian audience has been exposed to more than a decade of private radio and as we wrap up the 2014 election campaign the presence and use of new media and social media cannot be discounted. On the contrary we have witnessed a number of innovations… Even political parties have taken by storm social media and in the process bypassed the traditional infomediaries. There is no doubt that elections are exceptional moments in the lives of voters, the media and politicians. It would therefore be important to document and analyse the electoral and post electoral period information traffic. What community of followers has been created? Does interest in new media plummet after elections? What strategies do media houses invest into to bring and retain audience?

What about the MBC? What role should it foresee for itself? How does it continue to remain relevant when everything around it is changing? There is no doubt that the MBC has half a century of monopolistic presence on the island and that more than 99% of the Mauritian households are connected to the MBC. Also the majority of the Mauritian audience continue to watch news on MBC. Despite this seemingly confortable position, the following questions should retain the attention of MBC’s decision makers – Do viewers value what they watch? Do they believe it to be truthful, trustworthy and credible information? How will the MBC deal with competition when it finally arrives at its doorstep? Also a growing conundrum facing broadcast legacy media - how to retain the young generation who is increasingly posting and watching content on YouTube? Some observers refer it to as television’s lost generation.

Changing the MBC has been at the heart of a number of political parties’ agenda (namely the MMM) with the aim of making it a ‘BBC à la Mauricienne’. So far, this has essentially remained within the realm of political wishful thinking without any concrete commitment to do business in a different way. One of the first priorities concerning the MBC is to conduct an in-depth audit of talents and skills. On numerous occasions, the oversized and over-bloated personnel has been highlighted by past audit reports. The bottom line question should be: Is there a mismatch between skills and job performance? Secondly, it should have a Board that is not stuffed by political nominations but by professionals from the industry and beyond who understand the cutting edge of the media business. Thirdly, quality should be privileged over quantity when it comes to programmes. Mauritius is often cited in Africa for having successfully migrated from analogue to digital technology. Currently the MBC has 17 TV channels and 6 radio channels on its digital platform. The majority of them are either foreign channels or stuffed with cheap re-runs. In fact, the main challenge posed by digital migration is to ensure meaningful, insightful and compelling local content that will retain or bring back the audience. To be fair to the MBC, there is already some great local programmes but the national station should be more effective in showcasing them. The MBC should not necessarily embark on this journey by itself but on the contrary seek out new partnerships and develop new synergies where content can be commissioned and shared at local, regional and continental level. In fact, there is a strong movement on the continent for the latter to own its own narrative supported by some of the key African institutions such as the African Development Bank, the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). A number of media houses are spearheading the initiative and no doubt the MBC should forge partnerships as a lucrative means of ‘selling’ its content beyond its borders.

Last week in Nairobi, Africa’s premier media organisation – the African Media Initiative (AMI) held a ‘Consultative Forum on Media Strategies’ to address some of key challenges faced by the media in Africa. Four key challenges stood out – training and the professionalization of personnel, the financial viability of media houses, the development of new media business models and integrating disruptive technologies. Africa offers some interesting opportunities for growth and expansion: a huge media marketplace, a growing appetite for information that matters and a creative industry that is on the rise (Nollywood and others). I am not sure whether it is part of our colonial hangover, but the media in Mauritius always looks up to the West for inspiration, training and best practices. The time has perhaps come that we look up to Africa.

In most democracies, it is now an accepted norm that a televised public debate be organised between the leaders of the political parties / coalitions running for office. What about Mauritius? Despite being feted as an example of democratic excellence in Africa we have never espoused such a tradition. As we come to the tail end of the 2014 electoral campaign, the MBC could take us all by surprise by organising the first confrontational TV debate between the leaders of the two contending alliances. By doing so this might be the first step towards fulfilling its public service mandate to inform and serving the people it is supposed to serve – its audience.