Costa Mwansa Highlights the Power of Media and Digital Innovation in Shaping Public Discourse

In this episode of Humanise, Costa Mwansa, CEO of Diamond TV Zambia, shares insights into the evolving role of media in driving national conversations and influencing societal change in Zambia. From pioneering bold, youth-driven programming to leveraging digital platforms for wider reach and engagement, he reflects on how innovation in broadcasting is redefining how stories are told and consumed. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:24

Hello, and welcome to this episode. On this episode, we feature a legend in the media space. We have Costa Monser on the program. Welcome, Mr. Monserr.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Rose, thank you so much for having me on this podcast. Uh I don't know whether I'm a legend, but uh thank you for that for that title. It's great to be here.

SPEAKER_05 0:46

Yeah, we'll call you that. For those of you that have not known the name, at least you have an idea that we are talking to someone who's not new in the broadcasting space. How does it feel to be on the other side?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Well, really strange. I I I rarely do take interviews uh probably through my 20-year career. This is maybe the fifth interview I'm doing. Uh uh I I I prefer sitting in your chair, but uh feels very strange. Uh and let's hope we can give uh your viewers and listeners the best.

SPEAKER_05 1:21

Sure. Well, for starters, could you tell us what a typical day looks like for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Well, I uh really love routine, um especially in my Monday to Fridays. Um a typical day for me would start with um uh a good five to ten minutes of uh self-reflection. Uh others would call it meditation, but uh it's just planning out my day in terms of thoughts uh and focus. Um thereafter, uh obviously a prayer would do. Um I I do work out, uh I try to work out on average minimum three to at least five times a week, but at least three three days I need to put in some gym. So before six, I I hit the gym at least for an hour. Um I'm an early riser, and uh yeah, then I like to plan my my days very short. Um, so I don't I don't do more than three meetings in a day. Uh, I would like to start my day uh very early and I will send out um anything I need to delegate or share instructions even as early as four or five. Um if I get into the office I like 30 minutes or an hour to myself, um, just to get clarity and focus. And then thereafter, everything for me in terms of meetings is always execution or tracking or implementation. Usually by 10 or 11, um, my serious day is that. Uh and and and and so everything else that comes thereafter is more um routine from from from the work side of it, whether I'm doing editorial pieces or going through the news or I'm doing a shoot and so on. So that's a typical day. I um usually very strange. I I I don't have lunch in the normal lunch time. So I I I do have my breakfast around 10, and then I have my lunch around 4 or 5, and and like that's that's how I set it up. And I don't usually have dinner or supper. I'll have something very light, and then by 9 or 10, I'll hit I'll hit bed.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

Okay. Usually people that have a light meal before they go to sleep are very prophetic. I don't know if that's the case with you.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

I I I didn't know that. Uh but I guess it's it's it's just the habit of um really not going heavy to bed. And the fact that I have my lunch uh very closer to dinner. Some people have dinner at six, some at seven, so um really a fruit or a salad or yeah, just something would really do. Uh the prophetic side, I don't know. I I call myself a visionary but not prophetic.

SPEAKER_05 4:22

After what it's a story for another day. Right, Mr. Master, are you able to share with us what really inspired you to get into the media space?

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Well, I think so much has changed now when you talk media. Um so much has changed, but when I look back 30 years ago, um growing up, um there was there was very little uh in terms of the kind of media that we consumed as opposed to what you see now. Uh you watch one you know uh public channel. There was not so much coming out uh then in terms of international TV. Uh sometimes if you're lucky you get magazines, but more or less uh there were there were wire feeds that we would call them, international radio, BBC and so on. Um so it was just the love of seeing content and and and you know um how people would would communicate uh from an early age. Um obviously when you're young it comes with the aspect of wanting the experience, or others would call it the fame of of being in the space. In fact, for me it was more radio than than TV actually. Uh I started out very young. I loved music, uh, I did a lot of drama, I did a lot of debate. So my first um media experience was on radio. Uh the TV only came later on as an aspect of me doing my my attachment as a requirement for my journalism course, but really I was rooted into radio. And over the years I think it has changed with the understanding that the power that journalists and and communicators who are privileged to be in front of a camera or to speak into a microphone to the masses is consequential in that you can either build or destroy. And I think what keeps on motivating me and wakes me up every day is are we creating impact? Are we changing lives? Are we through our job, through the messaging, through the communication, are we making the lives of our listeners and our viewers better? So, yeah, to be pointed, it started as one thing that you you want to be in the space, uh, you love, you're passionate about it, and you you want the fame or whatever, but as you grow into it, you you you begin to understand the power that that comes with the job and the responsibility.

SPEAKER_05 7:06

Um I've come across someone who said, you know, it all started like I just wanted to be on TV, on the screen, and then from there they they built into it. Moving on to what you had indicated earlier on that you've not thought of um being on a technical program. We're looking at digital transformation. From your perception as a major person, how would you explain or how do you appreciate digital transformation? How do you explain it beyond technology?

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Well, in so in so many ways, I I think digital transformation has has um has impacted uh everyone at individual level, uh at industry level, and even just at global level. So I mean if if if if there are many examples, I mean businesses obviously are using technology now to to make their work more efficient, um, to reduce costs, uh and and and to do sometimes uh it also costs jobs because machines or or things that two or four or five people could can do can easily be cut down uh with with technology. But at individual level, and and and like I said, I have been in the media space now for the last 20 years. You can also see that we're coming from an analog space into a digital space. So the way we we used to do TV then with the big you know betacam tapes or the reel-to-reel and how you would edit in analog has changed. Um, obviously, now with artificial intelligence, things are even getting more and more complicated, whether they are better or more riskier, uh, I don't know. So at a personal level, uh, I think a lot has changed in terms of uh consumption patterns, communication patterns. Uh from a professional point of view as well, there's a lot of change in terms of how we're doing our work, um how the skills set are now changing, um, how the consumption patterns are changing from a business side as well. Uh how do we deploy technology, even if we're in the media space, to do things uh more cheaper, to do things more efficiently. So it's it's it's a huge topic, but in simple terms, it's it's for me it's seeing the contrast of light and darkness between analog and digital, and I've been in that space.

SPEAKER_05 10:10

Okay. Having been in that space where you're moving from analog to digital, what excites you most about the future, examining in your space, your industry?

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Actually, I'm not excited. Okay, um I'm I'm I say I'm not excited because technology at a global scale is moving so fast, and for us as a country, a jurisdiction and an economy, our legal framework, our policy framework is sort of still an analogo, is still far behind the technology. And the fact that we first of all we are very innovative, we are a population of average young people that are in this space, the tech space, the online space. Um the challenge, however, is that we've not invested in the so we have the innovation, we have the creativity, but we've not invested in the invention and tech development side of it. So on that end, we are consumers of everything that comes with tech, whether it's cameras, it's phones, it's software, it's hardware, and so when when when you've got these big tech hubs uh in northeastern Europe or in America, China now, India, and so on, they develop all these things and we're just on the consumption end. And and and so why do I say I'm a bit worried? It's because then we consume things that we don't have control over. Um you you subscribe to to online pages that you agree to terms that are uh are dictated to you. Um we we we even even in terms of this the space in terms of satellites, um even as a country, we are yet to own our own satellite. So when you're renting these spaces, and and I talk from a TV perspective now, even distribution of content is at the privilege of those that are distributing for you. So um we had an experience where our page wasn't published by by Facebook. So it's it's it's it's by their rules. So you you can have a page, you can have a blog. Um if if the rules change at that global scale, you you you you you are affected. Um if if big tech giants and big tech corporations and big um economies are fighting over tariffs and all these battles we see between Elon Musk and them, any decision that happens from a cost perspective, from a platform perspective, will affect you because you've got no control. So, and I'm seeing it in the TV space that uh even consumption habits after COVID, after load sharing, uh consumers are no longer watching uh TV the way they used to. People are more on their phones, they are more on the gadgets, so streaming is becoming more the main thing. But do we own streaming platforms? Do we own streaming apps? And so, as much as on the other hand, the technology is moving, I cannot use the word that I'm excited for the future. I I I I'm actually a bit concerned in terms of how the industry would look like five, ten years from now. Um and and this is a battle or it's a discussion that we have within the traditional media circles. Will traditional media still survive in the middle of technology 10 years from now? And it's it's it's an answer that I always say that things will change. Um my take on it is that people on TV sets, but for from an experience point of view, they they'll watch it as an experience, they are gravitating more towards smaller screen.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

You you give me the impression that we should have a concern and find that then we are digitally. Yes, yes, we then how do you think we should take that or how digitally responsible should we be there?

SPEAKER_02 15:02

I think like I said, it it it starts from the policy and legal framework. Um if if you check uh again I'll I'll stick more to to to to media side which which which is a profession that I'm in. Um we are regulated in that space by the independent broadcasting authority. And what they look at is merely the content that you're putting on on TV. On the other hand, you've got you know Zigta. Now between IB and Zigta, if Lanon TV Sound on TV is licensed by the IB as a TV station, but you find that for us to get to our audiences now, apart from the stream, we depend more on the online platform. So we're streaming our content on Facebook, we're streaming our content on TikTok, we're streaming our content on YouTube. IBA doesn't regulate those platforms, and neither does it regulate Facebook or YouTube. So when a media platform like ours opens this page, we simply have this memorandal agreement between us and Facebook, between us and TikTok. So it is very difficult right now for IBA to claim any regulation over what we publish on Facebook. Neither does Zit. And in very simple terms, I like to give this analogy. Like, for me, the the digital space is like highway, traffic, you know, a highway. Or you know, imagine this road with six lanes, and there's there's so many cars moving, coming and going. But yeah, thank God you've got traffic officers and things like rats to control that traffic. Now imagine the chaos on the road if you don't have the rats are there. And and and that's the confusion happening in the digital space now, because then you you do not even know who are the professionals, who are individual content creators, and then there's misinformation, there's fake news, there's disinformation, and and then there's there's scammers. So you have a whole lot of this maze within the digital space. Uh even the current cyber. Um people have spoken against the Cyber Crimes Act, uh, the Cyber Security Act, against issues of privacy, issues sometimes of um freedom of expression, and so on. And I think we we have missed an opportunity in certain aspects to bring about digital sanitization in terms of how because this is has come to stay it's fast growing in terms of how we can make a structure within within the industry. So we keep on moving on the back foot uh to answer your question in terms of should should we worry in terms of digital protection and so on. I know that then now from the Zigta Act, which was uh ICT Act and so on, there's a lot happening uh around digital safety and digital protection, and and more can be done. Uh more recently, um I think even this morning I was seeing this debate. It's there in the UK, it's now there uh in Australia, and this talk should should kids or people under the age of 16 be allowed to be on the internet. I think because I would see this debate. So it calls for greater concern.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

I depict the concern and everything, I know from another space that there should be something that should be mapped out so that when we have kids 16 and below not to have access to certain things and I'm hopeful, then that will come to us in Zambia so that we we have that control. But looking at access to such information to so many platforms, have you ever had one of these experiences where your content has been mismanaged or misinformation has gone out as if coming from down TV?

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Before I get to that, let me just touch on the on the aspect where you just alluded to earlier the protection of young people and the ages. Um laws can be there, but it may be a bit difficult to really enforce, especially at a domestical household level. And I think for us as a people, it's it's also a cultural or a social class problem. Uh, in certain instances, we feel if our kids uh have a cell phone, it's it symbolizes that you're able to afford. The debate also goes into what type of cell phone should you buy your child. Um and there are a lot of justifications. No, because we are working parents, we want to know what the kids are up to, so it's for communication at home and so on. And again, here's a rising problem. Um we we feel it's it's for convenience, we feel it's sometimes for status, but then even this before we even get to what are they consuming, it's also the screen time because the algorithms behind these platforms really are built with dopamine in them. It's it's it's it's they they they are designed to addict you, and so you find that um children now do not interact with their parents, they don't socialize at human level. You sit literally on a dinner table or you've gone on a vacation and you've never spoken to each other. Couples and so on. So um I I like to do something I call it digital fasting. Where you just put it digital fast, where you just I I really monitor my screen time. On average, my screen time was about four hours 56 minutes in a week. I managed to reduce that to about two and a half hours in a week so that you you you you you you really detox on that. But back to your question misinformation or uh uh you uh the application of social media uh through the space. I can't it does happen and that's the worst part of it because the challenge that online brings for journalism is two things it's speed versus accuracy and so we're in a world where you're in a fight for clicks or you're in a fight for scrips. When when I was joining journalism, the the phrase breaking news big story um was a big thing. This is an exclusive only with us, or we we've had an exclusive interview, we had this big story because there was not so much competition. If anything happened on Church Road right now, uh the unfortunate part, even if it's an accident, even victims in the car will start filming the accident before police and everybody arrives. And for me, that's the worst part of it, also from a human side, is that when things like that happen, instead of our human side kicking in to help victims, the first thing we think of is taking out a phone and all of us are communicating. So it has it has happened. Uh we strive very much now to put in editorial mechanisms of it's better to be correct than to be first and to correct. So the aspect between being first and being right is always a daily matter. So yes, it has happened.

SPEAKER_05 23:40

Outside the newsroom, how do you personally protect your data? How do you protect um your presence on social media as consequences before we move to the data as diamond?

SPEAKER_02 23:59

Great. So late last year it was unfortunate I I had two of my phones stolen, and um luckily none of my accounts were hacked uh because of at least the basic things I do in terms of protecting passwords, um applications where if your phone goes missing, uh things like if the phone is switched on, uh it can automatically be located, uh and so on. Uh the enlightenment, if you're using WhatsApp or they took step verification, um and so on. I was explaining earlier that last year you you had this big scam, P PMG something going around where people were scammed with millions of monies. The worst part of it is that um I mean it dawned me on me at a personal level and at institutional level because I could see this increase in requests for salary advisors, and I was like, what's going on? People had put in title deeds, they'd put in cars as collateral, and the profits were too super to be true. And so something hit me at a personal level in that if we as journalists who are supposed to be informing and educating the public are the ones being scammed, then there's a problem. How do we communicate the correct information? So I took it upon myself that we needed to start telling more stories around this danger. And so we had cyber experts zigzag coming through into the institution uh to teach and educate more. And so, even at personal level, I learned then that if if what happened then, at least I was lucky, once your phone goes missing or is stolen, there is a simple code that you type in event from another phone and block your your your your your SIM card with with Zika automatically, and I managed to do that because I've seen stories even at personal level where I mean you receive these messages, I'm asking for help and so on, and people have lost money, people's bank accounts have been hacked into. So I try as much as possible as an individual not to put my birthdays and everything in terms of passwords and so on. But very funny enough, you you find this very awkward. Um it's it's it's it's it's not a digital or data protection strategy, but it's just a preference. So I do not actively run pages. Um I I I am not on social media very actively. So if you want, if you if you follow pages, usually my my my social pages are very linked to to my work. I I I post a lot of um campaigns that have to do with work or have to do with promoting interviews. There's very little personal stuff that that I post. I I take that as a privacy preference. Awkwardly as well, being in the media and digital space, I do not own a laptop.

unknown 27:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

I do not own a laptop. So I I would it's awkward, yes, but I own lots of notepads. Okay, lots of notepads. So I I I I prefer to write my notes. Uh it's better for me. Uh everybody will criticize me for that and say, but I I can say I like referring to them, but they'll say, Yeah, but on a phone, you can save it and or on a laptop. So I I I do work on emails, I do work on WhatsApp. In fact, I prefer to work on WhatsApp faster than emails. Uh so my phone, yes, is is my work space, but I don't own a laptop.

SPEAKER_05 28:02

That's interesting. Okay. Looking ahead, what digital risks or shifts in audience behavior keep you up at night?

SPEAKER_02 28:16

I think I've already touched on this, like I said, for my space really, it's it's the trend of consumption that um what keeps me up at night is right now we're still in this old trend of from from a business side. I ask myself a question, will advertisers still come five years from now? That they want to place adverts in the news, before the news, in the break of the news. Does Prime Plus really exist anymore? Because those shifts have moved. The viewer, the consumer has really moved, and already we've established that everything has gone digital. So it's a true question, it's a true experience that I'm living. And for me, the future is that I think the word I use every day is adaptability. How are we going to adapt? I think one thing that will remain constant is content, the distribution will change. And so what keeps me awake is how do we adapt and transform this tradition into where the consumers are and we can still remain relevant and make money because we need to survive.

SPEAKER_05 29:48

Alright. Thank you so much for sharing all the insights about your experience and your daily activity. As we come to the close, there is a young person out there that is thinking of following the footsteps of I want to be like Costa one day. But there are these changes that have taken place in the digital space. What would be your advice today?

SPEAKER_02 30:15

The advice would be not to follow my footsteps for a simple reason that um, like you right when you put it in your question, so much has changed. So it's like the old story our parents will always tell of how they walked to school, and each one of them was always top of the class, can you imagine? Um and those things don't matter anymore. Um so how I was trained and and the type of things I went through may be a bit different now in terms of generation and technology. But the takeaway that I would give is despite technology, despite online uh development, I think consistency, discipline are just the hallmark of success. I always talk about consistency as the power of habit. Uh, if you're not consistent, um, it's very difficult for you to develop product, it's very difficult for you to develop character, it's very difficult for you to develop personality. Um and then in the whole clatter that we have now, some and and and if you ask me for the young person why I'll say this is that um there's lots of so my advice is that there's lots of opportunities now with technology uh and and the super online presence artificial intelligence. It's how you apply yourself with creativity and innovation. What we must be doing, actually, and and I've seen this in many other jurisdictions, I spoke about the lagging behind in terms of policy and legal framework. I call it, I think for me, the biggest employer in the next five to ten years will be the creative economy. It will be the creative economy because it's the simplest thing to do and to use now. You isn't it so nice now that you no longer need to go into the markets or into uh town to buy things, you can simply scroll it and check it. Everybody's posting on Facebook, they now can deliver uh to you um as part of e-commerce, uh, e-health, e-learning, uh, and and and and all that. So my advice I think it's no longer about journalism and the media space, it's more about the creative economy. So I see a space where there will be so many content creators, but how how would that be relevant as a career for you to make money? So if there'll be many children who will go to the parents and they'll be asked, what do you want to do when you grow up? They'll not say lawyer or doctor or journalist, they'll say I want to be a content creator. Um the whole reason uh I think a couple of months ago, so many of us as parents didn't understand this craze behind iShow Speed and and why our kids were so excited about this YouTuber with 45 million followers across the world, and you don't understand what he does. He moves around with a phone and shoots and creates content and makes millions out of it. So the landscape has changed, but the consistency, the discipline, and and and the creativity is what the next frontier for I wouldn't say new journalists, but new communicators to the journalist. I don't think social media is the new journalism, it will never be. The ethical side of journalism of truth, fact, and accuracy still need to be practiced whether you're on Facebook, whether you're on TikTok or X.

SPEAKER_05 34:13

No, thank you so much. We're closing out. Do you have any final words? I know I have picked even from your last statement about journalism that we still need the aspect of truth, we still need the aspect of accuracy. Those are human concepts.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

What is your well my final word because this is the humanized uh podcast in is that in as much as technology is a good thing and it continues to evolve, um to change our lives, to make our jobs easier and many different things, like you said, digital transformation. Let's be more human because a robot software would not be so kind, and so in this busy space, I think we are losing humanity of just walking up to Rose and say, Rose, how are you? How are you doing? How's your day? How's home? Uh can I help you with something? If we I I I so the partly when I tell you I don't own a laptop is I I find it strange that people sit in an open office and then you ask them, have you done that assignment? I sent you an email. Like, why why are we not talking to each other? Your child calling you from the other bedroom and you're texting each other within one house. Uh we we we need to detox and get back to the humanity concept because whether it's relationships at a personal level, they can only thrive if we effectively communicate as individuals because then I will feel you, I will read your body language, uh, I will know if you're happy or you're upset. I can't tell that. In an email or on a WhatsApp. Uh businesses are huge of relationship capital, I think as well. So I think it's human as well.

SPEAKER_05 36:27

Thank you very much. It's clear, we still need the human aspect, we still need to feel you, we still need to hear you so that we are able to create content that has a human touch. This has been Rosemary Company with you on humanized podcast powered by Infratel with my guest customers. Until the next conversation goes by.

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