A Library, a Bank and a Megaphone: Media, the Internet and Mobile Phones

1Before you read

1. What three things do people in your family use a mobile phone for most often?
2. Have you ever received a message that turned out to be false? What happened?
3. Is a phone mainly a tool for learning, for business or for fun? Explain.

2Reading: A Library, a Bank and a Megaphone

An article for a youth magazine. The three young people are imagined.

1 Ask a Rwandan teenager what a mobile phone is for, and you will get a dozen answers. Ask a few more questions, and the answers fall into three groups. The phone is a library. The phone is a bank. And the phone is a megaphone, one that can carry your voice, and anyone else's, further than you ever meant it to go.

2 For Uwamahoro Aline, an S3 student in Rusizi, the phone is a library. Her school has only a few textbooks for each class, so in the evenings she uses her mother's smartphone to read lessons, watch science videos and test herself with online quizzes. "I download what I need at school, where there is Wi-Fi, because data bundles are expensive," she explains. "Then I study offline at home." Her marks in chemistry have risen every term this year.

3 For Habimana Eric, who sells tomatoes and onions at a market in Rubavu, the phone is a bank. Most of his customers pay with mobile money, and restaurants send him their orders on a messaging app the night before. "I used to carry all my cash in a bag," he says. "Now my money sleeps in my phone, and I sleep better too." He also uses the phone to apply for documents on Irembo, the government's online service, without travelling to an office.

4 For Ndayisaba Kevin, the phone was a megaphone, and not in a good way. Last year he received a message claiming that the national examination papers had been stolen and would be cancelled. It looked official, so he shared it with every group he belonged to. Within an hour it had reached hundreds of students and their parents, and the school's telephone did not stop ringing. The message was false. "I didn't invent it," Kevin says, "but I spread it. That made me part of the problem."

5 Kevin's story shows how the internet has changed the media. In the past, news came from a small number of journalists and editors, whose job was to check facts before anything was published. Today anyone can publish anything, instantly, to anyone. A false story can travel faster than the truth, and once it is shared, it can never be completely called back. Every post, like and comment also leaves a trace, a digital footprint, that a future teacher or employer may one day find.

6 So how should a young person use this powerful tool? The three agree on some simple rules. Check the source of a message before you share it, and look for the same news on a trusted website or station. Never share your password or your mobile money PIN with anyone, even a friend. Think before you post: if you would not say it to someone's face, don't write it online. And put the phone down sometimes. "My grandmother says I hold my phone as if it might fly away," Aline laughs. "She's probably right."

3Comprehension

Answer in full sentences. Questions 1 to 5 ask what the text says; 6 to 8 ask what it means; 9 asks what you think.

1. What are the three groups that the answers "fall into"?
2. Why does Aline download her lessons at school?
3. Give two ways in which Eric uses his phone for his business.
4. What did the message that Kevin shared claim?
5. According to paragraph 5, how was news different "in the past"?
6. Explain Eric's words: "Now my money sleeps in my phone, and I sleep better too."
7. Kevin says, "I didn't invent it, but I spread it." Why does he still feel responsible?
8. Why does the writer compare the phone to a megaphone? Is the comparison positive, negative or both?
9. Which of the rules in paragraph 6 do you think is the hardest for students to follow? Why?

Show answersHide answers

1. A library, a bank and a megaphone.
2. Because the school has Wi-Fi and data bundles are expensive; she then studies offline at home.
3. Any two of: customers pay him with mobile money; restaurants send orders on a messaging app; he applies for documents on Irembo.
4. That the national examination papers had been stolen and the examination would be cancelled.
5. News came from a small number of journalists and editors, who checked facts before anything was published.
6. His money is safe in his mobile money account rather than in a bag of cash that could be lost or stolen, so he is less worried.
7. By sharing the message he helped it reach hundreds of people and caused panic; spreading a lie does harm even if you did not create it.
8. A megaphone makes one voice reach many people. That can be positive (sharing useful information) or negative (spreading a rumour further than intended), so the comparison is both; in Kevin's story it is negative.
9. Open answer, supported by a reason.

4Vocabulary: the media and the internet