5.0 Online Media The major highlight was the grounding of the Zambian Watchdog website as well as all its social media platforms since the middle of September 2016. The details of the operations to ground it or who was behind its closure remain unclear but there has been a marked absence of this once forthright and influential online news site that has been felt across the new media sector. Versions of unconfirmed reports of state action have continued to emerge over the fate of the Zambian Watchdog but an independent verification by this researcher failed. Social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook have continued to dominate the landscape in terms of breaking news and have offered mainstream media outlets a challenge to keep up with the fast pace at which they operate. A number of notable news sites that are frequently used by the masses include the Zambian eye, Zambian Watchdog, Zambia Reports, Lusaka Voice, Lusaka Times, and Mwebantu Media among several others. These and several others have their presence with their own domain names as well as on the social media platform Facebook. Typical online media outlets have described themselves as “…Media platform formed by creative minds, continuously adapting to the News Reader’s demands and providing the latest platform for best collaborative media interaction and crowd-sourced feedback.”18 One key element that is evident among the online and new media has been the continued incessant appetite to publish unconfirmed reports of events in a competitive market to try and outdo the competitors and land a scoop. This trend tends to render most of the news sites incredible among several readers. And reminiscent of the mainstream news media outlets, there is overwhelming evidence of polarisation among the players in the sub sector. Despite having various focus areas, the election campaign period has seen most of the online media take partisan stances in the way they cover and report the news in the country. With internet penetration falling down from around 40% in the quarter of the population to stand at 35% as captured by ZICTA, the potential impact of online media still remains huge as a significant contributor to information dissemination. However, a drop in the overall internet subscription of about 5 percent is too significant to be ignored. The reasons for this can only be speculated upon as at now to be anywhere from technological challenges to economic challenges with people being unable to sustain their subscription to the internet. However, despite the downward spiralling of internet subscription, online and new media still represents a huge incentive 18 http://lusakavoice.com/about-lusaka-voice/ 22