STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA Additionally, as revealed by Gerald Shawa, Prime TV Proprietor, journalists in the private media are underpaid compared to those working for the public media. The background to the low wages stems from low income streams private media are exposed to. It has been observed that private media houses are barely given business by government which makes them compete for few companies advertising in the media. “[Journalists salaries] in the private media is between K2 000 - K5 000 and for public media it‟s between K5 000 - K10 000. Raising income [has been challenging for the private media] as government has opted not to give business to most media in the private sector as they are considered to be their enemies. This has left us in the private media to fight for the limited market share available,” Mr. Shawa said. In terms of technologies, the media remains one of the most labour and technology intensity industries in the world. This is the case for Zambia. Developments in technology have greatly influenced the operations of the media, consequently widening the scope of operations for the media world. Most media institutions are slowly adopting new technological infrastructure. But then again, despite the increase in players, media houses are said to face challenges with advanced equipment to support their operations. New and improved equipment are expensive for some media houses. Furthermore, the move towards digital migration has contributed to technological advancement in the media especially the first quarter. This is based on the fact that media houses have started adopting new and state of the art equipment. The fact remains that the public media (ZNBC), funded by government has latest equipment due to its direct involvement in the digital migration process. It is in the first quarter that improved set top boxes for accessing satellite TV saw a price reduction for Multichoice as well as TopStar. Further, most media houses increased their internet usage through websites and social media. Currently, almost all media houses in the country have an active presence online with some updating their social media pages with their programming readers/listeners/viewers while other use them for news updates. 11 to engage their