Social media in South Africa is booming. According to the 2014 Social Media Report by World Wide Worx, there are 9.4 million active Facebook users in the country, and 6 million regular posters to Mxit. We are, increasingly, a country of internet intercourses and digital didacts.

But in a country of over 51 million people, one medium still dwarfs all. A staggering 68.9% of us listen to the radio daily – at home, at work, in our cars. There’s no better way of reaching the masses, and the basic principles of what makes radio the transcendent and powerful medium it has been for centuries still stand today. But many radio celebs are also gaining big social followings too, and exploring the way in which both media can be used to raise their profile and keep their listeners on side during and after a show.

Power FM‘s resident tech expert, Ferial Carelse, stumbled into a radio career in 2008 when, in her first year at the University of Pretoria, she accidentally starting working at the university’s radio station, TuksFM 107.2, as a newsreader. Three years later, still accidentally employed at TuksFM, she started working at Talk Radio 702 as a traffic presenter. Not long after that Ferial took a behind-the-scenes roll and started producing the Jenny Crwys-Williams Book Show, and later worked as a co-producer on Jenny’s weekday show too.

In 2013 Power 98.7 lured her back to on-air work, and today she can be found presenting the morning traffic. Along with being the resident tech-head and having unlimited knowledge on how to fix broken iPhones (just turn them on and off again), Ferial also presents a weekly technology feature with Azania Mosaka every Wednesday afternoon.

We had a chat with her about the role Facebook, Twitter et al plays in how she does her work.

htxt.women Like many African countries, radio is still seen the dominant medium for information and entertainment in South Africa. Do you think that’s changing, and how does it affect the way you prepare and plan shows?

Ferial Radio as a broadcast medium is so popular in Africa and in South Africa because it’s one of the only mediums that doesn’t cost you to indulge in. At some point money is spent on a radio, and maybe a few times a year that radio needs batteries, but besides that, access to trustworthy, relevant and impartial information is usually nothing more than a flick of a switch away. And more than that, here in South Africa we are absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to picking a station to listen to because we have so many different and unique radio stations that cater to everyone’s needs.

This probably won’t change any time soon, especially not while there are still large part of South Africa’s population that are underprivileged and don’t have the luxury to sit in front of a TV or computer for the latest information and entertainment.

All this means for us creating radio shows is that we have to always remember that our audience is not just middleclass nine-to-fivers, but also people in rural areas. Our listeners aren’t just people mildly irritated by potholes damaging the tyres of their 4X4’s, but also people mildly irritated at not having access to clean water, and people more than mildly irritated by the deaths of their young children by members of their own communities.

It makes us better, knowing that our audience isn’t just those in our immediate surroundings, but can potentially be anyone in the country, on the continent, or in the world.

h How do you think social media and new technology changes the way you put together a radio show?

F Once upon a time creating a radio show involved a lot of looking through newspapers and magazines; phoning people and watching TV – it wasn’t very glamorous and it took a lot of time.

Then social media came about and people we’re mourning the end of journalism because Facebook, and especially Twitter, allowed anyone to find and break stories online, or share information to practically the entire world almost instantly; for a while it really did feel as if the need for media broadcasting had come to an end and the age of social journalism had begun.

But fast forward a year and it became apparent that social media wasn’t the death of conventional media, but rather the injection of life it desperately needed. Radio, especially, capitalised on the potential social media presented because it not only allowed us access to the thoughts and emotions of our immediate audience, it also gave us insight into the issues that were affecting them at that moment, as well as how the issues we were addressing on our platform affected them.

The speed at which news travels now thanks to mediums like Twitter is astonishing, and thanks to the instant information we have access to, we’re able to create radio shows and news bulletins based on what’s making news now, and sometimes what will make news tomorrow. Most radio shows these days find the day’s relevant topics for discussion simply by checking what’s trending on Twitter or finding the most shared articles on Facebook.

The rise of smart mobile devices has also meant that access to radio shows discussing these important topics is just an app away. Online streaming services connect presenters with listeners who are entire continents away, and major issues in other countries hit closer to home these days as eyewitness accounts unfold both on your social media timelines, and on your radio.

h Do younger broadcasters have an advantage when it comes to adapting to ‘new media’?

F Younger broadcasters are spoiled rotten by the great technologies and media that they have available to them today, and they’re even luckier because “new media” isn’t new to them; these are technologies that a lot of them (and by “them” I mean “us”) have been exposed to since their inception, and have effectively grown up on them.

While technologies are continuously evolving, they never dramatically differ from what was previously on offer, so younger broadcasters more open (or, to be honest, more FOMO) to embracing new technologies do have a great advantage over their older peers.

A lot of older broadcasters are scared of embracing the new mediums available out there, and as such, a lot of relevant sources of information go untapped by them. Unfortunately for the older broadcasters out there, as the years go on and new media continues to grow and update, it will become harder for them to simply step in and attempt to adapt and learn how to effectively use these new media. This is mainly because the new media phenomenon is becoming more complicated in many ways as the current users get used to it and start demanding more from it.

h Do you think social media in particular has made the job “easier” for producers and presenters? Why?

F The advent of social media for me will always be one of the most pivotal moments in man’s history. I’ll admit that sounds a little dramatic, but in 2004 when Facebook first piqued the interest of the public, in a very tangible way it ushered in what many people believe can be called out next big technological revolution.

For radio producers and presenters, social media means that at any given time, there’s a show waiting to happen. All you have to do it log on to Facebook and see the latest story shared by a friend, or pop over to Twitter to catch up on the latest and juiciest Twar.

Twitter has also become the top medium to break important news over and to find breaking news. I use this example a lot because it showcases just how powerful social media is: In September last year football’s transfer window was drawing to a close with no major announcements. Right at the end though, Tottenham player Gareth Bale was transferred to Real Madrid for an astonishing €91 million. The news broke late in the day, too late to make the newspapers the next day, but of course, social media was abuzz and radio took full advantage of the topic. Two days later, when the news finally did hit the papers, the issue had been dissected and discussed thoroughly on social media and on radio and the news was old.

So in many aspects social media has made creating a radio program easier, and this applies specifically to radio because like Twitter, radio is an immediate medium. Whoever’s behind the mic always has a platform for giving you the latest information, unlike in TV or in papers where there is very little live interaction, and that interaction that is broadcast is tightly scheduled and scripted.