TRADITIONAL MEDIA VERSUS NEW MEDIA.........HOW IS TRADITIONAL MEDIA CATCHING UP?

By the end of the first decade of the millennium, it was clear that the internet was killing newspapers. An increasing number of readers had decided to read news online and advertisers were following them yet most newspaper online versions were not creating enough revenue to cover their own cost. This led to the cannibalistic cycle where spending cuts affected journalistic quality resulting to a drop in readership and  further cuts.In the meantime, no amount of journalism globally produced by non-professional journalists had increased dramatically.

Traditional media is therefore the archaic way of disseminating information involving only one way hence, the top down approach. Using newspapers, books, television, radio, advertising, sales promotion,  the traditional media is owned by the Elites and influential in society hence decides what the public(audience) listens to thus the Agenda Setting theory of mass media. The use of the traditional media and social media is to reach people. 

The Traditional media intends to reach a large number of masses( unknown audience) by mass communication tools such as newspapers, radio, television, billboards, public speaking and recently the advent of social media with the use of the internet media sphere headed by social networking sites, leading the way for online media sources such as emails, online videos, search engines,online-games,blogs,online-radio, online newspapers and online magazine.Many other mass media outlets now  have their presence on the web such as TV adverts that link to the website or a Quick Response code  ‘QR’ in print or outdoor media to direct a mobile user to a website thus utilize the accessibility  by easily broadcasting information to many regions of the world simultaneously. The rapid increase in online media usage led to a decrease in the popularity of other media sources. Struggling media sources include newspapers, magazines, radio, TV.

Social media therefore refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share and or exchange information and ideas in ‘’virtual’’ communities and networks. The office of digital communication manages the main Facebook, twitter, instagram, YouTube account. Others are Flickr, blogger; linked In. Social media is about conversations, community connecting with your audience and building relationships. It is not just a broadcast channel or a sales marketing tool. Authenticity, honesty and open dialogue are key.  It doesn’t just allow you to hear what people say about you but enables you to respond, thus, listen first, and speak. Social media differentiates from traditional media in many aspects such as quality, reach, frequency, usability reach, frequency usability, accessibility, immediacy and permanency. With regards to the tremendous rise on our social media today, there are various statistics that account for social media usage and effectiveness for individuals worldwide. The number of online U.S adults who use social media sites has risen from 8% to 72%.  Using social media services like Facebook, twitter, whatsapp and viber may be addictive and may lead to the ‘’fear of missing out’’ (FOMO).Facebook for instance has become a virtual means of connecting with old friends. 

Citizen journalism also known as public journalism and participatory journalism are members of the public who  used to be called ‘ audience’ and now playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting , analyzing and disseminating news and information. Citizen journalists are everywhere at the right time hence breaking news more quickly. Citizen journalist is more of an amateur who publishes using social media services and challenges the news, hence has no editor. They deal more on eye witness account and give their own dimensions to the news.

New media was coined in the 21^st century and used to define all that is related to the internet and the interplay between technology, images and sound. New media is a way of organizing a cloud of technological skills and processes which changes so quickly that it is impossible to fully define what those tools and processes are. New media can be characterized by words, images and sounds. These networks of images, sounds and text data are different from old media format such as hard copy and newspapers.

Andreas Kaplan and Michael Heinlein define social media as a group of internet-based application that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allows the creation and exchange of user generated content.

Gradually, traditional media houses are making efforts to widen their reach by incorporating new media approaches to news and information in their reportage. The newspapers are surviving now by being creative, thus by adding colour and more interesting features and also reducing the number of pages. As such, most traditional media now have their online branch where information can also be distributed and retrieved to online users. Locally, radio stations like joy FM, CitiFM and Peace FM have created their online branches such as myjoyonline.com, peacefmonline.com and citifmonline.com.

Traditional media houses have now shifted from the old methods of news delivery making it more interactive. Publication of comments at the bottom of specific stories, request for and publication of pictures, videos ,texts and eyewitness on major news story are all efforts by traditional media to involve the public more on reportage. A very good example is the session ’’my take’’ on Tv3 where viewers are at liberty to report news items they see around. As a result of the influx of citizen journalism, news organizations are crowd sourcing comments, pictures, video incites and ideas especially on news stories and the headlines. This supplements and complements the news sources of these organizations as they cannot be everywhere at once and also enriches their output.

Traditional media has put attractive packages in place to invite their audiences to their production instead of resorting to news produced by citizen journalists. They try to tune audiences to listen into programmes and contribute to discussions by using give-away as a ploy.  An example is the ‘’This morning show’’ on Viasat 1 where callers have the opportunity to win prizes such as a free meal at a restaurant, free movie tickets and free shopping vouchers. The ‘New Day Show’ on tv3is part of such innovative programmes that involve the ordinary person making audience active rather than passive.

In all it is very obvious that social media has affected traditional media production. It has led to citizen journalists who send out news without concern for ethics or accuracy; it has become a cheaper form of advertisement and offers more variety and spontaneity. Traditional media houses are joining the social media by creating pages on them, creating segments for viewer comments and crowd sourcing comments, pictures, and video incites and ideas especially on news stories and headlines.We can then say without much fear that,the traditional media is doing everything possible to catch up with what citizen journalist are doing now but can they really meet up with the pace???