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Tomorrow’s media will be different. The situation is actual quite scary if you really see. As newspapers close down, so does the reporting. Social Media does not do reporting – it regurgitates. But what will it regurgitate, if the news reporting is not there? What business models need to be created?
Over the last many years, the news and media has changed completely. Newspapers and magazines – even the iconic ones – have closed down or will close down. Some have reinvented themselves and their business models. TV networks have become more aligned with the social media platforms. For example, it is very common even in India to see prime-time TV debates use their own custom hash-tags which they push with their audience for trending. The program and the tweeting around the content goes together.
More importantly, Facebook has become the main news source for most of the people. Instead of reading the news from the papers or listening to cable news, people in the younger generation are going to Facebook! In this interesting Pew research study, we can see that as many Millennials in percent terms, are consuming their political news from Facebook as the Baby Boomers do from Local TV!
When asked about how much of the political news they checked on Facebook, the answers reflected the habits of the different generations – nearly nine-in-ten Millennials (87%) are on Facebook, compared with 77% of Gen Xers and just over half (57%) of Baby Boomers.
How Will “News” Survive?
Going away of the papers and traditional media and the coming up of the social media as the source for news may be exciting for sure, but the big question is how will news be collected? Who will do the reporting if the Newspapers and Magazines simply close down?! With proper and credible news, what will get regurgitated in the social media will be nothing more than trash and fake news. That is easy to create. Instead of factual news reporting – which isn’t valued much these days – opinions will be the main things, which they are today as we speak! Opinions without the facts to fall back on are simply prejudices. They are not news.
Given the backdrop of the recent US elections, a world full of fake news powered by social media outlets which ends up deciding the world’s politics. The whole situation is quite scary!
Many news outlets – papers and TV networks are debating on how to fashion their relationship with the social media. It is a complex question and unfortunately, very little of it can be decided by the news outlets themselves. This question is decided more by the consumers of news and media. It is one thing to say that “we want to go to the consumer directly without social media as an intermediary”, but what if the consumer does NOT want to watch or read your platform vs say, Facebook?!
The model will have to be of engagement and collaboration. Those who collaborate will survive and thrive. Others will lose.
Let us join a very detailed and interesting conversation on this topic – moderated by Tom Ashbrook of On point Radio.
Digital Disruption of News and Media – On point Radio
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