Technology has blessed everyone alike, but for poor traditional journalists not as much.
At the turn of the twenty first century while denizens felt empowered with technological advancements in the communication arena, journalists were not as amused with twitterati taking over our sacred profession.
News, thanks to social media is now increasingly becoming the domain of virtual gossipers when previously it was published after in depth research, questioning, and investigating only by journalists trained to do so.
The total circulation for newspapers was at 44,421,000 in 2011, while now by 2015, it has gone down to 40,420,000, according to The Newspaper Association of America.
Trends also show a striking increase in mobile newspaper audience, meaning those who use only mobile devices to access news. Just in 2014, the number of readers who use only mobile devices to access newspapers online had sharply gone up. While an environmentalist will grin victoriously at this statistic, journalists cannot help but frown.
Why so? Why the hate to digitalization you might wonder?
With the advent of social media, speed became the priority for readers who knowingly or unknowingly accepted a compromise on accuracy.
Opinions now become the trending deal on social media shared million times globally in seconds, making ‘opinion,’ seem like news, and our average Joe cannot differentiate between the two.
We journalists have a love-hate relationship with social media. We love being able to access a much wider audience in merely minutes but we also detest the idea of the same publishing power being used by our not so sensitive next door tech savvy virtual gossiper.
Print news industry worldwide is facing an existential crisis, with readers themselves becoming publishers, or preferring to catch up on news in a subway, on their way to work, instead of sitting peacefully and dedicating time to a newspaper as was the trend of the bygone era.
Amidst all of this, is print media still relevant today?
As a journalist myself, nothing will ever convince me to willfully bid farewell to the world of print deadlines and crazy newsroom environments. However as a regular reader, I would too perhaps prefer the ease and comfort of obtaining news digitally.
Truth is, for so long as almost two centuries newspapers had monopolized the news industry, until recently. And as noble as the idea of economic competition sounds, the journalist in me is not yet prepared to adapt to the idea of ‘change.’
To the reader, newspapers are not as relevant any more. To the writer who puts his blood and sweat into it, there is always hope.
However, to maintain the sovereignty of being news publishers, it is necessary to belittle the publishing power of the common folk. Sure they should be publishing opinion, but news must only come from a professionally accredited sources.
Another solution could be to not let the reader access news online for free. This is something that would definitely earn me backlash, but just like a print newspaper is not available for free, an electronic version should not be either, not even fragments of it, as is the trend currently.
Future predictions definitely point at increased digitization. And we have to prepare ourselves for this inevitable change. The journalism model has already forced us to evolve into mojos, or mobile journalists who juggle with mobile electronic devices and are always in touch and prepared to publish with just a click.
To further maintain relevancy, it is important to explore ways to transmit news quickly but also without compromising on accuracy. It is important to understand the needs of the average reader, and to also understand how society is evolving, with the east coast styled fast paced culture becoming the norm.
As much as the traditional journalist in me would like the idea of clinging on to tangible paper news, it is time to transform completely and immerse into the mojo culture, while making sure it is us who communicate news, and not that next door neighbor.
News industry will never go out of business, at least per my foresight. For as long as we remain a connected world, people will be interested in happenings and developments beyond the geographical scope of their neighborhood.
Yet, just like any xyz cloth brand, it is important that news media too adapt to the evolving communication revolution, and learn to use it to our advantage and not vice versa.
