TRANSCRIPT

Up until the 1980s, the most noted forms of media were print, radio and television. Thanks to technology, people no longer rely on such forms of media as their only means of getting information. However, this does beg the question, ‘Does alternative media pose any serious threat to Traditional Media?’ The emergence of New Media has spawned a trend that rivals traditional media and in many ways this may be an indication that Traditional media is soon becoming obsolete.

RSS feeds, online communications and blogs are a few of the new media tools widely used today in communications. There are ALSO hundreds of social media sites which allows for interactivity such as Twitter, BEBO and Facebook. Hardly the same as what is offered by Traditional media.

The Web is now one of the most ACCESSIBLE sources of information. This innovation allows people to get information anytime, anywhere, and whenever they want. There is no question about the speed of the internet as well, within fractions of a second a story can be updated and posted to the worldwide web and can be easily accessed by millions all over the world. It is safe to say that the emergence of New media has altered the meaning of geographical distance and information can be easily disseminated across the globe.

In addition, Journalists no longer have wait on press releases to come to them. They simply search the web for stories and write about them. They are also able to get direct feedback on a story by simply posting their story to a blog first. As David Meerman Scott said in his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, How difficult can it be to read the blogs of the reporters you're trying to pitch? It teaches you precisely what interests them. And then you can e-mail them with something interesting, that they are likely to write about rather than spamming them with unsolicited press releases. So no more press release…the internet is quicker, simpler and easily accessible plus it saves the trees.

The internet is widely used by all generations and they carry out various activities based on their age group. Some demographics such as age group 18 - 32 are more likely to head directly to the internet for news and other information. The 18-32 age group accounts for 30% of the internet using population. (http://www.clickz.com/3632579). Could this mean that Traditional media is missing out on an audience? According to a study carried out by the PEW research, the internet has surpassed newspapers as the primary source of news for young people and now rivals television. As the slide depicts, the number of young people getting the news from television decreased by 11% while use of the internet increased by 25%.

Social Networking has also become increasingly important in reaching out to target audiences. Facebook now has 175 million registered users. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites) Social Media sites such as Youtube and Facebook are so influential; you can even win an election by just networking and setting up social groups.

Take for example in the Obama campaign, he used New media extensively and was able to get over 160,000 supporters on Myspace alone, while on one of his Facebook pages he was able to garner 5, 569,147 supporters. His page also provided direct links to videos, speeches and blogs. In short Social media offers connectivity, something that’s not at all achieved through newspapers and radio. People need feedback, especially journalists and they need it fast; so what better way to get such feedback than through sites such as Twitter and Bebo.

Research shows that 21 million people in Britain still read newspapers this figure indicates a 24% decrease in readership over a period of 10 years (http://www.mad.co.uk/BreakingNews/BreakingNews/Articles/6432bc7542fe42c3834185da73f38fc2/Newspaper-readers-fall-24.html ) . So is this the beginning of the end?

People will continue to view traditional media as more reliable. In other words, Traditional Media is viewed as being somewhat more transparent. How will I know for sure that the person who wrote a blog is the person he says he is?

There are people reporting the news, journalists avidly hunting information and broadcasters adamant about giving you news on the hour every hour. The point is, we can see this happening whereas with new media is hard to tell. However, the internet is such a huge open community that allows people all over the world to share and relate to each other…this I believe is transparent enough. It is easier to get the truth from the internet these days as more people are recording and uploading videos and potential news stories as it occurs.

There is some form of interdependence between both as well, Lets think about it…what happens to all those online press releases, they still get printed in the newspapers or broadcasted on the radio or television…well that’s if the journalist likes the story. You see that’s yet another advantage with using New Media, it does not rely on a middleman (journalists) to get the message across.

As pointed out by blogger Matthew Buckland, social networks and aggregators are distributors of traditional media material. I do agree as some traditional media corporations now own new Media networks. Case in point, the BBC and CNN. 24 hour news updates can be retrieved via their respective websites. Radio stations are equally present online. This may be their attempt at staying alive

To sum up this screencast, New Media does pose a threat to Traditional media, but I do believe that both forms of media will be around for years to come. The slide in newspaper readership is indications as to where the industry might be heading but these traditional media houses wont go down without a fight. Traditional media and New Media both rely on each other and that is what makes traditional media still relevant.

What are your views? Will New Media put an end to Traditional Media? Feel free to subscribe to this blog for regular updates.

Thank you!

The Internet, the World Wide Web, You tube, Facebook, Myspace

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2009-03-01

Dwayne Shann

Swift Cash