Sunday, May 13, 2012

Funeral of traditional Media


Media is the fundamental of democracy. The statements “thanks to the internet, newspapers are dying!” has become one of the clichés of our lives. The concern is that media might not be as efficient with less attention it is receiving each day especially amongst the younger generation without the newspapers as the main source of the News. According to the book “How Canadian Communicate IV”; “As the public no longer accepts the media playing the old important role and instead has created its own media, ignoring and undermining the institutional media along the way, the digital revolution creates the conditions and provides the tools for encouraging the same revolution in political communication. “
The truth is that the Radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and even local television stations are struggling, and many are predicting their demise! But is this true?
Before we plan for the funeral, let's answer one question: In this world of smart phones and tablets becoming our primary computer, are mainframe computers dead? The answer is “no! We're still using mainframes”. Of course, the usage of the mainframes are changed and perhaps improved!
In order to define the problem statement and analyze it properly I would like to list the main functions that media are serving us by generating the news:
1-    Surveillance; Media as the dogwatch for monitoring the government etc.
2-    Cultural glue; To improve the culture and keep the society together
3-    Increase public engagement in politics and number of voters
4-    Inform; a teacher function
5-    Service the economic system
6-    Entertain
7-    Act as a community forum (media equivalent of town hall meeting or group discussion)
8-     Set the public agenda
9-     Service the political system

I believe most of these functionalities are transformed to other forms and people have made their own media to serve as the media. The focus is mostly on the “news” in this text. The point is that when new technology emerges, we tend to think that the old technology is completely dead, but that usually isn't the case. Rather, the old technology gets repurposed and integrated to add value to the future.
Some people tend to call radio the old media. Today, a radio station can have a website, which allows them to have video, interactivity, contests, and all sorts of things they couldn't have done in the past. Radio is no longer a physical device; rather, it's audio-sponsored content that can be delivered anywhere, at any time. As you see it is improved and not dead!
Therefore, I would like to assume each of the functionalities of the media mentioned above is going to be improved and embedded in a new medium. I would like to claim that the old doesn't always go away; often, it gets repurposed into the new. So let's forget the concept of big media versus the Internet. It's really big media AND the Internet! For each of the functionalities mentioned above we can find a few new media that is helping the traditional media to serve better.

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