JOIN USAdvances in science and technology during every era have threatened the job of many professionals.
During the Industrial Revolution, unskilled labourers lost their jobs. After the arrival of advanced machines, a section of skilled labourers also lost their jobs. Economy runs on the principle of making maximum profit. Hence, the people who run the business try to use the latest technology and thereby cut costs.
The introduction of taxi apps such as Ola and Uber have threatened the business model of traditional taxi operators. The latter have been demanding a ban on the taxi aggregators, but there is no law which can make this happen.
Recently, the Karnataka government introduced new rules and asked the taxi aggregators to take licences for running their services. Law usually cannot catch up with the speed at which technology develops. Same is the case with the loss of revenue to the traditional news organisations due to social media and mobile apps.
According to a study conducted by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 44% use Facebook as their main source of news. Many people today do not read news, but just check the headlines on their Facebook feeds.
Another major social media platform Twitter came into attack from the web publishers for displaying news stories without advertisements. There are many apps which deliver news content without ads. The result is that these social media platforms are generating revenue, while depriving the news organisations of their legitimate revenue through advertising. It is indeed disturbing for the news industry.
During mid-1990s, most of the leading newspapers forayed into the Internet by having their own websites and claimed a small share of revenue. The same newspapers till recently neglected the social media platforms. But they cannot afford to neglect social media any more.
The delay in using social media by Indian newspapers has cost them dear. Many unreliable Facebook pages have more reach than the established news organisations! This has also increased the menace of unverified and fake news which also get viral on other social media platforms like WhatsApp.
Daily news is a perishable commodity and needs to be delivered fast. In such a situation, the news organisations have to use the various social media tools effectively to stay relevant in the market. Despite the threat of new technology, journalism and newspapers have all chances of surviving only if they adapt to the changed circumstances.
The prediction of 24x7 TV news killing the newspapers went wrong. Television news did grab a share of revenue from the newspapers, but was not able to completely wipe out the newspapers. People who till now were praising the news debates are now scorning at the noisy panel discussions.
Right time
This is indeed the right time for traditional news organisations to rethink their strategy of news distribution. There are reports that the people who paid for advertising on Facebook got lesser engagement and likes from fake profiles!
Time and again, the TV viewership ratings have been disputed by some of the TV channels! Compare this with the newspaper circulation data released by Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) which is known for its authenticity. Whatever the change in technology, newspapers in print will surely be relevant. They need to maintain their print editions while exploring the possibilities on the digital medium.
While the TV news cannot offer detailed reporting and long form journalism, the Internet allows every such possibility. Journalists need to stop differentiating between print and online journalism and learn the skills required for being relevant in the digital era. Some of the recent online news websites have shown that they can be as good as the print editions of newspapers. The space limitation on print edition does not exist on a website.
Due to the emergence of online only news websites, online magazines and blogs run by non-journalists, the way we consume news and opinion has changed. We aggregate our reading list from different sources. In such a situation, news organisations should rethink the way in which they distribute news on the digital platform.
Efforts should be made to fund the journalists to research on the readers’ demands. While one chunk of the population hesitates to pay for what they read online, surely there exist another group who are ready to pay for what they read, provided it is delivered in a user-friendly manner and is free of annoying advertisements.
(The writer is Assistant Professor, SDM Law College, Mangaluru)