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Over the past
half-decade, the changing scene of technology has had a massive effect not only
on the form and structure of information dissemination, but also the way of
life. The dawn of the internet and Web
2.0 has, in recent times redefined what and how the use of information has
transformed from what it used to be in the afore technological age. Traditional
Media, the companies which create, produce and distribute information and
entertainment content pre-dating the commercial business of the internet;
Grimes (2008), as argued by various forecasters, has been faced with the burden
of either adjusting to this wave of technological innovation or remain dormant
a legacy. In this piece of work, a detailed explanation will be given to how
journalism; citizen journalism in particular, has jumped into this new wave
thus rendering the traditional media an endangered platform. It seeks to
investigate therefore the adopted strategies used in keeping up with the pace.
THE
EMERGENCE OF GRASSROOT PARTICIPATION: CITIZEN JOURNALISM.
Journalism in the mid-nineties, dating back to
the Greek history was seen as the classist mode by which matters or news
related to the ruling elite was disseminated down to the Masses. This top -down
approach of information dissemination caused the media to be perceived as a
repository of knowledge which dedicated how, where, when and what news can be
consumed. Not until the 20th century, consumers of news (audience) were seen as
a dormant few hungry for whatever story the traditional media deemed news.
The dawn of the
internet (Web 2.0), the introduction and deepening of democracies and the quest
for participation birthed a new way of news dissemination this time around not
from the few elite ( though debatable) the very masses who were suppressed back
in history. Citizen journalism or grass root journalism has been the definition
of this phenomenon.
Citizen journalism is
not a democratic phase that is entirely new to society. The rise of alternative
press in the 1960s stemmed from the impulse; we will do for ourselves what the
media will not do for us. 30 years later, it was the mainstream media that
experimented with this area. They thought of it as unfair to not involve the
people that the news most affected into the making of news. With so doing, some
newspaper embraced the movement “civic journalism”. It gained grounds in the
United States in 1999; it involved readers in the making of news and the use of
news. The concept of civic journalism was about the polling of readers,
arraying of public meeting and framing of scope of reader involvement in a way
that produces a story.
Citizen Journalism,
according to Bowman, S. and Willis (2003) refers to “public citizens playing an active role in
the process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and
information.” The process, mainly are
backed and aided through the emergence of mobile technologies and the social
media. Mobile technologies involving Digital Cameras, PDAs, IPod’s et all.
Social media being the Personal Media which links people and societies with a
common interest, given them the viable platform to express their views.
Examples of which has been Twitter, Facebook, Flicker and Instagram. Presently
citizen journalism has been accorded with different names due to it
characteristics. A case in point is the Asian Tsunami of 26, December 2006, Tom
Glocer, the head of Reuters, wrote that for the first 24hours the best and only
photos and videos came from tourists armed with telephones, digital camera and
camcorders. The 7th July bombing by Islamic terrorists on London’s public
transport system marked a turning point in citizen journalism in the UK. The
BBC received tons of emails. From the two scenarios based on the
characteristics of citizen journalism, is termed standalone journalism because
they don’t usually work as a team (the tourists in Asia).
With the backing of the
social media, and growing strength of Citizen Journalism, the existence of the
Traditional Media, Cable News, Radio and Print remains endangered as the
audience and consumer are beginning to rely on them, PERSONAL MEDIA rather than the MASS
MEDIA. This, communication expert propose, engenders the Old Media to act
fast.
THREATS
OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA: STRATEGIES BY THE OLD MEDIA
It is no surprise that
already, public broadcasters and other vestiges of traditional media are
rapidly reconstruction the form and structure in the wake of the IT revolution.
This perfectly sums up the proposition by Jeanette Steamers (2002), that Public
service broadcasting is not dead yet.
The transformation of
the audience base becoming much more the dynamic, sophisticated and
unpredictable due to the introduction of the internet, measures have been put
in place to meet the seemingly changing demands and nature of consumption by
the audience. This technological awareness has thus paved way for the
introduction of consumer preference content. This the former director of BBC
Television, Mark Thompson, explains to be a personalised relationship with the
public through more targeted offerings by segmenting content into a “suite of
channels with each having a clear proposition f flavour”.
A vital survival
strategy for the traditional media in the wake of the Web 2.0 is the need for a
transformation from MASS MEDIA to PERSONAL MEDIA. Half a century ago, the Mass
Media controlled the information base: determined what should be seen and
heard, when where and how. The Mass Media was seen as the central locus form
which information was distributed. This oligarchy gained the Mass Media a
perception of it being a repository of knowledge. This perception wasn’t long
overdue after the dawn of the Internet. The Internet; Web 2.0, changed the
information age dramatically; this time not welcoming a distant but closer,
personal and intimate audience. Forecaster and Author at the Silicon Valley,
Paul Saffo sufficed it to say “In the TV era, it was hard, if not impossible to
participate, but now in the new world of personal media, the exact reverse is
the case: it is hard to merely be a bystander.”
The Traditional Media is now burdened with the task of reshaping its
structural reforms to embrace the wake of the Personal Media. As already seen
in the BBC World Service, CNN and Aljazeera where the User Based Content model
is been employed talk of World Have Your Say, The Stream and CNN iReport.
The New Media today is
amazingly getting intimate with its audience, getting to know them better.
Markets are now coming to their customers as was the other way round in the
Traditional media. With the introduction of GPS, Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) and other location technologies that enable devices to locate the
positions of their users, location-based marketing has become the order of the
information age. Companies today are no longer spending billions of dollars
advertising on Traditional Media which do not move with the audience. Knowing
where their customers or prospective buyers are, these companies, using these
technologies, easily sell their products at a much faster and intimate way. A
strategic move by the Mass Media in this regard will mean change in the
distribution formula of news and information. Where an audience visiting
Damascus in Syria will be automatically briefed with news and user based
content on the on-going war there.
CONCLUSION.
With the technological
strategies taken by the Old Media in the wake of the Citizen Journalist, it is clear, that the
legacy media is likely to come to stay forever; so long as it keeps adapting to
all new technologies.
1. Bowman, S. and Willis,
C. "We Media: How Audiences are shaping the Future of News and Information."
2003, The Media Centre at the American Press Institute.
2.
J. Steemers, ‘Between Culture and
Commerce: The Problem of Redefining Public Service Broadcasting for the Digital
Age’, Convergence, 5, no. 3, (1999), pp. 44-66.
4.
http://socialmediatoday.com/chris-measures/1430031/rise-citizen-journalism
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