Nowadays, media are facing ample of paradoxes. Media people
are tugged between two extremes in the equations. They have to produce instant
news reporting while at the same time ensure the creation of in-depth stories.
As the information engine, newsroom serves like a factory that create large
quantity of published news contents while keep crafting original contents.
Other paradoxes are cheaper production costs versus optimized monetization;
hyperlocal reporting and community voices versus global impact and many more.
The afore-mentioned paradoxes are getting deeper and deeper
happening within media organizations and affecting the industry as well. With
the digital innovation and internet, currently, newsrooms anywhere in the world
have no other option but turn into digital and embrace each and every
ramification of consequences and risks or facing their instant demises.
All legacy newsrooms, be it print, broadcast, radio, are
all facing that their platforms are now merged into one single online platform
which can accommodate contents of any platforms, with all for relatively
cheaper production costs. Should they continue running their legacy business or
should they close them down? Should they radically jump into the online bandwagon,
or should they keep both cards in their hands?
Uncertainties are very high, leaving only one certainty
that is none of the players holding firm the future. If online news media is
the David, then their Goliath is not big online news competitors, but other
online heavyweights, such as e-commerce giants, digital tech companies, fintech
startups, social media networks. All those players are looking for bigger
stakes in the burgeoning digital markets.
In today’s world, digital newsroom people should bear in
mind that news as the core product of their industry is not the only source of
information for today’s netizens. Newsrooms are witnessing that their influence
to the lives of the audience and society is getting less and less.
It is no wonder that journalists look into ways to reestablish
historic relationship by putting more attention to the readers’ emotion. They
try harder to find ways to captivate the readers’ emotions in order to better
influence their thoughts and in turn actions.
Emotion is where the battle once won by editorial people in
the forgotten past with opinion pieces and op-ed written by the newspaper did
impact to real actions and public policy making. Emotion, which is for some
time, has become the domain of marketing and advertising people who read
religiously readers’ trends and behaviors in order to exploit them for selling
ads, now becomes an element that digital journalism should begin to impart in
their news and reporting approaches. How journalists have to present their
stories in more user-friendly interfaces, easy to digest stories and at the
same time amusing.
In the meantime, despite apparently dwindling advertisement
revenue, some legacy media still see ad revenue from flowing into their legacy
media pocket, more than those into their digital media arm. Monetization becomes
new challenge. Unlike their legacy newsroom predecessors, the online media have
their own challenge to prove at least to themselves that their business is
lucrative and promising. Seeing that many online startups aggressively use traditional
billboards, TV ads, radio ads and print ads perfectly displays this very
paradox. How could that be?
On the other hand, platform-wise, the online news media carry
along great potentials. It is now journalists have in their hands powers to
translate news into compelling stories in best possible platforms suitable to
the nature of their news or stories. Elements of visual, audio, and text are
now available at their disposals. Of course, today’s journalists have to learn
new set of skills to better use of the different platform of storytelling.
Journalists may have to enrich themselves with other interdisciplinary
approaches, such as dramaturgy, data analysis and design.
Interestingly, today’s journalists should impart all those
knowledge and skills to better invoke emotion and captivate their audience/readers.
Today’s journalists and editors have also to understand complex technical requirements as required by ever-changing Google search engine
algorithm to stay standing out in the industry.
Unending pursuit of breaking news in the name of instant
reporting to generate page views has been replaced by the awareness that compelling
and engaging stories, of greater relevance, making the audience proud,
inspiring yet remain newsy, are more important that quick yet unnatural spikes
in website analytics charts.
Some old-school journalists might believe that the advent of
online media brought along subdued practices of second-grade journalism,
instant news with less verified and balanced reporting in the name of speed and
high rate of page views or unique visits. They call it the dusk of quality
journalism. However, some other journalists have different perspective as they
have the faith that this would be the dawn of new era to improve even perfect
journalism as we know it. They put high expectations that the online journalism
promise much richer ways of storytelling thanks to the diverse platform the
online media have.
Different from print media, broadcast TV and radio where
space and frequency is limited, online media do not face such constraints. Real
time analytics, interactivity and measurability has become new currencies in
digital media industry. By harnessing the power of social media networks,
online newsroom could also make stories going viral as well within seconds.
Content-wise, the nature of the content is getting more
hyperlocal, yet the perspective should be more global to ensure that newsroom
are still relevant to their audience/readers. Geographical locations are no
longer relevant in the more connected world thanks to internet penetration
worldwide. That explains well why paper circulation plummeted drastically these
past few years.
The behavior of the audience and readers is also displaying
some changes. And, the changes are simply in continuous permutations. Long form
stories prove to enjoy longer life shelf than the shorter ones, apparently
suggesting that people still read lengthy and serious reports, even though some
may still do ‘news snacking’ of breaking news, ‘click-bait tips’ and easy to
digest information.
The paradoxes will be getting more complex and intense in
the near future as information technology reach their new level with the
development of Big Data, Virtual Reality, cell phone apps and internet
superhighway connections. How could each and every newsroom respond to those
state-of-the-art tech advancements? Will these technologies leave journalism into
relic or else it opens up unlimited possibilities for transforming journalism.
by Damar Harsanto
by Damar Harsanto