POLITICS
Transformation from traditional media to the worldwide information network is inevitable
It has been almost 20 years since the first social network Classmate appeared in the Internet. But the world is experiencing a boom of social media. Beginning from the early 21st century, humanity stepped into the era of transformation, new stage of development of completely different relations, social relationships, which are based on ties between various sectors of society in virtually each state. The Internet, which has embedded itself into everyday life, has turned every member of society into both a consumer and data medium.
Notwithstanding these and other shortcomings, it is impossible to prevent the spread of information in social networks. Unlike journalism, which faced the lack of sources and funds, social networks have turned into the information transmitting machines. According to what I observed at the conferences and meetings I attended, I can say that majority of professional journalists favor the use of social media as a journalism development tool.
We have to pay attention to one more aspect. Not everywhere the process is going on at the same pace. In countries that are in different stages of development, this social event can manifest itself in several forms. However, a trend of creating information beyond traditional media structures of society and integration into the process of its consuming is similar to a greater or lesser degree.
It is not accidental at all that majority of trainings at media schools based at TV channels, news agencies or newspapers have dealt with the social networks activities. It testifies to the Internet`s being the major communication vehicle for professional journalists. That is why I reiterate my confidence that the question is not about some “cold war”, but about interaction of technologies, and their mutual influence.
Director General of the Vietnamese news agency Nguyen Duc Loi said: “We need to use social media as a distribution tool to help the press spread information. We cannot forget that once there was a time when we worried about the challenges newspapers faced when electronic news websites came into being. However, with the invention of social media such as Twitter and Facebook, news websites are now facing similar challenges, with the new platforms able to constantly update news.”
Similar processes are going on in Azerbaijan as well. Chief of the department of media and communication technologies of the Baku Slavic University Aynur Bashirli is concerned about the status of Facebook that turns into kind of news provider in the Azerbaijani media. In her remarks at the Humanitarian Forum, she attributed one of the reasons of the dramatic decline of public importance of news in the traditional media to journalists` becoming increasingly influenced by social media. She asked: “If social media can replace traditional one, then, is there the need in journalistic education and journalists?”
I understand the specialist`s concern and agree with her that news agencies should not come under influence of social media and on the contrary, as our colleague from Austria said, must seek to become a “beacon in the vortex of information”.
But, not all, in particular, older generation, tends to use new and unusual trends. I am proud to say that our agency keeps up with challenges of the new era. Nearly all our staffers, irrespective of their age, use social technologies in their everyday business. It cannot be otherwise since our era is the age of high technologies rather than a pen and paper.
Our journalists and editors use Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and other social networks in their work. We have staffers who create special items to spread through media and can prepare and present multimedia report.
Agree with us that the new genre – multimedia report – does not require compulsory presence of a journalist on the spot. This kind of report emerges online. If our journalist participates in an event, he shares his observations online, and in this case, audience`s comments enrich and complement a material of the journalist with facts and arguments. AZERTAC`s multimedia reports contain photographs from the scene, interview with event witnesses, relations of participants and officials that were spread in social networks as well as video materials and conclusions of experts. We are advancing on the way of posting a report or a news item on the website of agencies, followed by its spread in social networks. AZERTAC has its webpage in the social networks. In this context, can we compete with ourselves? The important thing for us is to deliver accurate and prompt information to the society about developments and to minimize unverified information.
Social networks have a serious impact on modern journalism all over the world. They continue to remain not only a source of exclusive information received from newsmakers and witnesses of events but also have a great leverage as a means of forming their audiences. Another aspect of the issue is that each agency does not only consist of staff but also separate journalists.
Each of these journalists and reporters must, off course, observe the common conception of their agency and policy of their employer. In addition, each of them has their individual style. In many cases, an author can be recognized even without signature in his article. For the most part, many staffers have their personal blogs, special sections. For the most part, many employees have their personal blogs, special columns within separate categories on the agencies` websites. Shaping an individual brand is of great importance for such modern journalists, not only as just the one who is informed about his field but also as a competent specialist. That is why they need to explore the ways of attracting audience to their account not also as employees of a news agency but also as authors of individual online blogs.
There are many such methods. For example, tweeting sensations, using h-tags, sharing information they consider interesting with reference to the source, etc. It is fair to say that majority of employees of media organizations (I do not mean freelancers) already regard online blogging a needless burden but do not realize why they have to do the same sort of work twice. Therefore, they often settle for posting and commenting links on the Facebook. These people often fairly wonder why they need to create individual blogs because they want to be on the scene, take photographs and directly communicate with newsmakers without just compiling and posting tweets of newsmakers in networks. However, future of digital journalism for these authors of internet publications is associated with this format of professional live blogging.
For this reason, I would like to remind the following: after analyzing global trends in 2009, Forbes concluded that profession of a journalist aggregator in the upcoming decade will be one of the sought-after specialties.
Is the time, when the number of information consumers through new media will exceed the number of TV viewers and readers of newspapers, near? Or how much far is it? It depends also on the flexibility of classic media, on how sensitive they are to the challenges of time, on their ability to master new technologies and modern brands, and of course, material resources.