Presentation

Running Head: MEDIA INSTITUTIONS TRANSITIONING CHALLENGES 1

MEDIA INSTITUTIONS TRANSITIONING CHALLENGES 2

Media Institutions Transitioning Challenges

Michelle Mottley

Nayef Alkhalifa

KICL FC300 Extended Project

29\06\2020

Abstract

From the ancient times up to date, media has undergone through many changes to what we witness today. Although it’s also important to note that it has never been easier for the media institutions to reach this far, it has been troubled with concerns as well as problems. For instances there has been observed accusations of mind controls, bias, as well as poor quality which are some of the allegations thrown at the media houses on regular basis. However, despite all these accusations, the growth of information communications technology have significantly given the people an opportunity in the present times to find information more easily as compared to the previous times. Mass media comes in different categories which ranges from print, radio, television, or even the internet news (Bansal, &Rai, 2020). These mass media can also be local, national, or even international and they can either be broad or limited in terms of their focus, making the choices to be tremendous.

The Challenges Faced By Traditional Media Institutions in Becoming Part of the New Media

Introduction

In the late 1700s, news were being presented to the local individuals through print press. For instance, many colonies had printers as well as occasional newspapers. Boston had high rates of literacy besides a desire for self-government, hence making it a perfect place for the generation of newspapers. It’s through this that the first continuous press was started in 1704 at Boston. These newspapers used to spread information concerning local events as well as activities. The Stamp Tax of 1765 increased the outlays for the publisher, a situation which made the newspapers to be part of the effort of informing the citizens of British transgressions besides its attempts in incite and rebellion (Bansal, &Rai, 2020).It was not until 1830 and 1860 when machining and manufacturing made the generation of newspapers faster as well as less expensive. Technologies like linotype machine was utilized by the Benjamin Day’s paper as well as the New York Sun in conducting a mass production of the newspapers. In 1896, the New York Times was purchased by Adolph Ochs with an intention of creating a dignified newspaper which was supposed to provide the readers with important and sensible news like the world, economy, as well as politics. This was followed by the exposure of corrupt leaders as well as government agencies. It’s important to note that the ancient news were more investigative than the current ones which are more of profit oriented (Bansal, &Rai, 2020).

The fact that the recent journalism isn’t investigative is because the quality of news content which is thought to become uneven in depth as well as quality, that would lead to less informed citizenry. Another reason is that such investigative journalism in its systematic form reduced then the cases of wrongdoing which are actually the objectives of investigative journalism. The radio news started to be aired in 1920s with NBC and CBS running sponsored news programs as well as radio dramas and comedy (Masava, 2019).The television set its path to media in 1939, hence changing media forever through the combination of the best attributes of radio as well as print pictures.

New Media Trends

The invention of cable in the earlier 1980s as well as the internet expansion in the earlier 2000s ended up opening more options for the media users as it has been from the earlier times. This means that the media users can actually watch everything they want by just pressing a button, bypass commercials, as well as recording programs of their interest. However there is a possibility of users entirely abandoning the news due to inundation concerning politics in the news. The media advancement have also ensured that the citizens have got the changes and opportunities of choosing between what to watch and not. For instance, they can chose to close news and tune to movies. This leaves more especially the political leaders as well as the president himself with no sure way of conducting any communication to the citizens. Therefore the trends that are existing in the news media has got both merits and demerits, but specifically there are many merits than demerits(Masava, 2019). However it’s these trends that do distinguish traditional media from new media.

Section One

Differences between Traditional Media and New Media

Over the last 20 years, the media scape has witnessed massive changes. These ranges from being dependent on traditional media to new media. The most known traditional media are like films, printings, television as well as radio constitute old media, on the other hand, new media comprises of computer technology, the internet, as well as smart phones. The following are the key differences between the new and the old media (Livada, 2019).

From consumer to “prosumer”; it must be noted that, in the older media forms, the users were forced to be just passive consumers of the news which is actually the content that was being provided to them. This was perceived as the only sense which there was only so much that they could do as users or consumers. On the other hand, the new media gives the users who happens to be the audiences to produce content on top of consuming it. This indicates that the world of media have adopted producer plus consumer media. This means that the media industry has become a prosumer. It must be noted that in the ancient times before digital industry establishment, the consumers of the news who are the audiences would only do the reading or the watching of the news. But currently they can produce the news via blogs, social media, or even citizen journalism portals (Livada, 2019).

The use of multimedia; for the old media the various categories like the print media used only to make use of text as well as images. During this media era, the incorporation of electronic involved the utilization of a number of codes, still as well as moving images. While in the new media (that entails online medium) trumps all the number codes, still and moving images together with its multimedia. For instance, the text, images, hyperlinks, videos and many more can be made use of by only one online page. There is also multiplicity of delivery platforms difference. In this case, unlike the traditional media, the new media can be delivered on flexible formats in smartphones, tablets, laptops and even personal computers. Interactivity is another difference between the old and the new media. In this, the new media allows for greater interactivity in both the producers as well as the consumers. This means that the audiences can specifically give an instant feedback to the individuals reporting the news as well as the news channels via social media platforms like their Facebook pages twitter and many more, while the traditional media, the interactivity between the producer of the news as well as the consumer was not possible (Khiabani, 2019).

Scope and Reach; in the traditional media, the newspaper circulation was specifically bound to a certain physical space as well as the television content. However this was treated as otherwise if the content was uploaded to the internet. This was also to remain within the specific country’s audience viewership. This means that if any information is uploaded into the internet in the United States, no individual who is outside the United States territory will view it. This made the older forms of media to be limited in terms of scope as well as reach. On the other hand, the new media has got a wider coverage, specifically any information uploaded to the internet can be viewed by anyone in the world provided that it’s not protected or restricted. It must be remembered that it’s as a result of this world-wide coverage of interactivity which has created a global village which is an interconnected community that is not bound by space or borders (Nugrahani, et al. 2018). The concept of imagined communities from the old media have been taken forward by the new media.

Reasons for Old Media to Convert to New Media

From this it’s clear that the traditional media needs to convert to new media. This is because, the current community has got members everywhere in this world. Therefore there is need to share information internationally so that anybody in the world can get to know the well-being of their loved ones anytime they want to. Secondly, there has been an expanded business globally. These businesses requires the efforts of new social media to carry out negotiations as well as coming into a common agreement of the daily stock market exchanges. Also there is need to make use of media to conduct advertisement. This cannot be easy with the traditional media which has limited coverage since the advertisements needs to be viewed worldwide to increase the selling potential of a business in the world market. But the only media which can go such a wider coverage is the new media, hence he need for traditional media to convert to new media (Nugrahani, et al. 2018).

Section Two

What Have Been Done in Traditional Media Institutions

There are many changes that have been effected by the traditional media institutions with an aim of at least trying to convert to new media. This however has not been an easier task for it requires the use of capital, perseverance as well as dedication. To start with, the traditional media have moved from Amplitude Modulation to Frequency Modulation. This is a strategy that they have employed at least to move from medium frequency broadcasting band to high frequency broadcasting band. Generally, this is aimed at increasing the area of coverage of these old media institutions. It can be appreciated that through this shift, many have already increased their broadcasting coverage area from one state for instance to other states. Some have gone viral to even being heard in the international coverage (Agrawal, &Velusamy, 2016, March).

Secondly, many of the traditional media have specifically moved their services to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and many more platforms. Because such platforms are international in terms of coverage, this has enhanced the reception of these old media channels globally. Therefore it can be appreciated that the social media platforms have really helped this old media from becoming extinction. Also, the youths only gets to get news as well as other important information that is aired by this traditional media through the social platforms, otherwise their news would have been listened to by only a very small portion of the public. According to the survey that was conducted by the American Broadcasting Corporation, the findings indicated that almost all the radio stations that used to operate in the old media category have at least opened a digital television station which is acting as a sign of a continued conversion to new media (Nugrahani, et al. 2018).

Section Three

Challenges Facing Old Media in Transitioning to New Media and Finance

In the conversion from old to new media, there are many challenges that are experienced by the concerned old media. Some of them they have managed to overcome and others becoming a hard task for these media. Some of these challenges include; authoritarian rule, media rights under pressure, inability to have access to sound financing, stopping the decline in reporting quality as well as the rigor in the evaluation methodology (Nugrahani, et al. 2018).

Authoritarian Rule

It’s with no doubt that in many developing nations, democracy is formally established, and however the politicians as well as the authoritarian rulers take power control beyond the citizenry powers. This calls for less democracy, exclusions from policy making, insecurity, impunity as well as lack of accountability to such nations. When all these are established by these authoritarian rulers definitely tends to silence the development of media institutions because they always know that media will automatically expose their evil deeds. Through this challenge, they fail to reach the consent of the governing authorities for fear of the media exposing them and informing the public of what they normally do. Also because the authoritarian regimes can’t allow any social actors to inform the citizens, the act that will help the citizens on the insight of participating in politics, they tend to infringe on the development of media to enhance their evil deeds (Melikidze, 2018).

Media Rights under Pressure

This is also a challenge that is being effected by the authoritarian authorities. The rulers tends to obstruct any freedom of expression as well as access of information. This makes media regulations becomes harsher with the journalists as well reporters becoming more endangered if they don’t report as per the requirement of the ruling regime. This makes the journalist to fear for their lives due to torture and arbitrary arrest. This makes the old media to experience a challenge in conversion to new media because even the returns won’t allow them to generate the required transitional costs because of the inability to free conduct their services (Khiabani, 2019).

Inability to Have Access to Sound Financing

With the freedom of doing their work being compromised in the developing countries, media have been experiencing tough economic times in finding their services. This has come as a challenge hindering them from conversion from old media to new media. This is due to the fact that the transitioning process requires the use of money. The major challenge occurs to the old media because they are usually supported by the media development funds which are not being generated in reality. The failure of management is also another challenge due to their inability to comprehend media economics, profit as well as business (Masava, 2019). This makes the old media to specifically fail in terms of financial sustainability, hence impairing their conversion agenda.

Stopping the Decline in Reporting Quality As Well As the Rigor in the Evaluation Methodology

According to the current situation, there is no comprehensive study more especially on the quality of journalism in almost all developing countries. However, there are some little researches which tend to indicate that there hope for the old media for instance to advance to new media. But despite the researches going on, the efforts being given to trainings as well as capacity building aren’t much promising to offer quality. Similarly, the existing political situations as well as lack of democratic inclusion that is being displayed by many developing nations government totally impairs that old media advancement to the next level because they require support from the government and other agencies for conversion to new media.Also, there is lack of monitoring as well as evaluation in the internal media support within the old media specifically. The methodology of implementation of the upgrade project in media is also being faced as a problem because there is no mentors who have succeeded in conversion to new media within the developing countries to offer guidance (Bansal, &Rai, 2020).

From the discussed shortcomings of the old media, it’s clear that they usually strain financially. This is even clear that the amount of money they spend in giving out their services is much more than the returns. Therefore, by them going new media will greatly benefit them in terms of finance. This is because, with new media, its returns aren’t restrained from within the country’s territories. Being in the category of new media gives a media a various sources of finance from all over the world, hence giving it an opportunity to run its services effectively without any interference from authoritarian rulers who might try to sabotage their operation because of fear that they will be exposed (Supeni, 2018, August).

Section Four

The Picture of Media Institutions

To start with, media is currently being the mirror to the society. It must be appreciated that in this world, there are many evil deeds that are being done without the knowledge of the public. These deeds might be from the government or from private individuals. From the government officials there may be issues like corruption as well as misuse of public resources and office powers. Consequently, for an individual, issues like human trafficking as well as killings might be conducted without the public’s knowledge, but thank God there is the presence of the media which investigates and informs the public about such deeds through exposure.

It’s through this way that the public gets to know about them (Akmal, et al. 2018).Secondly, the media do educate the public. For instance, it’s through media that the public gets to understand on the various aspects of life. A good example is how the public was informed of the covid-19 pandemic and how it spreads besides the various measures of prevention against it. Media greatly played a great role, a role that is ongoing up to now.Through this, it can be said that media do worn the public as well. For instance, it’s through media that the public gets to know of the weather conditions of a given day and at particular time. This helps the public to take caution on how they arrange for their travelling schedule (Livada, 2019).

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to state that this research topic on “the challenges faced by traditional media institutions in becoming a part of the new media" was worth to be undertaken. This is because of the fact that the value of the media to the current society is of great importance, however there has been no much undertaking in trying to refurbish it to meet the international standards. Although this has been done in developed countries, but it is worse in developing countries where the fruits of democracy have not been fully tasted. The development of media with regard to its advancement from old media to new media have been greatly impaired by the ruling governments for the fear of them being exposed by the media on their evil deeds. However my recommendation is that, the media should be made to be one of the most fundamental organ in any government (Agrawal, &Velusamy, 2016, March). Through this, it will be possible for it to gain support from the government to foster its advancement instead of struggling on its own to upgrade from old to new media and whose freedom is not guaranteed. Through this, even the countries can be able to advance in terms of development as well as effective utilization of resources because there will be media watching to expose the corrupt habits.

References:

Agrawal, M., &Velusamy, R. L. (2016, March). R-SALSA: a spam filtering technique for social networking sites. In 2016 IEEE Students' Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Science (SCEECS) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.Retrieved from:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7509326/

Akmal, M., Muchsin, M. A., Jamil, T. M., & Yusuf, R. (2018). The Transformation of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) from Armed Movement into Political Movement: Strategy and Chalenges of Aceh Party (PA). Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 9(12), 1875-1879.Retrieved from:http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijphrd&volume=9&issue=12&article=339

Bansal, K., &Rai, S. (2020). Block-3 Ownership and organizational structures of mass media. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.Retrieved from:http://www.egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/59500/1/BLOCK3.pdf

Khiabani, K. N. (2019). Satellite TV in Iran and the western cultural assault: From prohibition to conditional freedom. Journal of Media Studies, 30(1).Retrieved from:http://journals.pu.edu.pk/journals/index.php/jms/article/view/2007

Livada, B. (2019). Sun and Displays, Old stories and new chalenges. ProccedingsIcETRAN, 3-6.Retrieved from:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Branko_Livada3/publication/333948662_IcETRAN_2019_paper_36_final/links/5d0e1d1992851cf44041b986/IcETRAN-2019-paper-36-final.pdf

Masava, M. (2019). Role and Impact of Social Media in Advancing Foreign Policy Interests of Host States: Case Study of Kenya (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nairobi).Retrieved from:http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/108964

Melikidze, G. (2018). Political Consulting in Georgia (qualitative analysis of twenty years experience of multiparty election campaign). Eastern Europe Regional Studies, (5).Retrieved from:http://psage.tsu.ge/index.php/Easternstudies/article/view/89

Nugrahani, R., Wahed, W. J. E. B., &Wibawanto, W. (2018, November). Visual Art Learning in Virtual Community: A Study of Collaborative Learning in Hijabographic Community. In 3rd International Conference on Creative Media, Design and Technology (REKA 2018). Atlantis Press.Retrieved from:https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/reka-18/25906990

Nugrahani, R., Triyanto, S. R. F., &Wahed, W. J. E. B. (2018). Visual Art Learning in Vitrtual Community: A Study of Collaborative Learning in Hijabographic Community. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 207, 394-397.Retrieved from:https://lib.unnes.ac.id/36677/

Supeni, S. (2018, August). The Implementation of Internalizing Pancasila to Increase the Students’ Soft Skill Facing Global ChalengesAt Elementary School. In PROCEEDING ICTESS (Internasional Conference on Technology, Education and Social Sciences). Retrieved from: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2016&q=old+media+chalenges&oq=old+media+chale