Mainstream media should prepare for disruption
Major media houses in Kenya have announced massive lay-offs. Multitudes of journalists are going to lose their jobs. Many media houses are really struggling. All these are pointers to an industry in upheaval.
The digital revolution is disrupting the media in very fundamental ways. Trends are many, but two are critical.
First the emergence and increasing ascendancy of the “citizen journalist.” The citizen journalist is every man, or woman for that matter, who is armed with a smartphone and situational happenstance. This person is now the harbinger of breaking news, simply records a video of an incident, posts across multiple forums, and makes it go viral.
Secondly, readers have gone online. The digital space offers, on one portal, written copy, podcasts, live feeds, videos, documentaries, talkshows, name it- a one-stop shop. Traditional media is still stuck in its ageing business model, where a media house is defined as a television station or newspaper, and then that offering is supported by a modicum of digital offerings at the edges. This traditional model is being swept out into the sea. Clearly, the cheese moved long ago.
Further, the traditional journalist is being pushed to the periphery. Armed with an array of digital tools and expertise to use them, the new-age journalist works across several digital platforms, crafting the news to align with the parameters and demographic of each platform. He or she is a much more potent tool for media houses. In this ecosystem, the traditional journalist is left completely stranded.
The mainstream media have responded mainly by trying to outdo the citizen journalist in haphazard breaking of unverified news. This battle, the mainstream media can’t win.
The strength of the mainstream media is in its being authoritative. It’s the only thing that sets it apart from citizen journalism. The New York Times, The Economist and the Financial Times remain pillars of authoritative journalism despite years of disruptive digital advancement in the West. They have, however, completely reconfigured their business models.
The Kenyan mainstream media must go beyond vague mutterings about “transformation,’ and ‘integration,’ to making serious investments in businesses based on digital platforms.No tinkering around the edges will work, as the new ecosystem is demanding a whole new way of doing business. For Kenya’s media, the bells are tolling! The media has to strengthen its investigative capacities. Here, it’s almost unchallenged. However, the mainstream media dropped this ball.
Whatever happened to the scoop? In yesteryears, the scoop was the currency of competitiveness among media houses, and the star reporter was he or she who was the ‘master’ of the scoop. What of agenda setting? Nobody can beat the mainstream media on this as long as they retain their authoritativeness.
Worryingly, there seems a lot of complacency in the media sector. As the mainstream media twiddles its thumbs, nimble, aggressive and hungry outfits are biting off chunks of the media pie and scuttling off with it. To wit, others are eating the mainstream media’s lunch.The media needs to come together and discuss these new developments, what they mean for the industry, and what form of business model defines the future. If they don’t come together to save the industry, they’ll hang separately.
What about the journalists? How are they recalibrating their skills to fit into the new environment? Some will definitely not make the transition to Canaan, and will probably become farmers. The story of how dinosaurs became extinct comes to mind!
For those armed with the right tools, the digital space is replete with opportunities. From podcasts to e-newsletters to news websites to content creation, it’s all there. The internet has crushed logistics costs, enabling an individual to become a one-man or woman media house, earning enough money to become commercially successful, even rich. These new-age media houses have very alluring advertising packages, offering advertisers highly targeted reach of huge numbers, at a fraction of the costs in the mainstream media.
What is clear is that mainstream media houses and journalists had better start ruffling themselves up, or they will soon be somebody’s lunch.
