How digital media is redefining traditional media
Traditional media is mainly made up of radio, television and print media (mainly newspapers, magazines and newsletters), while digital media encompasses the distribution of information via the Internet using computer devices that can read different content formats.
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Furthermore, the advancement of technology has powered the increasing adoption of digital media by traditional media. About three billion of the world’s population have access to the Internet. It took radio 38 years to have 50 million listeners; 13 years for television to have 50 million viewers; and it took the Internet only four years to have 50 million users, according to research. Over 200 million accounts were created on Facebook in 2011 alone.
Newspapers or news portals
Research shows that over two million blogs are written and published every day; these are enough content to publish Time magazine for 770 years. This means more contents are being created and consumed online every day, which is a grave threat to non-digital traditional print media.
Newsweek, the 80-year-old current affairs magazine in the USA, printed its last hard copy in December 2012 and moved to online-only publication because of how digital media was transforming news distribution.
Newspapers and magazines all over the world are resorting to digital means of content distribution in order to reach millions of readers. More so, if paper is only a medium of distribution then it is time to separate the “news” from the “paper” and resort to the current online mediums of distribution.
Terrestrial TV or Internet Protocol TV
Days of watching television from a set is dying fast. Smart television, sets powered by the Internet, gives the viewer multiple channels, varied contents and boundaryless coverage.
For instance, over 300 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, making the platform produce more videos in a month than the top three TV stations in the USA have done in the past 60 years.
Nextflix, Hulu, Apple TV, Google ChromeCast, Xbox, iRoko TV and other online platforms have hundreds of thousands of contents and millions of users.
Most countries, including Ghana, are implementing the digital migration policy to harmonise broadcasting frequencies and also deliver richer contents to TV viewers. But there is also the growing preference for TV contents via Internet protocols (IP) so that more people can watch TV content via the Internet.
Radio via waves or web
Radio stations now have access to the whole world of listeners, who are physically located in different places, through online streaming. They are no longer restricted to their geographical locations required by laws or policies. Even individuals are now creating and distributing audio contents via the web to thousands of listeners.
Online streaming platforms, such as TuneIn Radio app, offer listeners over 100,000 radio stations across the world.
Digital media redefines traditional media
Some of the major ways traditional media can be redefined by digital media are as follows:
1. Create and harmonise online properties: Traditional media must create and invest in online properties such as websites, mobile sites/apps, and social media accounts so they can reach their audience readily, every day and any time from any part of the world.
These properties must integrate social media plugins to enable online visitors to share contents to their network of friends, fans or followers. These online properties must be harmonised or interconnected.
2. Enable content co-creation and sharing: Content is the life of media, traditional or digital. Great content results in higher engagement with audience. Unbelievably, over 20 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every month and over 500 years of YouTube videos watched on the same platform. Engagement drives content sharing and audience acquisition.
According to Erik Qualman, bestselling author of “Socialnomics” and “Digital Leader,” social media transforms word-of-mouth to world-of-mouth. What people consume on traditional media ends up on online platforms, especially social media.
Engage and entreat your target audience to co-create contents for you either through citizen reporting or contribution to discussions.
3. Diversify and digitise content formats: Great content will attract more audience. Treat your contents in different formats such as text, image, audio or video depending on the platform for distribution on digital media platforms so the target audience can consume the contents in their preferred formats. Target the different devices your audience use to consume information online.
4. Streaming is the new broadcasting: Radio and TV can now stream contents online to a wider and diverse audience in real time anywhere via multiple devices. Streaming is now the new way of broadcasting or mass communication. It ensures that target audience experience contents as it is happening irrespective of their geographical locations.
5. Create on-demand contents: Because of people’s lifestyle and different time zones of your virtual audience, there is the need to store your contents online so they can search and consume at any time they want. It helps them to relive the experience of the content.
6. Invest in virtual coverage: Currently, about three billion people have access to Internet. Therefore, traditional media must invest in online channels as their virtual (or digital) coverage so they can reach millions of people.
And because people have become mobile, they prefer to consume contents from their trusted traditional media from anywhere. Virtual coverage extends the coverage of traditional media.
7. Subscription is the new pricing model: There are two main types of subscriptions: freemium and premium. The former involves offering free contents to the target audience and revenue comes from advertising. Premium pricing is used to distribute quality and exclusive contents.
Paid traditional media subscriptions come with a lot of investments on the part of the owners and the audience. Digital media helps in the management of the online presence of paid traditional media contents.