Dr. Anderson Uvie-Emegbo
The 2014 edition of Social Media Week Lagos has started in style and expectedly, the fireworks have started flying. On Thursday, February 20, an interesting summit on “Functional Social Networking for Journalists”, hosted by the UBA Groups will hold at UBA House, Lagos.
I will join some seasoned journalists to examine the topic, “What’s in it for Journalists?”
These are indeed challenging times for both traditional journalists and their organisations. As professionals, they are meant to uphold the highest standards and ethics of the trade in all stages of their work and eliminate every form of bias.
Over the years, many have been able to turn otherwise mundane stories into great masterpieces. Yet still they have their critics.
The consumer questions the value
Politics, for instance, remains one of the most followed topics online. But besides relaying the current episodes of on-going news reports, what new value is traditional media creating for its users?
How much contextualisation is placed in the news reports? What does the audience really want out of the news?
How well do traditional media outfits understand the needs and the mind-sets of their consumers? Yes, you can create the news, but what more value can media organisations extract from that which has been created?
More importantly, how can they sustain the barrage of competition that threatens to make their traditional journalistic pursuits irrelevant? How integrated are today’s newsrooms and editorial suites?
How connected are their audiences with the brands’ traditional and new media channels? Are these channels set up to enable the channels to cooperate and not compete?
Why should users join a media outfit on a new media platform if what they will get is just a repeat of what is on its current channels?
And they fell asleep
While many traditional brands fell asleep (and yes you can be asleep even if your brand has hundreds of thousands of fans online), some new media outfits have increasingly demonstrated resilience and aggressive growth.
Every day other new media upstarts (no disrespect meant) are emerging, each looking to create a new layer of value.
The likes of Saraha Reporters, The Nigerian Voice & Eagle Online arose out of the gaps in reporting politics online. Naij.com, Bella Naija, Linda Ikeji,360nobs.com, The Net, YNaija, Pulse.ng, NotJostOk and Gistmania have bridged the yawning gaps left by the lifestyle and entertainment sections of traditional media.
ToLet.com.ng, Lamudi, etc are changing the game of rental, sale and lease of property. Jobs and jobseekers now seek (pardon my pun) Jobberman, Naij.com and co have provided tabloid like content online at the expense of more grounded traditional media outfits.
Easy Kobo and Sweet Crude Reports address finance and energy issues. Very few of the many thriving blogs belong to traditional media outfits.
Money follows audiences and the discerning can see in what direction the money is headed. Advertisers will continue to spread their spend among the increasing number of players in the media space, be they traditional or new media outfits.
How does a traditional media outfit position and prepare itself to retain and increase its share of the pie? That is the million dollar question.
Where is your personal brand? Though present on various new media platforms, a good number of traditional journalists do not have any viable professional presence that is worth paying a second look.
How can you write a beautiful story that appears in your organisation’s traditional channels and make little or no effort to share this with your own online network?
When last did any traditional journalist retweet their organisation’s stories or even their own?
As at yesterday, a good friend of mine (a traditional journalist in East Africa) had over 66,000 followers on Twitter and over 21,000 tweets. Despite having a thriving column in the organisation’s flagship newspaper (and a cult following offline), he has created a larger than life profile on social media.
He is not alone – many of his colleagues in that same organisation have active professional social media accounts.
The organisation even has a social media policy for its journalists and it is on its website! Even though this massive media organisation owns Television, Radio and Newspaper channels, it is bullish online and has a wide array of mobile applications, microsites and different online revenue generating schemes. Way to go guys – you clearly understand that “a brand is only as great as the sum total of the strengths of its product brands” (such as On Air Personalities on radio; Writers, Reporters and Columnists in the newspaper and Producers, Show anchors, etc on Television).
What are you waiting for? Excellence is not a myth! It is time to roll up your sleeves and get to smart work!
“Ultimately the true measure and value of a journalist in this day and age will depend on his/her ability to turn this existential threat into an ocean of opportunity.”
There is a new paradigm in the relationship between the public and traditional journalists. No more can conventional journalists assume that they are the real custodians of the public’s trust. They will continue to share the spotlight with the current gladiators in the citizen journalism space.
Each will need to reintroduce its value to its audience. It is no longer enough to simply produce programmes, write editorials, opinions and columns and publish their own versions of the same stories that other traditional media outfits turn out.
It is time to differentiate your brand and make the job of your advertising team easier.Stop thinking survival and start thriving.
True organisational effectiveness begins with individual effectiveness. It is time for traditional journalists to re-energise their professional social media accounts and take their personal brands to where it needs to be.
It is time for media brands to reintroduce themselves to their readers, listeners and viewers. Aligning with citizen journalism is a start, but reviewing the business’ approach to integrating both forms of media is where it ultimately needs to go if sustained profitability is the goal.
Source: http://www.punchng.com/?s=what+is+the+value+of+a+journalist
Article was published in February 2014
