Justina Asishana writes on major points from the Online Media Conference by School of Media and Communications (SMC), Pan-Atlantic University.
Media audience needs new concepts and innovations that will keep them abreast of what is happening globally as they are tired of the old way journalism is practised.
This was one of the key assertions by Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, BusinessDay Media Limited, Frank Aigbogun during the Online Media Conference by the School of Media and Communications (SMC), Pan-Atlantic University with the theme: Journalism in the Digital Age: Essential Skill Requirements.
Aigbogun, in his presentation titled “Journalism in the Digital Age: Myths and Realities”, stressed the need for media owners and practitioners to go beyond tradition to concepts like solutions journalism, data journalism, explainer, fact-checking, among other reporting options.
He said that these new concepts would give any media organization an edge over other media organizations and make them remain relevant in the industry.
“Journalists must have a broad knowledge of our changing society, identify and interpret trends to remain relevant. New journalism concepts like solutions journalism, explainer journalism, data journalism and fact-checking should be understood and applied routinely in analysis and reporting,” he stated.
The Publisher emphasized that the old way of news writing is no longer good enough, saying that publishers, editors and journalists who ignore these new trends would be doing so at their own disadvantage.
“New journalism concepts are key to anyone willing to succeed in the media today.”
Another key takeaway during the conference was the fact that a lot of media organizations are dying because they rely heavily on their advert revenue instead of subscribers and readers revenue.
Aigbogun stated that media built and dependent in an ad-model are in serious trouble, vulnerable and will not survive for long, adding that online publications offering contents for free will also not survive.
According to him, good journalism is valuable and should not be given away free, noting that readers are willing to pay for good journalism.
“If in 2020, a publisher is not charging for digital content, such a publisher should not be in publishing, let alone in journalism. If in 2020, a publisher is not asking readers for their data or their money, then it is game over. Publishers must migrate from advert revenue to reader revenue,” he stated.
He explained that media organizations can increase their subscribers’ revenue by creating paywalls and urged them to explore the different type of paywalls and decide what suits their readers most.
“Reader revenue should be at least 40 per cent of the digital new model. Everything that generates value should generate revenue. Good journalism is valuable, do not give it away free.”
The Publisher further debunked some myths in journalism like, ‘contents will always be king’, ‘Facebook is a threat to journalism’, ‘Good journalism must be objective’, ‘Fake news will destroy journalism’, among others.
He said that contrary to the myth that fake news will destroy journalism, fake news will actually save journalism as it would push readers to real media outfits based on trust and credibility.
The SMC Online Media Conference covered discussion of the challenges of the new technologies in terms of the production, distribution and consumption of news.
It also explored both the risks and opportunities that today’s changing landscape holds for Journalists, including smartphone journalism, the available tools and applications for mobile journalism and storytelling with Data.
Other speakers during the three-day conference include the Bureau Chief of Bloomberg Nigeria, Mr Anthony Osae-Brown who spoke on storytelling with Data; Mr Sam Igbedion took the participants on Smartphone Journalism: Available tools and Apps, while Mr Francis Onwumere spoke on Podcasting.
About 120 journalists across the country from the print, electronics and new media participated in the three-day conference via Zoom.
