New forms of media publishing are emerging and are substituting the old forms of media. When digital convergence, global networking and personal computing are combined together, there is a large impact on these new media formations (Naughton, 2006).
Broadcast TV and print media are no longer the dominating media whereas Interne had become a part of media publishing medium. There are few forms of new media which are dominating the media world now:
- Blogs (eg. Anwar Ibrahim, Jeff Ooi etc)
The emergence of blogging somehow affected the conventional print journalism (Naughton, 2006). What makes blogging different to the conventional journalism is that blogging is no longer a one-way-street (Naughton, 2006). Blogging provides people a platform to express their thoughts and ideas freely which is related to the public sphere. Habermas (1962) stated that public sphere is the "made up of private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the state". It is important for people’s opinion to be heard by the authorities, whether it is for or against.
- Social Networking Sites (eg. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc)
Media publishing also occurs within these popular social networking sites. Hitiwise, an internet analysis firm had stated that Facebook had become the most visited sites in USA in March 2010 (Stuart, 2010). This gives that opportunity to organisations to publish news or information through these social networking sites. Publishers can connect with people faster and more convenient. People no longer need to wait for news to be printed on a newspaper whereas they can get the latest news in the shortest time through these social networking sites. Publishers also need not to wait for manual surveys to get the people’s feedback. Social networking sites allow them to get immediate response from people.
- Online newspaper (eg. Malaysiakini, The Star Online)
Online newspaper had challenged the print media. People can be updated every second and most of all, alternative online newspaper allows people to have an alternative opinion towards the authorities. Donald Graham, the CEO of The Washington Post (which has a print and online version) stated that during 2006, their print version had lost 3% of its readers and 14% of its ads revenue. This statistic would only increase as people had chosen the online version (Knowledge@Wharton, 2007). The print media had lost its market due to the emergence of online newspaper.
New forms of media had caused the media ecosystem to be more diverse, increase in communication speed, and more interaction among users (Naughton, 2006). But these new forms of media should be used wisely and not misused.
References
1. Knowledge@Wharton 2007, Web vs. Print: Online Successes at One Newspaper Raise More Questions Than They Answer, viewed on 30/9/2010, retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1699
2. Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, viewed on 30/9/2010, retrieved from http://www.google.com.my/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Freutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk%2Ffileadmin%2Fdocuments%2Fdiscussion%2Fblogging.pdf&rct=j&q=blogging%20and%20the%20emerging%20media%20ecosystem&ei=ypSkTMqXCoqIvgPxk7iHDQ&usg=AFQjCNFEM_IoINApK2_KXgbFdYFuJdQiPA&cad=rja
3. Stuart, D 2010, Networking sites help align publishers with customers, viewed on 30/9/2010, retrieved from http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=272
4. Soules, M 2008, Jürgen Habermas and the Public Sphere, viewed on 30/9/2010, retrieved from http://records.viu.ca/~soules/media301/habermas.htm
