Effects of new media on traditional media✅

All the traditional media companies are massively involved in the new media. This means there is a form of synergy between the traditional and new media, as they support and interact with one another.
Newspapers, for example, often refer readers to their websites and many printed newspaper reports now appear first on those websites.
The most obvious impact of the new media and new technologies on the traditional media is the huge decline in printed newspaper sales, and a general downwards trend in viewing of TV news bulletins.
This contrasts with a huge increase in web traffic, and all the major TV channels, magazines and newspapers now have related websites, whose online readership far exceed the circulation of their printed formats. There is therefore some convergence between the traditional and new media.

Changes influencing traditional media

Some of the changes arising from the development and growth of new media which have had an impact on the traditional media include:

Cheaper, more mobile and widely accessible digital technologies, such as smartphones, smaller cameras, and the range of internet-based technologies like emails.
Technologies expanding ‘live’ coverage, such as mobile phone picture and video recording at the scene of a news event, and their transmission to news organisations.
Use of the new media to form the content of the traditional media.
Online criticisms of mainstream news output.
The development of online newsrooms in traditional media.
Engagement with the interactive aspects of new media, such as email, social networks, professional journalist blogs and online feedback on traditional media articles.

The effects of changes on traditional media

Bivens suggests the developments outlined above have led to 3 significant changes in the traditional journalism of the ‘old’ media:

Shifts in traditional news flow cycles. News production depends on a flow of reports of newsworthy items from individuals and groups. The rise of citizen journalism has created not only a huge increase in the quantity of information, but also an increased speed of flow of news. An article or item posted by an online journalist in one part of the world immediately becomes part of a global system accessible to anyone with a laptop or smartphone. Media organisations no longer control the flow of information, and need to respond regularly to this increased flow of news from citizen journalists.
Heightened accountability. Citizen journalism has mad traditional media and media organisations much more accountable to the public, as their reports are scrutinised by the public, and responded to or criticised through online blogs or comment pages or flak-producing campaigns if they produce distorted, biased, or inaccurate reports. News organisations are now more aware of their accountability to audiences, and often use their related websites to offer more interactivity and transparency.
Evolving news values. Some important news values influencing what to report and what not to, include importance, interest, entertainment and proximity, along with the sense of immediacy reinforced by the impact of photos and videos. In the highly competitive media market, all media need to give people the impression that they are, at all times, on top of everything that’s going on around the world. The new media have enabled news organisations, including traditional TV media, to provide more immediacy through instantaneous live coverage, provided by citizen journalists from areas like battle-zones which traditional journalists might find hard to access, or through technology like video phones. News values may be changing, as traditional media are incorporating ‘non-professional’ material, like mobile phone and YouTube videos and citizen reports.

The rise of churnalism and infotainment

The rise of churnalism and infotainment in the traditional media is a consequence of cost-cutting by media owners, and their attempts to attract audiences and advertisers in a hugely competitive global media market. This is coupled with the time pressures arising from the intensity of 24/7 rolling news in the context of ever-expanding new media, and the changing news flows cycle.

The reduced power of ownership?

McNair suggests the new media have meant that elite groups have less power to influence new agendas.
Top-down controls by media owners is replaced by what he calls ‘cultural chaos’ - more anarchy, disruption, dissent, openness and diversity.
The balance of power of media control is shifting, as citizen journalists have growing power to influence the news that is reported by traditional media.
This has undermined the influence of media owners, and has given more power to ordinary people to spread their interpretations of events.
Agenda-setting, as Philo suggests, means the media can influence what we do not think about, by removing issues from public discussion by simply avoiding them.
He points out that it can be very difficult to criticise a dominant media account if there is little access to alternative sources of information.
However citizen journalism has a rising capacity to shape traditional news agendas. These online reports are potentially viewed by huge global audiences, and traditional media cannot afford to ignore items which are made newsworthy by citizen journalists.
Bivens suggests that this shift in power is only slight, and elite groups are adapting and will likely continue to find ways of shaping news output. She suggests news organisations retain the power to limit debate and preserve narrow news agendas, and points to the way dissenting views and radical critiques of both foreign and domestic policies remain rare among mainstream news accounts despite their popularity online.

Changing relationships with media audiences

The new media have forced traditional media to be more accountable and responsive to their audiences, allowing more interactive comment, feedback and complaints, and more personalised, customised content suited to their tastes.
They have also had to become more responsive in the way content is delivered with everything available, everywhere and at all times suited to their audiences.
New media technology, such as phones and tablets, are increasingly becoming the preferred choice of readers and viewers, particularly younger ones, to consume news.
They also want to ‘snack’ more, in terms of both the time they spend and the type of content they consume, and they want to do so more frequently throughout the day, rather than being dependent on fixed-time television and printed newspapers.
This changing way consumers access content and news was reflected in the launching in the UK in 2015 of Apple News, a news app which aggregates digital news media, in partnership with 14 UK newspaper and magazine publishers.
This reflected the need for traditional media owners to ensure they adapted to the changing needs of consumers and how they consume content.