THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Turning social media from foe to friend

Turning social media from foe to friend

DISRUPTIVE technology has had a large impact on the news media both at the local and global levels. Many are struggling to survive in the changing media landscape against new competitors.

Facebook, Twitter and other social-media platforms have democratised the news industry. Traditional organisations such as newspaper publishers and broadcasters no longer enjoy a monopoly over the news.
The role of social media in helping Donald Trump win the US presidential election last November also demonstrated that the influence of traditional media on public opinion has declined.
However, some news companies have been able to take advantage of the dynamic forces resulting from fast-changing technology and consumer behaviour.
“We’re a technology company ... we bundle news with other data services,” said Peter Grauer, chairman of Bloomberg LP, referring to the company’s core business.
Bloomberg is a wholesale news business. It provides financial |and business data to financial |institutions and regulators around the world, while maxny news organisations do not have this kind of professional service and see social media as a threat to their businesses.
Grauer said during an interview with The Nation that social media were a complement to Bloomberg’s business, and not a threat.
Grauer said Bloomberg considered social media another source of information that could be utilised, and made sure that subscribers were able to access factual reports from several sources.
Bloomberg also provides a pool of funds to support start-ups that invent new technology or new software that could open new business opportunities. The company acts like a radar that monitors the latest innovations in Silicon Valley, Israel or anywhere, Grauer said.
He said the company saw that that professional data and news services were growing in Asia along with the expansion of financial markets. “Putting equity into Asia is our priority.”
Thailand’s capital market is also growing along with Bloomberg’s business here, he added.
Thai media outlets, however, find it really hard to adapt and survive in this dramatically changing environment.
Prinya Homanek, a cybersecurity expert, said global news organisations such as Bloomberg or Reuters had advantages over many local media outlets as they had the “big data” of financial markets as their assets.
He is concerned about the survival of local media. He said giant technology firms like Google and Facebook took much of the available advertising revenue, so small local media outlets are struggling to survive.
These giant firms employ artificial intelligence to monitor user behaviour, and they can use this as an advantage over local media by offering customised adverts or other services to Internet users.
Triluj Navamarat, chairman of the Media Agency Association of Thailand, is more optimistic about the prospects for Thai media. “Some may go out of business but others will remain,” he said.
He believes high-quality content is still important for both television and newspapers, given the large number of digital TV channels here and many social-media platforms.
“Consumers demand unique content. Digital TV operators should not just broadcast similar TV programmes such as singing contests or Thai boxing, they have to create other interesting content,” he said.
Instead of distributing multimedia on YouTube or Facebook, media organisations could run their own websites, which could be used to attract advertising revenue.
Meanwhile, the advantage of online news is that it is real-time, but its disadvantage is low credibility and reliability, he observed. Any tools to make online news more reliable should be good for both content providers and consumers.
 

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