FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Media outlets must change to survive: Suthichai

Media outlets must change to survive: Suthichai

IN THE current age of social media and instant personal broadcasting, the mainstream Thai media needs to be brave enough to change in order to survive, veteran journalist Suthichai Yoon said yesterday.

He suggested that the mainstream media had to focus more on investigative reporting or news documentary to survive and stay ahead of the competition.
“Media people are in a state of collapse. What they need to do is to change in order to meet the rapidly changing demands and behaviour of news consumers,” Suthichai said. 
“An important ingredient for survival is the courage to change themselves. They need to view the news in angles different from the routine reports or normal press releases. They also need to cover news in a quality way – in terms of investigative reporting or news documentary,” he added.
Suthichai, who is an adviser to the Nation Multimedia Group’s editorial board, was giving a special lecture on “Media people of the future: How the Thai media could survive in an age everyone can be a journalist”.
His lecture was held as part of the Thai Broadcast Journalist Association’s annual general meeting at the Emerald Hotel yesterday.
Suthichai said warning signs for the mainstream media came six years ago “in the form of a powerful super-storm that destroys everything in its path”. He noted that everyone now could report news with the advent of affordable digital cameras, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Wikipedia and the iPhone smartphone.
Suthichai, a co-founder of The Nation newspaper, said that in order to survive, the media outlets needed to unite to improve the quality of news reports. “I believe that people are ready to pay in exchange for quality news and information and to help quality media outlets survive,” he said.
The veteran journalist said online media was gaining more readership and audience from traditional media like newspapers, magazines and radio. He suggested that journalists should rely on social media in building content and add more value to their work. This way, they could attract more readership and audience, he added.
“With the collapse of the traditional media, we will have to blame ourselves if we fail to adapt,” he said.
Suthichai, who has many years of experience in the television industry, said although Thailand now had 24 digital TV stations, the quality seemed to be compromised. He noted that their news programmes were similar to one another and focused on dramas to compete. TV stations often used amateur video clips from social media to lure viewers, Suthichai said. “They have to rely on people who are viewed as non-professionals to help them survive in business,” he added.
 
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