SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECT ON TRADITIONAL MEDIA

INTRODUCTION:

The media landscape has dramatically changed over the past decade, with traditional media (e.g. newspaper, television) now supplemented by social media (e.g. blogs, discussion, forums).Over the past years, new media or social media has given a new shift to the concept and motives of journalism. This work seeks to explain how this new media and social media have been beneficial to us and how it has affected the traditional way of carrying out media and how this media houses have strategised to meet up with the changing trends of reporting news and media as a whole.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

 Social media refers to the means of interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communication and networks. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Heinlein define social media as a group of internet based applications that build on ideological and technological foundations and that allows the creation and exchange of user generated content. This interaction and sharing and easy communication has been made possible by “NEW MEDIA”.

NEW MEDIA:

 New media has enhanced social media effectively. Social media includes Facebook, twitter, Foursquare, YouTube etc. With all these developments, ordinary people who are supposed to be traditionally oriented (Radio, TV, and Newspaper) all have gained access to digital technology and the internet of which they have subscribed to many social media.

 Examples of some traditional media (television/ radio/ newspaper) often leave the audiences out of construction of news. The rise of social media in one way or the other has made journalists out of every individual. This is where we come across the term “CITIZEN JOURNALIST”. Citizen journalism is also known as public, participatory, democratic or guerrilla journalism which is based on the society playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting analysis and disseminating news and information. New media technology such as networking and media sharing websites in addition to the increase in prevalence of cellular phones, have a made citizen journalism more accessible to people worldwide, citizens can often report breaking news more quickly.

EFFECTS SOCIAL MEDIA ON TRADITIONAL MEDIA:

There has been a rise in greater accessibility rate of news due to their availability of the new media/social media. Because of the rise in social media, people or audience are able to access news faster and easier due to social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter. Before one of those traditional media news outlets would carry a crew  to go video the event that had occurred , an audience with a glance will quickly video it and just share it on the various social  media or networks.  Likewise the traditional media or the mainstream media who would have been at the scene would rather get the second hand of the news. Audiences are everywhere at any time and at any moment whatever happens around them as news worthy would be captured faster than the mainstream media would have done. With all the above points and the introduction of social media, it is fair to say that the traditional media has lost its influence on the human society causing its decline. But these traditional media or mainstream media have not just been watching but recently have taken strategies to help them meet the current media changes.

It is believed that we are witnessing the emergence of powerful new voices and networks which can act independently of the traditional media and the term “the fifth estate” has been developed due to this emergence of powerful tool which has given voices to people.

STRATEGIES MEDIA HOUSES HAVE TAKEN.

Since the Asian Tsunami in the London bombings when audience footage led the main news bulleting for the first timer the BBC has invested heavily in the current audience to contribute direct experience in major events. It establish a well-staffed user generated hub,to process and authenticated audience material as well as to engage  more deeply with audience members to co create content, write articles and shoot  photos. In average week the team process over 10000 email content, 1000 stills in up 100 videos.

 Traditional media outlets have gone from their usual way of presenting news to audience by adding and incorporating social media tools in order to aid their course. Television outlets, radio and newspaper all have Facebook, twitter, YouTube and others which they feed with update news on these social media outlets for their audience to view.  

Most media houses now have online service whereby audience can now view their programmes online with their devices. This has helped to bring their audience closer. Media houses now engage citizen journalist by allowing them send in their videos and stories which makes them part of the news process.

 This media houses have used various methods to meet this media changes. Polls where readers are asked to make multiple choice or binary response. Message boards which engage readers on threaded online conversations or database on topics often initiated by readers. Have your say, audience comments and stories, question and answers segment, blogs, your media and your story. All this features have aided this media houses to keep in touch with time.

CONCLUSION:

In a nutshell, new media in relation to social media has given the world a closer way of getting closer to each other and interacting in the best possible way, providing people to access news in wider and faster ways.  The Egyptian Riot is an example of peoples power through social media, which was used to organised and rally people to become a strong mobile force which ultimately ousted a dictator.  (Facebook, twitter).  This media houses have noticed the power of this social media outlets and have now strategized and taken measures to incorporate them into their work.

REFERENCES:  Kaplan Andreas M., Heinlein Michael (2010). "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and Opportunities of social media". Business Horizons53 (1). p. 67LISTER, M (2009).

NEW MEDIA: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. LONDON, ROUTLEDGE.

WWW. MAGRAW-HILL.CO. UK.

GROUP MEMBERS:

MORRIS MYLES GOODMAN

NOVIEKU-BABATUNDE ADEOLA

ADABAWUNI EMMANUEL:

ESSUMANBA-JOSIAH EMELIA:

ABUBAKAR YUSSIF:

The Fishing Community

Not only does an identified community as ‘ Fishing Community’’ create rooms for  Employment  and Revenue, but a Fishing Community gives that community a sense of Identity. The James Town Fishing Community  in Accra is an accepted community in relation to the fishing world. 

 Taking a walk in this community, the environment is filled  with an atmosphere of  sea breeze and mixed aroma of smoked,fried,fresh fishes. Men go A sea.. women  help their husbands  and their trading partners  by getting the fishes and sea foods from the coast and selling it finally. Some other men do the trading themselves though.  One amazing situation I sited this time  around was the fact that kids go with their fathers  to sea. Issues concerning this has been raised in the past as this act being Child Labor or  Talent Training, of which i would write about in my subsequent topics. In an interview with a fisherman..’he added that, ideally,in recent times this act is a bit unfair to the kids involved in this act,more importantly when education has remained vital and compulsory. He also said..this practice of training kids into the fishing profession     has lived with them since they were born,therefore…tradition goes on”

Tuesdays are non-fishing days for fishermen in  James Town and other  Fishing Communities in Ghana. On these days, households, apart from the the children who are to be in school, are free. Households do their laundry, cook, visits, the youthful ladies go to the market and shop, the youngmen mostly play at the coast of the beach. Some swim..some play football..some ran etc.

                    Tuesday Jamestown Beach

Fishermen,Fishmongers and the Fish.

While we are on with our next topic…I enjoyed my time at the Jamestown Beach with the coastal folks. It was very interesting to know from a fisherman that..”one who went on board in attempt to fish,but came back with no fish can never be called a Fishermen’’. I found this assertion relative.  Do doctors save life's everyday? Certainly not.

   Today's topic as mentioned above centers on the fish. Who goes for the fish, the wholesalers and retailers, the semi-final state of the fish  before it reaches consumers. Whiles the Fisherman's friend is the Fishing Net..I have no doubt that the Fishing Net becomes the enemy of Fishes.

SMOKED FISHES

In Ghana Fishermen are known for an aggressive nature. The ‘fishermen fellowship’, a term I coined at  the beautiful sight of seeing fishermen drawing their canoon on-shore. Most fishermen lend a helping hand, sing their favorite ‘morale-chorus’ in pulling and pushing the canoon on-shore. To me it was a very amazing sight…so I ended up capturing this scene. I simply admired the strength   of the older fishermen.

                                                THE  'FISHERMEN FELLOWSHIP'.

A woman who sold fishes caught by her husband was called a Fishwife. Fishmongers are people who sell raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers simply work at selecting and purchasing,handling,gutting,bonding, displaying, merchandising and selling their product. Just as every profession comes with ethics…it is nothing different in the fishmongers world. Fishmongers use tools like the, Pliers to pull out bones,a fish scaler to remove scales,  a Filleting knife to get rid of flesh from the bones, protective gloves, a curved knife for gutting and removing and a short strong knife for opening oysters and other shellfish. Quiet recently, the fisheries Ministry in Ghana conceded that the countries fisheries sub-sector is in crisis following what officials are describing as ‘Over-Fishing’. The Ministry warned that without a drastic change of attitude in the sector, the dwindling fortunes  of the industry will continue. The fishing sub-sector, according to statistics, has the lowest growth rate in the Agriculture Sector in Ghana even though it improved from 2.8percent in 2002 to 3.5percent in 2004. As at Thursday,26^th Sept 2013, from an interview with a fishmonger in Jamestown, she expressed bitter concerns in relation to the ‘depletion’ of fishes in Jamestown and how she has to go to Tema Fishing Harbor for fishes.

                                  INTERVIEW WITH A FISHMONGER.

 

I plead with any reader who is capable of improving the state of the current fishing sub-sector of the country to do so.