Sir Anand Satyanand –
I am pleased, at the request of popular and long-time Indian Newslink Editor, Venkat Raman, to add another commendation on achievement of the 16th anniversary of the paper’s publication.
16 is a solid number –the square of four, which is a solid base from which Indian Newslink can rise to the challenges posed by the technological, economic and social changes facing all publications.
The matter of challenges is the reason for me being asked to address the above topic about the rise of social media, as someone who is a reader, and an enthusiastic computer user, of sorts. From these sources I gather the information and consider opinions and arguments advanced, and thus conduct my citizenship.
I do not however presently operate any Facebook or LinkedIn account. Neither do I use Twitter as a communication mechanism. For five years in the recent past when undertaking a public role, I operated Facebook and Twitter with information being supplied by staff, and not myself personally.
Combination Word
Social media is a combination word which describes the variety of communication channels dedicated to community interaction, Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter being good every day examples. Websites and applications which are dedicated information banks, based on what are called wikis (like Wikipedia) are among the different types of social media.
Social media was conceived as an opportunity for community interaction and today it functions as a rich space for new ideas to be promoted and refined. In many ways, sites like Facebook and Twitter provide what can be called a public sphere that is more open and more democratic than what is offered by the contemporary fourth estate which some perceive as depleted and compromised.
First Use
Although the technology to make social media function was available from the 1990s, when the internet became available to the public generally, intensive worldwide use of social media is something that came into vogue after the millennium.
Wikipedia began in 2001 and by 2006, Facebook and Twitter had become available to users throughout the world and those products remain two of the most popular social networks on the Internet.
Why did it become so popular?
Social media has gained enormous traction across the world in a very short time. The global population has proved hungry for the means to access information that has not passed through the gateways of conventional media channels.
The accessibility of digital technologies has democratised the telling of stories and resulted in what can be called ‘citizen journalism’ where ordinary people can document news as it happens and stream it to the world.
This has a particular resonance for people in diaspora communities who can access news through social media from what they may still call “home” more directly and in a better way than is provided by mainstream newspapers, magazines, radio and television.
Dwindling numbers
How much use has developed?
From the first email being sent in the early 1970s and the developments mentioned, there are now millions of users and the growth pattern seems to be never ending, particularly as people in populous countries like India and China join those in the west gaining access to the new means of communication.
What has been the effect on the print medium?
To take two local examples, the New Zealand Herald has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers in New Zealand, and in the time under discussion reached a peak of selling over 200,000 copies in 2006. By the end of 2014 however, circulation of the daily paper had declined to 144,157 copies on average.
The Dominion Post circulation at the same time was recorded at just below 80 000 copies, a lesser figure than in earlier times. These considerable reductions in circulation have resulted in changes in newsroom capacity. Sizeable numbers of permanent reporters and journalists have lost their jobs.
Expected trends
What are the expected trends for the future?
With increasing community use of radio, television and the internet, not only by means of computers but by tablets and cell phones, the first port of call for people to obtain news and opinion is becoming less and less the newspaper which suggests that the print medium will need to adapt in order to survive. There is already experience of many newspapers becoming as active on the web as they are on paper.
We can look back over the 20th century for precedents and perhaps make some predictions about the future of news. First, there is a consistency and rhythm to the forecasts made about the end of radio, made on the basis of the rise of television, and the end of television based on the rise of the internet and the end of film based on the rise of Video Home System technology.
What is certain is that print must change shape in response to social, cultural, environmental and technological forces that have seen radical changes to the ways that people want to receive their news.
The downsides
A short article does not enable in-depth description of this, but among the downsides are increasing brevity and lack of thorough coverage, providing a veneer of information and knowledge rather than greater substance. Part of this is caused by downsizing of workplaces for journalists. Fact and opinion tend to become confused and the result is information that is unsound and unsatisfactory for any great reliance to be placed on it. Democracy depends on a strong Press and if this is absent, there can be difficulties for society.
How can development occur without downsides?
There seems to be no going back and the world seems to need to grapple with the present trend and to identify how best to make use of it.
Just over 50 years ago, an important speech was made about the Press and its future by United States President John Kennedy. He recalled words of Francis Bacon remarking in the 17th century that three inventions had transformed the world – the compass, gunpowder and the printing press.
Kennedy said that the links between nations, forged by the compass, had made everyone citizens of the world, and that evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit had warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure. He said lastly that the printing press had been “the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of conscience and the courier of news.”
He said that the printing press was looked to for strength and assistance and that, with its use, “man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.”
This is a great challenge to the internet and its proprietors, who continue the legacy, but also its users – you and I.
A key challenge seems to be to encourage our young people to be critical readers, producers of media themselves and thus active citizens of the new world.
Sir Anand Satyanand is former Governor General of New Zealand (August 2006 to August 2011) in whose name we conduct the Indian Newslink Sir Anand Satyanand Lecture every year. He is currently Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation, London.
