THE current landscape of digitalisation of markets, media channels and consumers’ decision making proves to be a challenge to media management. The dominant question is whether the traditional strategic understanding of media is relevant in the digital age. These challenges influence publishing practices, but not necessarily invalidate basic media principles.
We tell ourselves that we are living in an era of new media. So, what constitutes new media? To begin with. Speed – new media release and update content in a vicious cycle. Co-creation – new media blurs the lines between producers and audiences. Sharing – new media are social platforms of exchange and connection.
These are big differences. Yet on scrutiny, these differences draw a thin line between old and new. New media are further out on each dimension, but traditional media are not far behind as these dimensions are also core to traditional media. To be first with the story is fundamental to the culture and business models of newspapers, radio and TV. Speed is nothing new.
Audience tastes have always been about content creation. A well-established industry of rigorous testing has long put audiences in the driver’s seat of content, from picking movie endings to choosing magazine covers. This loop has tightened, but it has always been there.
The history of media is a history of new technologies. We may call TV old today, but in the 1950s it was the new media of its time.
New media have more speed, co-creation, sharing and techno-sophistication, but if that’s all that makes new media new, then they aren’t new; it is more of old media on steroids.
Predominantly, the lens with the most revealing view of media is the manner in which content is delivered.
This is the defining characteristic of the experience people have with media, and on this dimension, all of today’s media, old and new, are the same.
But this is also the pivotal way in which future media will be different.
Picture it this way: all media content is consumed. It is a passive substance of some form – text, video, audio, etc – that is presented to an audience for active processing by viewers, readers and listeners. The audience acts upon the content.
In today’s media, however, the audience owns the active voice, so to speak. Readers read, viewers watch, listeners listen. Content is acted upon, which means that content owns the passive voice. It is in this critical way that all media are the same. They “push” content to an audience that consumes it. This is what traditional media did; this is what new media is doing. New media has a modern texture and feel, but it is old wine in a new bottle.
However, this is what will be different in the future. New media will truly be new when content is active not passive.
Future horizons of active content are already within view. Personal informatics apps have proven the feasibility and appeal of collecting individual data to feed into algorithms that help people be healthier and more productive. Digital footprints make it easier than ever to monitor what people are doing and where. Wearables take this further, enabling real-time data gathering for instantaneous feedback and guidance.
These innovative technologies make content active. The content “reads” the audience and then actively uses that real-time feedback to change what’s served to readers, viewers and listeners. The content is no longer dormant, waiting for an audience to act upon it. The content now acts upon itself based on the inputs fed to it by active monitoring of the audience.
All of today’s media, traditional and new, is at one end of the passive/active continuum. All of tomorrow’s media will be at the opposite end. This future means three big things
First, content, both creative and delivery, will shift from fixed to fluid. Creativeness will be affected the most, moving from a focused message with targeted appeal to a range of messages that can be patched together in various combinations based on real-time monitoring of the target audience.
Second, a new audience dynamic will come into play. Today, we study how people consume media. We look at things like time spent, eye movement, time shifting and multi-screens. In the future, we will study how media consume people. It will be less about media consumption styles per se and more about feedback loops.
Finally, this future of active content will chart a different path, one in which algorithms will replace instinct in brand marketing. This doesn’t mean the end of brand marketers. It just means that a new skill set will be essential to success in a world in which new media are truly new.
The writer is a senior lecturer, Faculty of University Foundation Studies, HELP Matriculation Centre.
