Traditional Journalism Must Evolve, or Face Losing Audience

Traditional journalism may face a natural death by losing audience in 20 years, a media expert predicts.

Director Benjie Felipe, an actor and filmmaker who now works as Philippine Information Agency (PIA) senior director for strategic communications, fears old school journalists and their media platforms may become extinct, and this is precisely the reason why there is a need to adapt with the evolving demands of the times.

“I don’t want journalism to die,” he said.

Felipe aims for journalists to continue to satisfy the information needs of audiences, but they have to devise new strategies and out-of-the-box innovations. Journalists must also learn to present their work in more visual representations.

He introduced T-Prime, or the Talking Print Media, which is a fusion of traditional media platforms (television, radio and print) into a short audio-video material to attract more audiences.

Felipe explains long articles and lengthy videos published online will no longer attract audiences, considering the short attention span of netizens. He suggests stories must be entertaining, and the T-Prime 40-seconder video is entertaining and informative.

“Telling a good story should not last a minute,” he said.

T-Prime, unlike current platforms, does not take a lot of the audiences’ time, and therefore is more effective in reaching out to people in these busy days and age.

Journalists who try out new innovations must “expect to lose inhibitions,” Felipe said.

One of PIA’s strategic communication goals is to reach out to more people through social media, and as such the agency finds ways to effectively communicate government and development advocacy in this platform. The new media presents an opportunity for journalists to deliver efficient and timely news, Felipe said. He plans on introducing the innovations in other regions through content creation workshops. (ALT/DIS/MLE/PIA9-Zamboanga City)