More turn to traditional media in era of fake news
Readers seek trusted and credible sources of information
KUALA LUMPUR: More readers are turning to traditional media for trusted, credible sources of information in the wake of fake news, according to a digital media expert.
Citing data, National University of Singapore adjunct professor Eu Gene Ang said more than half of Malaysian readers seeking general news and information are more likely to resort to credible sources of media such as newspapers and television.
“In Malaysia, 51% said they trusted traditional media. This was a 2-percentage point yearon-year increase from 49% in 2016,” he said at the 2017 Digital Trends Update for Business briefing yesterday.
Ang said the growing level trust was because traditional media consists of many established, reputable organisations that have been around for years.
“In the era of fake news, when people want to clarify the authenticity of the information, they usually google the information first.”
However, as he points out, a lot of online news are often unreliable.
“The next thing they do is verify the information on traditional media. They check publishers with a good journalism track record or that have years of established integrity.
“The trust in traditional media has actually gone up this year, compared with 2016... and it will continue to rise,” Ang said.
Citing data, he said the trust levels for search engines and online-only media stayed flat year-on-year in 2016 and 2017.
The 2017 Digital Trends Update for Business briefing was organised by the Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association in partnership with ClickAcademy Asia.
Separately, Ang admitted that while online advertising expenditure had been increasing over the years, he added however that traditional media was still a relevant platform for advertisers.
“Traditional media is still important. Digital ad spend in Malaysia stood at around 17% last year, and is projected to grow to about 25% by 2020. The slice of the pie will not increase that much.
“The growth is slow and traditional media is still very stable. It won’t collapse tomorrow. However, this does not mean traditional media companies can rest on their laurels. We are already seeing a lot of media conglomerates diversifying into other businesses. This is happening not only in Malaysia, but all over the world.”
Ang said both traditional and digital media needed to leverage off each other’s strengths.
“Advertisers will need to advertise in an integrated manner.”
He emphasized that the growing number of digital ad fraud had become a huge threat to brand safety.
Ang pointed out that Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever, two of the world’s biggest advertisers, recently announced that they were cutting back on their digital ad spend because of this.
Based on reports, P&G’s ad spend dropped 41% year-overyear, while Unilever’s dropped 59%.