How can the Lebanese traditional media stations survive in the presence of digital media?

DESPITE THE FACT THAT MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS FACING AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS DUE TO THE MIGRATION OF ITS AUDIENCE TOWARDS DIGITAL PLATFORMS, THIS MODEL CAN STILL STRIVE IN THE ACTUAL LEBANESE SOCIETY THROUGH A HYBRID MODE.

The entrance of the new media and the digital media has put down a mass effect on the old media platforms, especially the printed papers and the predominant press. This phenomenon is the effect of the New Communication Technology (NCT), which took advantage of the difficulties and the arrangements of the customary conventional media. The previous years can be labelled as the “Great Depression” of the newspapers and the mainstream media as a whole, whereby the financial crises that faced the media in its various aspects was similar to the 1920 crisis where advertising revenues got lower in terms of ensuring the economic downswing. The end users largely changed their reading styles to adopt the advent of the free web reading. Well-known publishing houses suffered with part of them either declaring bankruptcy, diminishing their staff count firing some editors and reporters, decreasing their rental spaces and office dimensions, and/or ultimately doing the full transfer to the online platforms.

From the onset of the century, the new media has been affecting the way mainstream media deliver news. They since tried to create websites and promote their papers on webpages to satisfy the evolving needs of the market.

The digital media can be considered as an illustration of the freedom and democracy of publishing and distributing thoughts. It can be perceived as the mingling of all the media forms of the past years in the means of web platforms. Indeed, it is an active platform integrating substance that can be used as a good mediator between the people in charge including MPS, leaders,

governors and the public. Digital Media also help in progressing toward self-governance in many instances. However, risks, such as espionage and leaks, might arise drawing limits on the rise of this new media.

The number of Internet users have been steadily increasing since the mid-1990s, with online media news’ readers doubling in numbers between 1998 and 2006. This growth was fuelled by the fast-increasing usage of laptops and tablets at affordable prices. Furthermore, skepticism started to grow around the fundamentals of journalism and media identities. Nonetheless, voices started to rise and call for the old media to stay, or at least not to vanish.

To explore the effects of this worldwide phenomenon in the Lebanese media landscape, a series of interviews were conducted with experts in the field and thought leaders in both traditional and digital media. The opinion of these key references in the media shed light on potential solutions: keeping the old values of news’ coverage and mainstream media versus the development and enhancement of the new type of media.

Unfortunately, the study reveals that rather than aiming to satisfy the contemporary audience’s needs, the key concern of the media owners in Lebanon since the beginning of this century has been to increase profit. Also, when people started to convert to social and online media platforms, traditional media tried to clone the latter, which was in fact a wrong approach. Most of the major traditional media were satisfied by opening a website that offer no added value over the original offering. Yet, targeted audiences would typically not consume media from sources using a siloed multi-channel approach.

On the other hand, social and digital media also had their own shortfalls with regards to the credibility and decency of their featured news’ sources. Indeed, traditional media are believed to be governed by finer manners as journalists respected the red lines of the profession during their news’ coverage.

Noticeably, an integrated hybrid mode between the two media is recommended so as to converge the manners and the values of the old media with the speed and reliability of the new media platforms. This hybrid solution would be based on the following findings:

1. The importance of journalists working in the traditional media is undeniable as they are still the most credible and trusted sources of news. Ideally, digital media would accompany the broadcasting of news featuring credible journalists instead of just posting questionable posts.

2. News websites were the first adopted digital touch points by traditional media, which unfortunately failed as they were behind in the crowded digital landscape. While they tried to adapt later to the changing news’ consumption habits by sending push notifications, those efforts remained basic.

3. Last but not least, very so often, the social and online media failed to use their efficiency effectively, leaving room for the spread of fake news on their various platforms: rudimentary guidelines were set with no clear indication on the rules and manners to abide by.

The hybrid mode in traditional media is hence vital; it may actually improve the appearance of traditional media and let them gain back their premium position for the audience both online and offline as per the following recommendations:

1. The management of traditional media can be internally split into two different and coherent entities: one can manage the conventional and current mainstream departments (e.g. news and sports), while the other oversees the social and online platform.

2. Well-known anchors can have separate tabs in the company’s well-developed website interacting through the day with the audience, alongside the social media platform. This interaction can feature live coverage during the day providing deep analysis that the TV excels at.

3. The ideal set up would be based on a full integration of the various social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.). This can be done through the well-known anchors and journalists through their own online social profile, which would help in increasing the profile of the agency they work for.

In sum, despite the fact that mainstream media is facing an existential crisis due to the migration of its audience towards digital platforms, this model can still strive in the actual Lebanese society through a hybrid mode. In fact, the recommendations hereby proposed aim to bolster the presence of traditional media in the digital era. This would ultimately lead to an increase in the number of subscribers, resulting in higher generated income and profits from advertisements.