Traditional media needs new approach
KUWAIT: Traditional media around the globe are facing a crisis, according to Dr Julia Cage, Assistant Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics at Sciences Po Paris. She was speaking at the Kuwait Fund for Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) yesterday. Cage, who has studied the economics of media, said during her talk on ‘Rethinking Governance and Funding of High Quality News in the Digital Age’ that traditional media are facing a range of challenges, including disruptive digital technologies and changing advertising landscapes.
She warned that if the situation persists, many more in the mass media industry will be affected, including journalists. The result will be a reduction in reliable, fact-checked and unbiased news and in-depth, investigative journalism. Without well-funded news organizations, citizens around the world will be less informed and as a consequence democracy will be threatened.
Dr Cage offered a new business model solution which she said can cope with the crisis. She said a nonprofit media organization (NMO) and joint stock company can save the media industry, rather than relying on traditional shareholders, advertisers and government support. “The new model relies on readers, employees and innovative methods of financing and crowdfunding, just like some newspapers in the West like the UK’s Guardian, which relies on donations and subscriptions,” she explained. “There are newspapers in Europe that rely on crow funding in order to sustain operations. Decline in readership and advertising will continue and we do not know what is coming next.”
Dr Cage also discussed the impact of digital media on IPR and copyright. “People now are into copy-pasting information that is available seconds after posting. Whatever you say or write will automatically be available for copy-pasting. The problem is that reporters gather information that costs money and effort, only to be consumed and shared by anyone for free. We need to pay and that is what exactly is happening with The Guardian. We need to find a way to produce information without advertisers. The decline in advertising revenues [for traditional media] is a worldwide trend,” she said. Cage explained that investigative journalism is important as it plays a role in supporting democracies and serves as a part of the ‘knowledge economy’. Media is central to functioning democratic institutions. “I recommend de-commercializing or stopping commercialization of information. The government must create a better policy to respond to changing times and technology,” she said.