adminLovemore Chikova News Editor
It is important that media in countries like Zimbabwe study how Chinese media houses have harnessed new media to their advantage.
The smartphone is taking over as the major mode of communication and this is more prominent in big cities like Beijing, China, where almost everyone owns the gadget.
Everywhere, be it in public parks, on buses or the subway, one finds people engrossed on their smartphone, scrolling and searching for the latest information.
If not searching for the hottest news in town, they are chatting with friends and relatives on social media networks.
It is clear that digital technology, as represented by the smartphone, is now the new language of communication.
Many are hooked, especially the young ones.
And the world is set for a sharp turning point, considering that people under the age of 30 account for 50,5 percent of the world population, at least according to the World’s Youngest Populations, Euromonitor International 2012 report.
The same report indicated that sub-Saharan Africa has the youngest proportion of the population in the world, with over 70 percent of the region’s population under the age of 30.
Almost everyone has fallen for the new media, which is trending through integrating all types of communication.
The rise of the smartphone has also seen the emergence of various social media platforms that people find easy to use and convenient to receive and spread information.
The obvious advantage of the smartphone is that it combines all aspects of communication, including sound, text and video.
These new platforms on their own or combined with other new media technologies, have simply become the new means of mass communication.
They often reach various audiences, even across borders, and sometimes in real time.
My experience in China has shown that the Asian economic giant arguably has the largest number of “netizens” — people who are hooked to the Internet and on various social media platforms, at a given time.
Statistics show that by 2015, there were 690 million Internet users in China, with 90 percent of them accessing the web using their smartphones.
It is clear that new media is taking over, not just in China, but also in other developing countries such as Zimbabwe.
Apart from the smartphone, other symbols of new media technologies include intelligent terminals like a personal computer, laptop, tablet, all in one machine and smart TV.
Given this scenario, newspapers become the most affected as the appetite for the hard copy has declined.
What is needed now is for media houses to realise that it is no longer business as usual.
While Zimpapers, the biggest media house in Zimbabwe, is fast moving into a fully integrated media house, the group also has to consider ways of dealing with the threat coming from new media.
The group’s presence on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and its other web-based outlets like BH24 for business and SportZone are meant to harness the potential of new media.
When traditional media in a big market like China, with more than one billion people, start feeling the pinch, the devastating effect in small markets like Zimbabwe cannot be contemplated.
And new media is ruffling traditional media’s feathers in the whole of Asia.
This was more pronounced at a roundtable I attended in China’s Boao city between media leaders from China and their Asian counterparts.
The purpose was to find ways of dealing with the emergence of new media which is threatening the extinction of traditional media.
Television of Cambodia director general Mr Ken Gunawadh had no kind words for social media.
“Through new media and the wide use of the Internet, right now the smartphone is part of the social media, people can show everything like videos, sounds, texts,” he said.
“Social media would want to spoil everything, wants to be totally unfair through poisoning the information situation.”
His words sum up the effect of new media technologies on traditional media. Instead of being annoyed by the emergence of new media, media leaders must devise ways of incorporating the new platforms.
A report titled “The Development Report of China’s Traditional Media” published by Tsinghua University last year, painted a gloomy future for traditional media.
While circulation of newspapers and television penetration is decreasing drastically, readership and viewership on new media technologies are growing exponentially in China.
For instance, the report notes that circulation of newspapers among urban residents in China decreased from 53,5 percent in 2013 to 45,5 percent in 2014, while television penetration declined from 82,2 percent to 78,8 percent.
This is in contrast to web video watching which rose from 18,7 percent in 2012 to 53,8 percent in 2014.
The most frightening part of the report is that in 2014, more than 30 newspapers in China ceased publication or simply went broke.
But media organisations in China are not viewing new media as a negative challenge, but as a diversification of channels of communication which should be taken advantage of.
A recent visit to China Daily, China Central Television and Xinhua News Agency in Beijing and The Paper in Shanghai revealed that the media organisations have adopted measures to fully exploit the new media technologies.
China’s media is prioritising the convergence of traditional media and new media as a way of survival in the new dispensation.
They have come up with new media platforms, some of which are accessed through subscription.
This makes the Chinese media far ahead of those in fellow developing countries which are still grappling with how to make money from such ventures on the new media platforms.
It is important that media in countries like Zimbabwe study how Chinese media houses have harnessed new media to their advantage.
To further their presence on new media, most Chinese media have segmented their content into stand-alone websites. The new media platforms are not only generating hard news stories, but have been diversified to include thought-leadership and in-depth analysis on different topics.
Statistics show that China Daily, one of the major publications in the country, has 44 websites, 31 mobile phone client portals, 20 000 electronic reading boards and 30 newspapers and periodicals.
Xinhua News Agency operates Xinhua.net, a platform that avails content in voices, text and videos, while CCTV broadcasts on social media platforms such as Facebook and posts video clips on its website.
The rise of Internet in China saw the first microblog service called Fanfou being launched in 2007, but closing in 2009.
This gave rise to SINA Microblog (Weibo) which was launched in 2009 and had 300 million registered accounts by 2012, but is now in decline in terms of use because people are migrating to other new media platforms.
Below is a glimpse of new media platforms that are dominating in China.
Tencent QQ — instant messaging software service that also offers online social games, music, shopping, microblogging and group and voice chat and has 830 million users.
QZone — social networking website where users can write blogs, share photos, music and videos, with 755 million users
Sina Weibo — a microblogging website which is like a hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, with 600 million users and WeChat, a micro messaging application like a version of WhatsApp, with 468 million users.
Pengyou is a real name social network with an emphasis on real friendship (pengyou means friend in Chinese language), with 260 million users.
Online Reporter