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GuyStarkey
TodayonRadio4hadjust12.187Facebook‘likes,and151.559Twitterfollow-
ers,comparedwithitsweeklyradioaudienceof7.15millionlisteners(Plunkett
2012).Weshouldnoteherethattheactof‘liking,or‘following,throughthese
twosocialmediaplatformsmayconsistofnothingmorethananisolatedactof
registration,ratherthanthecontinuousengagementwithnewspapers,radioand
televisionwhichisnecessarytobecountedasreadership,listeningorviewingin
theofficialaudiencedata.Therelativelypassivenatureofmostradioconsump-
tionwhichallowsittobelistenedto,(oratleastheard,)whileoneisengagedin
otheractivitiesisoneoftheessentialstrengthsofamediumwhichhaslongbeen
characterisedas‘secondary,(Crisell1994:13-16),andthisisathemetowhich
weshallreturnlater.Newspaperpublishersnowoftenemulatebroadcastersin
theirexploitationofthemanynewpossibilitiesopenedupbybroadbandand
mobiledeviceaccesstotheinternet,byaddingaudioortelevisualcontentto
theirwebsites,usuallydrawinguponestablishedcodesandconventionsinra-
dioandtelevisionwithingenresthatarerecognisableineverywaybutthatin
whichtheyareaccessedbytheiraudiences.Journalistsandcolumnistsmaintain
blogsand‘tweet,,whilepublicationsoftenusesocialnetworksto‘tease,break-
ingnewscoverageanddistinctivefeaturecontent.Theydothiswithvaryinglev-
elsofsuccess,though,justlikethebroadcasters:the7.331millionreadershipof
thepopularUKtabloidnewspaperKTheSun”(NRS2012)comparedfavourably
withits566.626likesand126.720followersinJune2012.Thissocialnetwork
presenceis,ofcourse,inadditiontothetextandstillimagecontentnewspapers
makeavailableonline,althoughthedilemmafacingmostperiodicalpublishers
ishowmuchoftheircontenttomakefreelyavailableontheweb,attherisk
ofdamagingpapercirculationandthus,theirprimaryincomefromsalesand
advertising.
Acleardisadvantageofsuchtechnologicaladvanceisthat‘new,mediaare
notjustenablers,allowinggreateraccesstoaudiences,buttheyalsoprovide
intensecompetitiontotheestablishedmedia.Thisisnotleastbecausethepo-
tentialforaudiences,attentiontobeconcentratedonmorethanonemediumat
atimeislimited,perhapsmainlytoradio.Forpublicandprivatesectorbroad-
castersandpublisherswhoarealmostwhollydependentonadvertising,this
hasbecomeespeciallyproblematic:intheUKthetotaladvertisingspendon
theinternetovertookthatontelevisionthreeyearsago,accordingtoresearch
byPricewaterhouseCoopersfortheInternetAdvertisingBureau(2009),total
internetadvertisinghavingalreadyovertakenspendingonnewspaperandra-
dioadvertising.Anothermajorchallengefortraditionalmediaproducersisthat
internetandmobiledeviceaccesstomediacontentbydifferentaudienceshas
liftedtraditionalbarrierstocorporateandindividualproducersreachingout
directlytothoseaudiences.Nowlargeandevensmallcommercialandpublic