The Role and Values of Online Media

Online publishing has the opportunity to serve audience in a new and meaningful way. Journalists have an important responsibility of being the watchdog for the public. Journalists should accept the challenge and embrace the opportunity to build a new business model that will flourish in an era of digital media.

Journalisms highest values can endure only if they stand on a sound economic foundation. It is essential that the journalists who adhere those values be proactive participants in the process of innovation

The role of online media is to honour the principle of independence, avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts that could damage the ability to report or the credibility of reporting. In addressing an issue or question of independence the resolution might come through a strategy of transparency or disclosure.

It is also make people’s live easier, rather than going out and purchasing a newspaper they could just go online and receive the latest news updates on what they need to know.

The world is ever-changing and calculating the total media value may be difficult as more and more people are around the world start using the internet at a source of information while in their beds, kitchens and cars.

A survey can be conducted to calculate the value of online media. Let’s say four hundred and thirty one students complete the survey. It could yield a 96% response rate. The majority of the students will cone our having used technology for academic activities, with 90% using smart phones and 91% using laptops and computers.

Fifty eight percent of the students also used social networking websites to communicate with their classmates and other students.

On a local scale and global scale media revenue growth rates from 2013 to 2015 as zero percent for newspapers globally compared to 5.2% for South African newspapers, and 0.3% for magazines globally compared to 6.6% for South African magazines.

Many media pundits are skeptical about these high forecasts for South Africa. These local print figures compare favourably to the predicted growth rate of other media in the country: television 5.5%, radio 8.8%, out of home 7.2%, cinema 7.7% and internet, with by far the largest growth of 25.4%.

We need an industry debate on common metrics across platforms and devices. That may mean losing some of our current metrics in favour of reach, time, and gross point ratings. We also need agreed standards on the quality of the ‘big data’ we use. And, finally, we need increased collaboration between industry currencies. The latter may be more challenging than any other requirement but is vital. We will need some form of robust single-source, single medium currency.

If only to act as hubs for the integration with brand, product and psychographic data. But as media boundaries dissolve even further, it will be important for all currencies to work together to avoid duplication and gaps.