Rise of social networks will diminish value of journalism

An increasing number of journalists are reserving their best – comprehensive and incisive articles – for their independent blogs. Competitive landscape for journalism is certainly changing and expectedly, established media houses are employing dedicated resources towards building their presence in the new mediascape. In the absence of incentives for providing content for another medium, journalists, especially the senior folks tend to set out on their own. Their independent venture is usually blessed with readership from the erstwhile print publications. With the new medium proving to be interactive and lucrative, seasoned journalists are increasingly being lured to online medium. Print publications are left with fresh minds trying to match wavelengths of CXOs and industry analysts. With few in numbers, they are increasingly relying on corporate communication executives for content. The result is for everyone to see. The dailies seem to be focusing on more positive news with industry trends, corporate profile, management profiling etc finding flavor.

The rise of social networks that relies on real-time news is also forcing organizations to rethink their communication strategy. A wrong move could trigger off uncontrollable dissemination of news. Organizations are today holding back on communication – be it external or internal or they are focusing even more on the ‘key messages’ they want to deliver. In summary, they are making the journalists job much more challenging. For the same reason, print publications are unable to provide business decision makers a platform to get insight on their industry. More importantly, CEOs are under less public pressure as most of their strategies are confined to the four walls of their organizations – no one questions the efficacy of the same until the organization slips remarkably.