Amidst rising fear of possible bankruptcy of the print media as the result of their declining competitiveness against cyber journalists, some senior journalists and lecturers opined that Indonesian print media companies should not worry about it.
Print media companies in Indonesia would not be replaced by the Internet, as long as they could make the necessary adjustments with the development of Internet as a means of disseminating news stories, Paul-Josef Raue, editor-in-chief of Braunscheweiger Zeitung said in an interview after addressing the 10th Asian-European Editors Forum in Seoul.
The senior journalists and lecturers opined that the Internet will not be able to take over the position of newspapers, if the media concerned was able to capitalize on the Internet as a form of communication to disseminate the news stories to the public.
According to him, many print media like Kompas, Media Indonesia and others media remained unaffected by the mushrooming Internet.
The lack of knowledge of most of the people about the Internet is a quantitative entity, but without any democratic quality. It is like a market place where everybody is expecting most important news.
A print media is exactly like a newspaper to the members of the society. A society without citizens is unthinkable. It needs people that are confident and take up responsibilities. A society without citizens is only a state, nothing else. It means that a top-down system where the top dictates and the bottom obeys.
Sometimes, many citizens don`t trust their politicians anymore, because they don`t consider them as representatives of the people. They long for a better democracy and justice, thus a newspaper can easily become a medium of expression of their longings. Practically a newspaper will never lose its readers.
"We have to take care of our readers, to sense their needs and satisfy them. This has nothing to do with populism. If we don`t satisfy their needs, we`ll lose our readers.
They can run away and the publishers will run out of the money," he said.
As to the case of Indonesia, according to him, many print media fell into bankcruptcy during the economic and monetary crisis hitting the world`s largest archipelagic country in 1998. Some newspapers could no longer finance their operations, thus forcing their owners to close down their media.
"Now, I hear that there is no certain print media which has to stop operation just because of a loss in competition with the Internet," Dr Stephen Quinn, Associate Professor of Journalism, School of Communications and Creative Art, Deakin University, said.
Many print media in Indonesia like the Jakarta Post, Kompas, Media Indonesia, the Jakarta Globe and others had their own web sites offering news stories to their readers not only in Indonesia, but also to those in other countries.
"It means that they really understand the trend of the world and try to adapt themselves with the form of communication," he said.
If media companies wanted to continue to survive, they had to understand the trend of the users and embrace their forms of communication. The Internet`s open architecture constituted the basic IT law of a society that could communicate digitally, he opined.
Therefore, the journalists of media companies should decide what kind of information the readers prefer. This runs counter to what is generally defined as citizen`s journalism which publishes everything in the Internet, no matter what it is.
"In Indonesia, people who have an Internet link are not the majority. This condition is advantageous to print media like newspapers as they still have a chance to get the sympathy of their readers. Practically cyber Internet has yet to be regarded as a staunch competitor, " he said.
Internet journalism is being perceived as superior since it transformed viewers, listeners and news consumers of the past into participants of today`s media theater.
It is for that reason, media companies should concentrate on the values of journalism.
Good journalism is always linked to research, investigation, analysis , comparison of facts and evidence, he said. "What is so different when cyber journalists repeat their `search and link terminology. They do what they and link to the rest. No, we aren`t that far apart."
According to Stephen, a well-written story enriched with deep links for further research by the users could show the way for modern print media. Service is the remedy again and again . "Why don`t we show our clients how a story develops - Why don`t we interact with them. Why not offer our clients news in progress.
In the meantime, Dr Heinz-Rudolf Othmerding, international news director of the Deutsche Presse- Agentur GmbH, said that print media of tomorrow had to generate the hectic experience, allowing for the sensory experience of touch, combined with the intellectual and emotional experience of genuine participation.
"I am optimistic that media companies could remain to exist and leading amidst the rising use of the Internet nowadays as long as the stories offered to the readers are in depth, while the news put on the website are often short. This is what I find from web sites of some media in Indonesia," he said.
"However, it is a good strategy to let their clients or people buy their newspapers, if they want to know more about the news," he said, adding that some people only wanted to read the lead of the news.
In order to face the current burden of operational cost, media companies should be able to set a priority in their operation by cutting down administrative costs. But what is much more important is the value of their products for their clients through a word count or by the sheer number of the stories covered.
Heinz also elaborated that a local newspaper was normally more interested in giving advice and help its readers than presenting a nationwide story. "So if a media company finds ways and means to help its clients or readers on their local level to break the story down, it will add value to its operations and make itself more indispensable in the process and absolutely essential in the long run."
In other words, he opined that media companies wanted to survive the actual crisis, they had to become more user friendly and have to develop a strategy reflecting this.
"The questions that need to be addressed are what we do best, what we need to be good at, what we can ensure the best in a particular field and where our news can create values for our clients or readers."
"I learn that some media companies have been user friendly and have their strategies to develop their services in providing the people with information both through their newspapers and the Internet," he said.
http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1255315445/internet-wont-be-able-to-replace-print-media-in-indonesia
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