Introduction
The print media refers to books, periodicals, and newspapers.
It is also called the old media because for over five hundred years until
recently there was little change in the way these were published. The term “new
media” refers to the new means of information publishing and dissemination, and
includes websites, news portals, blogs, e-mail and podcasting, to name a few.
The new media is based on the World Wide Web and does not require the use of
paper.
The print media started after 1440 when Johann
Guttenberg of Germany invented the printing press. The printing press was an
instrument of production that made it possible to produce multiple copies of a
book or newspapers once type was set. Its true significance lies in its
contribution to the spread of ideas and knowledge. Before the printing press
arrived, books used to be written by hand and considerable time was required to
produce just one copy. Information and knowledge, therefore, remained in short
supply. The present digital or electronic media revolution represents the next
stage in the development of publishing and it adds immense storage, retrieval
and distribution possibilities to the production of printed word. The new media
revolution was achieved as a result of the development of desktop publishing in
mid-eighties due to advances in computer science and which once again
revolutionized the process of production, and, second, the scope of retrieval
and dissemination of information on the World Wide Web due to the rapid
advances in the information and communication technologies.
The advances in Internet and information technologies
in the last ten years have brought about a structural change in the way
information is aggregated, transformed, and then disseminated. This was earlier
done by a select group of people engaged in the news and publishing industries.
The Internet has empowered the consumer of information to also become its
producer and distributor. This has resulted in the elimination of barriers to
media entry, the rise of distributed journalism, and the flood of reporting and
related activities, thus challenging the foundations of the old media news and
publishing establishments.
Most people of the older generation prefer to get
their news the old-fashioned way i.e., from newspapers and magazines printed on
paper, but also like to supplement this by turning to other sources on the
Internet. The younger generation, on the other hand, depends mostly on sources
in the new media like blogs, podcasts, or subject-specific portals. There is
genuine concern that as the older generation moves on, the old media will also
gradually disappear.
The Future of Newspapers
Newspapers have been concerned about their future for
some time now. While the number of adults reading newspapers and the number of
papers sold each week are higher than ever before, the growth of newspaper
readership has not kept up with the growth of population in Indonesia. Young
people, especially, are not turning to newspapers. Young people who seek news
for years have turned to television, which has done a superficial job, for the
most part.
And now comes along the Internet. The Internet gives
us up-to-the minute news the way radio has been able to do, but the Internet
lets you filter out the news you don’t care about and only receive the news you
do care about.
This certainly begs the question: Are the print media
dying?
But by some definitions, the newspaper is one of the
most interactive media around. That paper product just isn’t electronic.
You can start reading them at the beginning, middle or
end.
You can stop anytime you want, and start again when
you want.
There are indexes to help you jump around to the spots
you want.
You can take it almost anywhere.
You don’t need batteries.
Thirty years ago the experts were predicting that
newspapers as we knew them would be dead “in 10 years”. We’d all be receiving
news from video text machines (a primitive form of computer). Well, today, the
experts are not predicting that newspapers are going to go away, but they will
change. Readers will look to both the Internet and print editions of the paper
for news. Newspapers have strong brand recognition when it comes to news and
readers who want reliable news will go to the media they trust.
But print media that go online will not succeed simply
by shoveling their old content onto the World Wide Web. To make money they will
have to provide value added services, such as search capabilities for old
stories, search capabilities for classified ads, and original web content.
In actuality, there is a greater demand today for news
and information. Those who are trained to reliably gather information from a
variety of sources, synthesize or make sense of it, and repackage it for
dissemination in a variety of formats will be great demand . . . ARE in great
demand.
New media, which includes the World Wide Web, is one
of the fastest growing and highest paying career fields for the news media. The
vast majority of newspapers in the country now have websites, through most of
them are stuck in the paradigm of creating content for their print editions and
then simply moving it over to the World Wide Web. They all know they need to be
there, but are confused on how to profit from being there. Only a few
newspapers have come close to breaking even.
The Future of Magazines
Some print magazines are even taking advantage of
technology to deliver the same magazine with specialized advertising for
targeted geographical regions. It won’t be long until the technology will allow
them to target advertising specifically to each advertiser.
Magazines are also finding a niche in new media, too.
Whether on the World Wide Web or on compact disk, ‘zines are popping up. ‘Zines
are magazines that exist in electronic form only and can contain sound and
animation that print cannot. They may cover a tightly focused topic and may
exist for one issue only. Or they may be “high gloss” magazines.
And, of course, like the newspapers, magazines are
experimenting with moving their print content online.
Indonesian Case
In Indonesian case, the fast development of online media
came along with the political reform 1998. One of the pioneers is an online
newspaper names “detik.com.” The word “detik” literally means “second” in Indonesian
language. It refers to frequent level of it information and news reproducing.
Although it doesn’t really produce the news and information every second, but
they prove the readers that the media frequently display the news in a fast
way. Its character simply divides the online media and the printed media. The
printed media need a long time process to display their news. If an occurrence
happened today morning, maybe the readers should wait until the next morning to
read the news. Detik.com as an online media offers a different way in which the
readers can read the occurrence only some seconds after the occurrence.
The mode of news displaying is a bit similar to TV and
Radio do, but the online newspaper offer more easy ways. Radio and TV give only
one time display news. Take an example in a live report, the audience should
pay attention in the same time when the news displayed. When the audiences are
busy in the same time, then they will lose their chance to watch or listen to
the news. The online newspapers give a different way to pay attention. The
audience can collect the information from mass media every time they’d like to.
They can collect it in the same time with the time the news released, one
second later, one minute later, and so on. So, we can say that online newspaper
offers a way to consume information with the more choice on the audiences. Back
to Indonesian case, it has made detik.com become one of the most favorable
media in Indonesia.
During the chaotic time of 1998 political reform, audiences
do need any fast-news to consume. Formerly, detik.com
merely displayed any political information. Anyhow, Indonesian audiences that
time really need fast and comprehensive news to reveal the chaotic
situation. That time, many observers underestimate toward detik.com in case that there are only a very few internet users in
Indonesia within that era. But the pessimism of many observers has become the
prominent step of the media. Precisely, the excellence of the media is the
fact that it had started the project of online newspaper when others
still stuck in the conventional model of newspaper. But, many observers have an
adequate argument on their skeptic view toward detik.com that time. They made their argument upon a fact that that
time there are still a very small number of internet users in Indonesia.
But slowly and surely, the audiences of detik.com become larger and larger. The
time when detik.com was founded in
July 1998, the number of all internet users in Indonesia only counts for 2.500
users. That time, the media only counted 30.000 hits of viewer each day. The
next year in 1999, the first online newspaper counted 214.000 hits each day. Finally,
in 2007 detik.com has counted more
than 3 million readers each day. The number belongs to a fantastic one. We can
note another mass media, kompas,
the most popular printed newspaper in Indonesia founded at 1965. In 2009, this
media counts a 500 thousands customer per day, and read by about 1,8 million
readers each day. In this case, we can see that the online newspaper can reach
almost the twice numbers of printed newspaper’s readers while the age of online
newspaper is less than a half of the other one. In 2012, the number of Indonesian
internet user has reached 63 million users. It provides a much more optimistic
market for online newspaper.
The fact has encouraged some media industry to make
some market expansion. The industry of online media in one side, has expanded
their scope of their media. In this case, detik.com
which formerly only ran an online newspaper, finally has extent their media to
the form of online magazine and online daily newspaper. On the other side, the
printed media has also expanded their business to online version. This step
firstly done by kompas by founded
kompas.com. Firstly, the online
version is merely duplicate of printed version which is displayed in World Wide
Web version. But later, the online version has developed its own new version.
Generally, the online version displays more breaking news, while the printed version
provides a more characteristic of featured news. Later, in the middle of 2000
decade, almost all of Indonesian printed newspaper has made their online
version.
The question then, will the printed newspaper survive
in the era of new media? The fact shows that the printed media still survive to
attract their customers. The old media readers are still loyal to the printed
media. This condition can be considered as a result of some arguments:
Most of online newspaper display simple straight news
which similar to breaking news with a fast displayed news. While, most of
printed newspaper display an in-depth news with an extensive investigation at
once. By this condition, a reader should only as often as possible to read an
online news if s/he want to know a comprehensive information. By contrary, a
reader of printed news will get comprehensive news only by a once reading time.
Reading an online newspaper has been a long lasting
tradition in our society. In this case, someone has been very familiar to have
a tea or coffee and read a printed newspaper in the same time. This is not easy
to change them by replace the newspaper with a set of laptop or a small set of
mobile phone.
Some people are still in favor to collect information
as a clipping to save and manage information. In many libraries, we still find
the printed clipping of some information rather than online clipping of some
news and information.
With those conditions, we can see that online
newspaper has been one of media superstar in Indonesia. In spite of that fact,
printed media which are predicted to be expelled out by the rising of online
media, in fact still have their old customer.
Conclusion
The rise of new media with the innovation has enriched
the development of mass media. In this context, the rising of online newspaper
and magazines has made a significant note in Indonesia. Some observers predict
that the printed media would be expelled out from the market competition
related to the rising of the online newspaper. In fact, the printed newspapers
and magazines still prevent their market.
The survival of printed media is strongly influenced
by the trend of the information model offered by the two types of media. The
online model usually offered straight news information, while the printed model
usually offers an in-depth news. In other side, the printed media also has been
any kind of tradition which has been done by many people for a very long time.
Furthermore, it doesn’t mean that in the next period,
the printed media would still survive to compete against online media. A
research in England shows that almost 90 percent children in read books from
electronic version. It means that electronic version can also provide a model
of in-depth and comprehensive information. In this case, people’s choice to
consume whether an online or printed information are strongly depend on their
favor. May be sometimes we’d like to read an online version, and the next time
we’d like to read a printed version.
But the more and more closer relation among man and
computer maybe will urge the more favor to online version. With this reason,
then the printed media industry also prepare themselves to provide an online
version of their news and information. Of course, they would still maintain
their quality to survive in the market competition.
