New and Social Media: Brief overview

Indra Dhoj KshetriHead of the Department,

Mass Communication and Journalism, Madan Bhandari Memorial College

March 19, 2012

Session Plan

• Introduction to New Media• Status of Online Media: Global and Nepal• Issues pertaining to New Media• Old media versus New Media• Introduction to Social Media• Facebook • Twitter• Blogging in Nepal

Introduction to New Media• Internet-based media• New Media is relative term:

1990s Internet and online were new 2000s Web 2.0 and blogging 2010: Social Media

• In contrast to conventional linear approach, New Media paved way for: two-way communication, instant feedback and interaction

New Media

• Enabled many bare-foot citizens to be citizen reporters

• Equipped each individual with medium and tool to practice freedom thus widening the scope of freedom of speech and expression

Top News Sites (Global) Yahoo tops the list of

top global news sites followed by CNN

Blog-turned newssite Huffington Post comes third which was purchased by AOL in 2011 in USD 315 million

Integration with Social media is bringing more audience to these sites than actual on-site visitors

Online: Changing the mediascape• Huge decline in advertising revenue from print• Many newspapers are more relying on online

advertising revenue • Developing social media apps which also help

boost online advertising revenue• At the dawn of this year, NewsWeek, the globally

reputed Weekly magazine closed print publication that spanned through all continents and went online only version.

Issues

• Many newspapers across the world are finding difficult to cope with the new environment as advertising revenue is nose-diving and they haven’t found better way yet to commoditize online sales

• Only place where print is flourishing is notably India and the whole subcontinent

• With the current acceleration in the penetration of internet and increased proliferation of smart phones, print media may not remain that profitable in SouthAsia and Nepal too.

Top Sites: Nepal

Top 10 News Sites in Nepal

1. Onlinekhabar.com (6)

2. ekantipur.com (8)

3. www.nagariknews.com (10)

4. www.thehimalayantimes.com (18)

5. www.myrepublica.com (21)

6. www.ujyaaloonline.com (31)

7. www.hamrakura.com (41)

8. www.goalnepal.com (43)

9. www.imagechannels.com (63)

An Introduction

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Blog, YouTube, LinkedIn,

Slideshare, Pinterest, Q&Q, Quora, Flickr etc.

Fundamentals of Social Media

• Many people as communicators

• Two-way communication

• Human Interaction combined with information sharing

• Opinionated information

• Peer recommendation

What does social media do?

• Medium of personal, group, organizational or mass communication

• They are doing everything that the mass media do: Information Surveillance entertainment and leisure-time activity Opinion-making/agenda-setting Mobilization (in political campaigns) Correlation Cultural transfer Advertisement

Traditional Media VS. Social Media

Statistics

Founded in 2004, People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.

Statistics:• 1 billion users on Oct 4, 2012• 90% of them use at least once a month• Approximately 80% of monthly active users are outside

the U.S. and Canada.• Available in more than 70 languages (Also in Nepali).

Source: http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=22

Facebook: Top 10 countries by visitors

Facebook in Nepal

• there are 1,890,820 Facebook users in the Nepal, which makes it #66 in the global ranking

Facebook Users in Nepal: Gender and Age group

And, is it decreasing?

UsingWhat's Twitter?• Twitter is an information network made up of 140-character

messages called Tweets. • It's an easy way to discover the latest news (“what’s

happening”) related to subjects people care about.How is it Useful?• Twitter contains information from users you choose to

follow will show up on your home page (Timeline) for you to read.

• It’s like being delivered a newspaper whose headlines you’ll always find interesting

• you can discover news as it’s happening, and get the inside scoop in real time.

Statistics

• Global Rank 12• It reached half a billion registered users in June,

2012 including more than 140 million in the U.S. alone.

• User-base growth is slowing in Japan and Korea, yet Japan remains one of the most active countries.

• In June 2012, the top three cities by number of tweets were Jakarta, Tokyo and London.

Global Twitter users:

Twitter in Nepal

• Twitter is the 12th most visited site in Nepal• Nepal has less than 0.6% of Total global users

(estimated 550 million now)• Estimated 100,000 Twitter users• Baburam Bhattarai is one of the most followed

Nepali twitter users with 25,000 followers• Twitter and facebook have become instrumental

in advancing many powerful social movements in Nepal too

Blogs in Nepal: Historical perspective• United We Blog (blog.com.np) is the first blog: Started

on 1 October 2004 as a diary of the founding bloggers who posted their personal experiences of journalism and reporting.

• After the then King Gyanendra imposed emergency in Nepal, UWB became the only source of independent news for the rest of the world.

• Mysansar.com is one of the first blogs in Nepal• Mysansar now covers many stories unreported by

mainstream media• www.everestuncensored.org is pioneering blogging

platform in Nepal which started in 2006

Current status of Blogging in Nepal

• Since then, many powerful bloggers have emerged and continue to act as watchdog of government as well as private sector and media’s wrongdoings

• Estimated 10,000 active bloggers in Nepal writing in different issues ranging from politics, technology, culture, travel and tourism,

• Almost half (46%) of the journalists surveyed by FNJ said they have blogs too.

Top Blogs1. www.mysansar.com is the Most visited blog in Nepal

(29 overall national rank)2. http://xnepali.net/ (67)3. ashesh.com.np (167)4. onlinekksha.com (168)5. dainiksangalo.blogspot.com (202)6. www.aakarpost.com (270)7. hotsangalo.blogspot.com (300)8. Chapagain.com.np (453)9. meroreport.net (495) • Individual rank not available for many blogspot, tumblr and

wordpress blogs

2012: Year of billions for Social Media• Facebook reaches 1 billion users• Gangnam Style is viewed by 1 billion on Youtube,

dethrones Justien Bieber’s Baby to second• Twitter

reaches half billion

• Signals very positive outlook for the future of social media

For Discussion, Q & A: www.twitter.com/indradhoj

www.facebook.com/indradhoj

Data: as of March 19, 2012Source: alexa.com, socialbakers.com