The Impact Of Social Media On The Media Landscape

By Kenneth Lim on February 11, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the “new” media cycle. Today, the Fundamentals series continues with the “new” media landscape. The proliferation of social media has caused changes in the traditional media landscape. In this post, I’ll talk about what I think the impact has been and what the “new” media landscape looks like.

Over 20 years ago, the Berlin wall fell. This news was mostly followed on mainstream media, i.e. television, radio and print media. In 2001, when the 9/11 disaster took place, a lot of the news about the event was also followed through mainstream media but the effect of technology was already more visible as people were talking about it on emerging media such as bulletin boards, email and instant messaging. Moreover, part of the coverage was provided by consumers themselves through photos and videos shot on mobile phones. In 2009, the effect of technology and social media was more evident. One day after the death of Michael Jackson, search engines and social sites—such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs—were inundated with news, mentions and opinions as people were looking for information or looking to express their feelings.

Social media has made news travel faster, wider and in more diverse ways. The increased diversity with which people create and consume news has had its effect on mainstream media. Whereas print media and DVDs are in decline, social media is on the rise. Newspapers in particular have been hit hard. In the US, the total estimated revenue for 2009 had almost halved compared to 2005.

Nevertheless, the rise of social media should be considered a positive for media organizations. News interest has not changed, but the way news is consumed has. Fewer people dedicate a certain amount of time to sit down and read the newspaper, because the information is now part of the continuous information stream that also contains updates from work and friends. Social media has made news consumption an integral part of people’s daily lives.


This is the basis for the “new” media landscape. It’s not about the technology itself. It’s about the characteristics related to people’s behavior. I think these characteristics are:

  • Innovation With each cycle of innovation, barriers to entry are lowered and the number of possibilities has increased.
  • Convergence Consumers are moving into the territory of established content publishers and vice versa. In addition, content is being reproduced, remixed/mashed up or responded to.
  • Ubiquity Technology and the consumption of information has become an integrated part of people’s lives.
  • Relevance The new media landscape makes it possible for consumers to acquire or (re)create the content that is most relevant and thus valuable to them.
  • Global Network The new media landscape is interconnected on various relationship levels, ranging from intimate to mass-scale, from one-to-one to many-to-many and from local to global. Natural borders form little obstruction to the flow of information and people—media organizations and consumers—can control the extent of the flow.
  • Contemporary The speed and extent of technological advancement have been adopted by the current generation of young people. However, their skills, experience and level of media usage differs greatly from the previous generation(s). This trend is likely to continue with each generation becoming craftier and savvier.
  • Disparity The technological developments have created an environment that is not necessarily equal to all. Those who participate in it can develop knowledge, authority and power. On the other hand, those who do not have the knowledge, skills or resources to access the technology are left behind or, worse yet, rendered invisible.

It is up to media organizations to find their way into the consumer’s information stream, not the other way around. To achieve that, media organizations need to join the social media movement to be relevant again.

Your contributions are, as always, welcome.



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Kenneth Lim

Kenneth works at Sharktail and MeerBusiness. He doesn’t like writing about himself in the third person, but he does like to experiment. He also likes football (NFL), non-mainstream music, clever advertising, and exotic handbags. No, not exotic handbags. He meant exotic cars.