Online News

The BBC were coming under a lot of criticism today in our seminar because of the effect they are having on the online news industry. Some argue that they are a broadcast medium and they should stick to that. I don't agree, since the web is a platform for multimedia and can serve online videos  and audio the same benefits of immediacy, convenience and consumer selectivity about what we choose to consume, that it offers to print media.

The issue of fairness is a valid point though. How can other news outlets compete with the BBC, given that it is publicly funded? Various experiments have been underway to try and make online news generate revenue.

Online advertising is one way - an area that has seen phenomenal growth in recent years at the expense of other mediums (like newspapers). As we discussed however, newspapers do not dominate the web and the lion share (60%) of online ad spend is taken by Google. As of yet online is yet to make up for the loss of earnings from print.

Rupert Murdoch has created a pay wall for the Times - an experiment which has performed badly according to his latest figures released in the week. So what is the answer and will other organizations ever be able to compete with the BBC? If not, will it lead to the death of big news corporations as we know it?

Dr An suggested that maybe in the future we may see a time when you are charged by your ISP to your internet bill for visiting certain sites, or you may get subscriptions to certain online services (such as news) as part of your monthly deal.

Whatever the future holds, it's fairly safe to assume that no one has the answer at this point. As was stated in our readings, we are living though a technological revolution at the moment and with that brings a great deal of uncertainty.