Cecile M. Genove

Media Convergence

One good thing that came about as a result of the recent national conference of the Philippine Association of Communication Educators was listening to and imbibing the insights of a stalwart in the field of communication education, Dr. Crispin Maslog, described by publisher Ninfa Leonardia in a recent column as “one of the most respected gurus of conventional journalism.”

In a lecture with the title, “New Media, Convergence, and Communication Education” delivered before teachers of mass communication, Dr. Maslog – who is also a proponent of peace journalism – talked about how a traditional reporter today can now be equipped to become a “one-man multimedia newsgathering agent.” Because of the prevailing new media technology, it makes reporters more mobile and able to work outside the newsroom – or better still, not leave the comforts of their home and file a story from where they currently are.

Today's latest buzzword, however, is the term convergence which, as Dr. Maslog had intimated, started only in 1999 via the Orlando Sentinel in Florida, USA, which was considered as a vanguard of the movement in media convergence.

To understand the term better in the context of mass media, Allan Richards of Florida International University described the paper's newsroom as a “futuristic multimedia center where print, broadcast, and on-line reporters worked side by side, under the same roof, frequently interchanging roles. The newspaper was still the heart of the operations, in terms of news gathering and supplying revenue for operations, but the Internet, cable television, and radio were being integrated into a 24-hour, 7-day, information delivery machine.”

Another major media organization, according to Dr. Maslog, that has embraced the concept of media convergence is the Nordjyske Stiftstidende, a leading newspaper in northern Jutland , Denmark . As quoted in the Nieman Reports, Winter 2006 issue, ever since the newspaper embarked on this concept five years ago, “the editorial teams that once only produced the regional newspaper now create content for a 24-hour cable television news channel, a news radio station, a free ‘commuter newspaper,' mobile phone alerts, and an active website – all in addition to the regularly daily print newspaper and a free commuter edition.”

Media convergence, however, is not yet as prevalent in Asia nor in the Philippines, observed Dr. Maslog. “In the Philippines , the closest thing to media convergence is the tie-up between the country's two media giants, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA Network, announced in July 2000, to establish an Internet news site called Inq7.net,” he shared.

According to Dennis Valdez, Inq7. net director, “At the time of the tie-up in

2000, www.inquirer.net or Inquirer Interactive, launched in October 1997, was already the single most popular Web site in the country. It had an average of seven million pageviews a month. But the Inquirer wanted to combine with GMA, one of the two largest broadcasting networks in the country, to take advantage of its award-winning news content and 60 nationwide radio stations, to create a growing pool of content for the news site.”

An alliance with GMA, according to Valdez , would give the Inquirer access to radio and video resources that “are key components to the company's vision of becoming the primary source of online news, information, and services for Filipinos.

What are the implications to journalism and the mass communication profession of this new trend toward media convergence, Dr. Maslog asked.

Definitely, media convergence is here to stay, he chimes in. The Florida International University School of Journalism and Mass Communication came up with some conclusions and recommendations in a seminar series it sponsored in 2001 involving communication professionals, industry leaders, and academicians on this topic.

Some of them are: a) In the converged world toward which we are heading, quality journalism, not technology, is most important; and, b) Content is king, not technology nor the ability to write for print and also to read and speak for TV and radio.

Insofar as the journalism/communication education is concerned, some of the recommendations are: a) For communication schools to teach journalism, more journalism, and better journalism; and, b) For journalism students, the following advice: “I would take all the courses I could in reporting, writing, editing, etc., and then I'd go outside the journalism school and go into some other department in the university and take in-depth, not one or two survey courses, but four, five, six, seven or eight courses in a single field to make myself an expert in that field because that is what I think we're going to need in the converged world ahead – expertise and authority.”

That certainly is not old-school or conventional journalism. It is the call of the times and all roads lead toward that trend.

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