1

The Role Of Traditional Media And Social Media In The Developed World

THE ROLE OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA

IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD

Olha Orenchak

International Language Academy of Canada - ILAC

 2
The Role Of Traditional Media And Social Media In The Developed World
Every person in a society needs information and draws it from the media that is

commonly called “traditional media”. It consists of prints and broadcasts such as newspapers,

magazines, radio, TV etc. However, as Clay Shirkly rightly observes, the audience wants not

only to consume the information but also to create content and share it with like-minded

people (2010). Therefore, a new media called “social media” was formed. New media is

created on the principles of the traditional media such as sharing the same audience, similar

processes in gathering information and serving the same purpose. On the other hand, social

media and traditional media are distinct in structures, principles of communication and

possibilities.

First, concept by Johai Benkler about the opposition of “the industrial and network

information economies” (Benkler, 2006, p. 6) is applicable in explaining social ("network")

media in contrast with traditional (“industrial”) media. Therefore, this causes their structural

difference. The modern system of traditional media is divided into three information

channels: mass media, TV communication, and computer science. Thus the structure includes

radio, newspapers, advertising agencies etc.

In contrast, social media assumes the complex structure which was created relatively

recently. New research on modern media distinguishes three basic components in its

structure: digital format, interactivity and multimedia (Manovich, 2003, p. 13).

Consequently, it is possible to single out a great variety of examples: Websites as Facebook,

Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube; “civil journalism” or “informal journalism” (Gelavskaya,

2007) like collective or individual blogs, modern forums, and social communities. It is quite

obvious that such structure is defined by the principles of communication.

 3
The Role Of Traditional Media And Social Media In The Developed World
The purpose of the traditional media is to convey socially important information to the

public. On the other hand, social media is only a platform for communication between

people. As a result, traditional media puts the information in the first place rather than the

content. Whereas in the social media dominated by a community, the details of messages

goes into the background. The social media is able to collect an audience comparable to the

audience of the traditional media. According to Twitaholic, the audience of the top 10 most

popular Tweeter microblogging service accounts has in aggregate more than 43 million

followers (Twitaholic, 2010). However, this audience is not under anybody's control while

the traditional media controls and filters of somebody. It often imposes an opinion on the

audience thus controlling collective consciousness, meanwhile, social media assumes

equality relationships using a two-way interaction that involves equality.

Next, social media is more quick-responsive than traditional media. According to

Angela Hausman (2016), among the first differences, there is “real-time creation” and “pre-

produced/scheduled”. Hausman claims that traditional media such as advertising agencies,

“spend months preparing a campaign - crafting a message, shooting footage, editing images,

carefully planning our media spend” (Hausman, 2016, n/a). Also, the social media has a very

fast communication between users that implies quick responses and accessibility. This gives

an opportunity to compare these medias in their potential.

According to the previous statement, it can be noted that the creation of traditional

media is a long and thorough process. For example, to release a daily newspaper, company

needs to spend more time, human resources and money to make a profit No doubt it is not

free for consumers. At the same time, social media is easy to access, to manage and is free in
 4
The Role Of Traditional Media And Social Media In The Developed World
most cases. Given the massive use, commercial companies such as an online store, use

websites rather than traditional media thus making it more profitable.

The second aspect for comparing their potential is government control. Nowadays, this

is the most urgent problem for the new media. The traditional media is under absolute

control, because the means of production of the traditional media like a studio, editorial

offices are concentrated in the hands of the government or proprietors. In contrast to this, the

social media often uses leading anonymously, doesn't censor the information and doesn't bear

any responsibility for the quality and reliability of the information. Therefore, social media is

more independent from the advertiser, the owner or the editorial office.

In conclusion, the traditional and social media function at the same time on the modern

media space. They both perform the function of communicating with the mass audience.

They are specific social institutions that provide the collection, processing, dissemination,

and exchanging of information. In the same way, they perform these functions in different

ways. Although both of them have a common platform, they require a different structure,

fundamentally different principles of communication and, respectively, advantages and

limitations. Using new technologies, the traditional media has acquired new opportunities

and has transformed into the new media that became an environment that is open to everyone

which is the main distinguishing feature between the traditional and social media.
 5
The Role Of Traditional Media And Social Media In The Developed World

Reference list

1. Benkler, Yochai. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms

Markets and Freedom. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2006.

2. Gelavskaya, Irena. Informal media. The media education: from theory to practice.

Tomsk, 2007. Retrieved from http:www.4cs.ru/materials/wp-id_396/

3. Hausman, Angela. 16 differences between traditional media and social Networking.

Content published originally on a Website MKT Maven

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/16-differences-between-social-

media-and-traditional-media-

4. Manovich, Lev. New media from Borges to HTML. The new media reader.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003. – p. 13-25.

5. Nielsen, Jeikob. Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute /

Alertbox: Current Issues in Web Usability, 09.10.2006. Retrieved from

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html.

6. Shirkly, Clay. Cognitive surplus: Creativity and generosity in a connected age. New

York: The Penguin Press, 2010.

7. Twitaholic: The Top Twitter User Rankings and Stats. Retrieved from

http://twitaholic.com.