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Remember that insanely funny Buzzfeed video that US President Barack Obama made to promote his healthcare plan? 👇
Now get this: the US administration made use of an emerging digital media publisher as its primary partner rather than traditional media to promote the government’s healthcare plan in 2015.
The reason?
It was eminent that digital media was the future and it provided the US government with an opportunity to reach out to the millions of American youth who were increasingly opting for platforms like Buzzfeed to stay informed rather than conventional print and electronic media.
What’s Your Point?
The point, put simply is that whether we like it or not print and electronic media represent sunset industries and an eventual switch to digital media is an inevitable reality.
Developed countries – like always – took heed of this situation much before the developing countries.
In most western countries, digital media is recognized as an industry and is being given equal access to government representatives and state-led events at par with traditional media organizations. At the same time, those countries have also given digital media publishers a share in government advertisements.
All these steps have been taken to ensure that once the world transitions completely towards the digital age, those countries and their digital media outlets would have the advantage of a head-start!
Dude, You’re Boring Me Now! How’s This Relevant to Pakistan?
With over 44 million Pakistanis already connected with the World Wide Web and an internet penetration rate of 22%, Pakistan is one of the fastest growing countries as far as cyber connectivity is concerned.
So, it only makes sense that in the last decade Pakistan has seen a steady increase in the number of digital publishers who are increasingly capturing the imagination of the millennial and linkster generations.
Given these facts, the next logical step that any government would take is to support the local digital media industry to grow and come at par with international players.
And is that Happening?
In March this year, a delegation of all the major digital media publishers in Pakistan met with various state representatives to ask the government to support this emerging industry in Pakistan.
What Did the Government Say?
Interestingly, the government was actually quite receptive and as a first step agreed to give access to digital media in Pakistan to state representatives.
A month down the lane, Dr. Arsalan Khalid, Prime Minister’s focal person for digital media, arranged the first of its kind exclusive Q&A session for digital media publishers with Finance Minister, Asad Umar.
But Pakistani Digital Publishers’ Direct Access to A Minister Has Not Gone Down Well With Mainstream Media
Some mainstream media channels, led by their loud band of anchorpersons came out all guns blazing against digital media.
Arshad Sharif for instance claimed that Asad Umar’s Q&A session was with PTI’s own social media team! 🤦♂️🤦♀️
However, liars like Arshad Sharif claimed that only PTI social media team was invited. Look at this video.. he is lying thru his teeth. Why? Because these guys are blackmailers, this is how they operate. Digital media is their kryptonite. pic.twitter.com/2b2iaYFPC9
— Waqas (@waqas_x) April 4, 2019
Then there was this gentleman who really doesn’t seem to know how digital media works but still insisted on making (an uninformed) comment!
Liar #2 claims that only 4000 people saw the video. That is an outrageous lie. Seriously, only from one page it got more than 100k views and reach of 255k. And that is one page, the press conf was broadcasted on many pages. Safe to say its more than the viewership of their shows pic.twitter.com/Y3n7Qsx3Dr
— Waqas (@waqas_x) April 4, 2019
The accumulated reach of the Q&A session has crossed 400,000 views so far and is growing with every hour!
Unlike traditional media, something that is once broadcast through digital media has an infinite re-play value. At the end of the session, a total of 250,000 people had seen the live stream. Less than two days after the session, the accumulated views had reached over 400,000!
This figure does not capture the scores of clips (from the digital media meet with Asad Umar) that were shared on various social media platforms.
Can Mainstream Media Please Not Indulge in an Us vs. Them Debate?
Digital media is the natural next step towards media’s own evolution. Seeing Pakistani digital media publishers as the enemy then makes no sense at all!
Read: #EconomicsForDummies: 5 Key Points From Asad Umar’s Mini Budget 2019 Simplified
It would be great for a change if traditional media took a step back from making pointless accusations (on a young digital media industry) and worked on its own journalistic ethic.
