IPOH, May 28 – As social media platforms fast become the primary sources of information and news for the younger generation, experts have called for traditional media to evolve and be creative to attract consumers’ attention.

Well-known broadcast personality, Suhaimi Sulaiman, said media organisations have to understand their viewers and incorporate the new technology to ensure that they will not be left out.

Sharing his experience at the Hawana 2023 media forum entitled ‘The Future of Media’ here today, the Radio Television Malaysia’s (RTM) director-general, said RTM had conducted a study on its viewers which, among others, showed that they wanted complete news that was short and straight to the point.

"So, we decided to come up with a 15-minute bulletin that will have 30 stories. We introduced a programme called Kanta 744, which was launched on March 15,”

he said, adding that RTM also utilised social media platforms like Twitter, TikTok and Facebook to disseminate its content as 62 per cent of its audience were youth.

He also stressed that there was great potential for media organisations to attract cross-border advertisement through social media platforms.

"There was a football match between Indonesia and Thailand in the SEA Games recently, and we got 10.3 million people watching RTM (TikTok live). The population of Malaysia is 33.5 million so it’s a third of the population and that’s super-duper good.

"When we checked again, they’re not from Malaysia, they’re from Indonesia... so what happens here is we already created an opportunity for ourselves to go cross-border, look at the monetisation opportunities here. TV has to evolve,” Suhaimi said.

Datuk Ahiruddin Attan, who was moderating the forum today, shared that new technology should not be seen as a crisis but media organisations should look for opportunities.

Instead of looking at 100,000 to 200,000 viewers or readership, the Malaysia’s National Press Club president, who is fondly known as Rocky Bru, said media organisations have access to millions of eyeballs in this digital age.

"The purpose of journalism is not defined by technology or digital era... rather, journalism is defined by how information and news empower the people who use it.

"So, in that context, I think journalism is not under threat, media companies, yes, profit and losses, yes. But for the profession itself, we are going to evolve into something bigger, something better,” Ahiruddin said.

Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse (AFP) Country Manager for Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, Alric Manickam noted that as one of the world’s oldest media agencies, AFP also went through the evolving process since its founding in 1835.

From a traditional wire service, AFP naturally progressed to photos, graphics, video and video graphics, and now digital media.

"We have bureaus in 151 countries and it’s interesting to see even the newsrooms are changing,” he said.

Alric said media organisations should reshift and rethink how news needed to be done, whether it’s long-form or short-form, and the writing style for the different platforms to appeal to the audience. — Bernama