Fast forward into the golden - digital - age of journalism

On Saturday evening I found myself checking in on swimming star Ryk Neethling's tweets (and pictures) of Charlene Wittstock's glam wedding to Prince Albert regularly.

fresh-faced exuberant insider's view

There wasn't any hot gossip but then Neethling would hardly have made the wedding invite list were he not to be trusted. However, his tweets were a fresh-faced exuberant insider's view of the event, capturing his amazement that he was at such a red-carpet Riviera affair and his wonder at all the little South African details that the royal couple injected into the event.

"Die Bloemfontein tafel by die reception! Kan jy dit glo!" he tweeted with a pic of a table emblazoned with "Bloemfontein" in front of a sleek balcony overlooking the Med. We learned that "SA Swimmers closed the dance floor w Shakira's Waka Waka" and that "Ek is nie n groot danser nie, maar ek het seker gemaak dat ek een liedjie met Charlene langarm dans".

How utterly delightful and this is the power of social media - that it offers penetrating vignettes by insiders, information that journalists could never have access to, especially considering how stage-managed big events such as these are today.

Does it spell the end of journalism? I think not (unless Jo-Ann Strauss's career as a TV presenter flourishes).

This was a unique event and journalists - the intelligent ones, anyway - can provide analysis and expert knowledge so, for instance, when there is a big ANC meet on such as the recent Youth League conference, tweets from smart hacks such as Business Day's political editor, Sam Mkokeli, covering the event are incredibly interesting - especially when you have others in the Twitterverse such as Business Day editor Peter Bruce and former journalist and government spokesman Ranjeni Munusamy diving in with their takes on what's happening.

Panel discussion

It's the TV panel discussion transferred to your phone (or iPad or laptop) but in a more natural, random form.

These days, I'm checking in on Twitter (through my phone) as much as Facebook - about five or six times a day.

Mostly, I'm using Twitter to pick up interesting stories that the people I follow recommend because that's the thing about social media: you follow certain people because you trust their judgment. And this is what is changing the way we consume media.

A printed product is a static environment - so finite and tailored to its target market. But in this mixed-up globalised world, I don't believe we think like a market-research experts expect we do anymore.

Our world and our tastes are so eclectic

Our world and our tastes are so eclectic. I'm as interested in the crazy Greek economy or The Wall Street Journal's war with The New York Times as I am in what's COSATU's playing at within the ANC alliance. I love the New York indie band Vampire Weekend that a friend of mine found on a dodgy Russian music website and I'm mad about the Icelandic whodunnit novelist Arnaldur Indridason I stumbled across on my Kindle.

Come to think of it, I've stepped out of the printed world altogether. I read books on my Kindle and don't buy magazines unless I'm on holiday as very few South African magazines appeal to me anymore. Even though I get four newspapers delivered to my home - The Times, Sunday Times, Cape Times and Cape Argus - I seldom read them and get almost all my news online or through my phone.

It's a time thing, really. Life is so busy for everyone today that doing a quick surf in the morning, checking out email news headlines from various sources through the day such as from The Huffington Post and the Daily Maverick - or on the radio as you drive - is more than enough.

To me, news is something I dip into throughout the day - not for a leisurely hour over breakfast with the newspaper. Not even on a Sunday, I'm afraid.

How did this all happen so fast?

How did this all happen so fast when, a year ago, I thought print would always have a special place in my heart? I think we're so used to change that we adapt faster and easier.

The astonishing about the change in my media-consumption habits is that I'm close to 40 - which means many more middle-aged people are doing the same; it's not just the young 'uns. And I don't even own my own tablet yet. Add that nifty piece of technology to the mix and it will take me even further away from print.

The conundrum for traditional media houses in this new world is to make the leap into digital with users like me when their cost structures are so high because of their print products, where the printing, paper and distribution are very expensive.

Do you abandon print - and a core of older readers with them - and just go digital? That would be bold but also severe - a complete reconfiguration of one's business like that would involve massive retrenchments and would be hugely risky if the digital products didn't gain traction fast.

The online start-ups such as the Daily Maverick, not hampered by traditional cost structures, are in a better position to win in this new world but, like small outfits everywhere, they don't have the financial resources to fall back on in the lean times.

So many exciting things on the go

But that's for the publishers and CEOs to worry about. For both journalists and users alike, there are so many exciting things on the go the moment - in how media is being delivered and how it is being consumed, so much thought going into how content is packaged and how stories are told, so many possibilities. This is - in the words of online guru Clay Shirky - a "golden age of journalism except for the money".

For more:

• The Atlantic: Learning to Love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media, April 2011
  
• Bizcommunity: First Brkic's iMaverick, now Media24 to launch new news magazine, June 2011
  
• Twitaholic.com: Top 100 Twitterholics based on followers in South Africa

See also:

• Bizcommunity: There's still a place for print

See Also list added at 2.43pm on 6 July 2011.