Yes we have a new Government.
Forget all that though. What have the past few weeks meant for the future of media in the UK?
Given the down with Brown barbed vitriole of yesterday’s print media front pages and the broad yet tepid ‘dawn of a new era but with a big pile of stench to deal with‘ headlines this morning, it looks like the press has had a nervy and uncomfortable time of covering the UK’s General Election.
As Peter Kirwan’s excellent article in Wired illustrates, even The Sun, the infamous swinger of the polling stations, has had to do a lot of soul searching over who it backs and how it does it (and how it does it plausibly). Gone, probably, are the days of the election being the ultimate muscular demonstration of the so-called power of the press.
There was, inevitably, much online chatter during the campaign about the role social media would play in determining the new Government, ranging from analysis of what was most Twittered during the keyboard frenzy of the televised leader debates to some frothy hype around quite how influential certain online influencers might be.
What does this mean for the media in the future? Well, I’m sure the national newspapers will do an internal post-mortem of their stance, their main headlines and their editorial/leader columns today. And whatever conclusions are reached, one thing is clear: the sway they have commanded over previous elections is diminishing.
New forms of media are gaining influence – that goes without saying. What conventional media needs, in my view, is not to go all-starry eyed over social media but realise that the expectation of many readers is now that there will be some kind of meaningful dialogue with them. In social media terms, the papers must join the conversation rather than trying to dictate it, albeit that it will always both form a view and needs to ensure that its editorial is respected.
Conventional media, as the election highlighted, needs to get to grips with online conversation. It’d be like a coalition with new media: maintaining its brand equity, editorial integrity and publisher priorities while at the same time engaging with readers directly.
Proper engagement too, rather than pictures of attractive teenage ‘readers’ giving their gushing views on a leader, or a few terse letters to the editor that may not have been generated externally.
