Asia's Media Innovators Vol.2

ASIA’s MediA INNOVATORS VOL.2 BY STEPHEN QUINN AND KIM KIERANS Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Singapore Media Programme Asia Asia’s Media Innovators Vol.2 By Stephen Quinn and Kim Kierans Copyright © 2010 by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Singapore Publisher Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung 34 Bukit Pasoh Road Singapore 089848 Tel: +65 6603 6181 Fax: +65 6603 6180 Email: [email protected] www.kas.de/mediaasia All rights reserved Manuscript offers, review copies, exchange journals, and requests for subscription are to be sent to the publisher. The responsibility for facts, opinions and cross references to external sources in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his interpretation do not necessarily reflect the views of the policy of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Layout and Design Hotfusion 7 Kallang Place #04-02 Singapore 339153 www.hotfusion.com.sg Contents 7 | Foreword 11 | Chapter 1: The uncontested rise of social media in Asia 25 | Chapter 2: Asia’s mobile phone innovations 37 | Chapter 3: Citizen-aided news in the Philippines 49 | Chapter 4: Blogging as an alternative media in Vietnam 61 | Chapter 5: Singapore’s razor-sharp Internet television network 71 | Chapter 6: Twittering the news in Australia 83 | Chapter 7: Cambodia — a land of opportunity 97 | Chapter 8: Phuket website continues journalism’s noblest traditions 109 | Chapter 9: Digital innovations in Malaysia 121 | Chapter 10: A mobile phone future for India and China 135 | About the authors Foreword Commercial publishing companies, as well as non-profit organizations like the German Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), always appreciate if a publication is “sold out” within a short period of time. This happened to the first “Asia’s Media Innovators” by Stephen Quinn. The book, published in 2008 by the KAS Media Programme Asia, exhausted its first print run within a few months without any investment in expensive marketing or advertising. The book found its way to readers just by word-of-mouth communication, especially at our KAS media conferences and workshops all over Asia. The publication also inspired many journalists who attended the Master of Arts in Journalism programme of the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ) at Ateneo de Manila University. By chance, and to my very surprise, in 2009 I even met a German academic who enjoyed reading “Asia’s Media Innovators” on his flight from Manila to Phnom Penh. The terrific interest in the paperback and positive responses from various sides encouraged us to think about a new edition. However, it was clear from the beginning that an undertaking like this would mean much more than just switching on the printing press for a second run: innovations emerge frighteningly quickly in Asia. The time that elapsed since 2008 was an “eternity” for regional trends on the Asian media landscape. Therefore, I was more than happy to not only secure Stephen Quinn for a second edition of “Asia’s Media Innovators,” but for an outright revision of the first version as well. The major differences between the first and the second editions are their respective “angles”, or approach. For the first edition we tried to identify and describe the most important players, both established “old market” newspaper publishers and broadcasting services as well as newer enterprises, from South Korea in the Far East to India in South Asia. All were introducing innovative media products, creative content and new services to their own media markets. To a certain extent, the approach was a more “corporate” one. Instead, the second edition tries to analyse who, and what, is driving these players and their innovations. What makes them change their content and their ways of distribution? What are the future challenges of Asia’s media companies? With these questions in mind, Stephen this time has drawn a more “consumer- centric” picture of the latest developments in the Asian media landscape. With the invaluable support of Kim Kierans and with an intriguing case study written by Alastair Carthew about an “old-fashioned,” but still innovative, website in Phuket, Thailand, Stephen profoundly illustrates that the major force of development and the Asia’s Media Innovators Vol. 2.0 7 main “media innovators” in Asia are, yes: the readers, audiences, consumers and users themselves! Whereas expensive satellite, broadcast and printing technology until recently very much defined the way on how media content was presented and distributed, be it on paper or “on air”, today’s media outlets have to compete with sophisticated consumer electronics. A DVD-Player might not be considered a “media device” — yet, a smart phone or a tablet computer with Internet access surely is nothing but this. Accordingly, two of the chapters concentrate on the mobile phone sector as a source of innovation for the media in Asia. Media content is getting mobile with the latest “G3+” generation of handheld devices with audio-visual content expected to win the race. No wonder traditional newspaper publishers like Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) hustle into Internet- based TV services. When it comes to wireless and broadband access to the Internet, Singapore might be a few years ahead of most other Asian countries. SPH may be considered a true technological innovator, as Stephen describes in another chapter. For many young people in the more developed Asian countries, the Internet, both at home on their desktop computers, as well as mobile on their notebooks and smart phones, already dominates the daily supply and use of information. Although, on a much lower scale, even a country like Cambodia is catching up with remarkable speed as one chapter points out. The serious changes in consumer behaviour would be less of a challenge if the media companies in the region had to deal only with the new technological devices. Yet they must also have to cope with some very dominant new players, services and non-traditional forms of “journalism”. For Vietnam, Stephen and Kim describe Blogging as an “alternative media.” In Australia, which previously was not covered, but found a well-deserved chapter in this edition because of the countries’ strong impact on the Asia media landscape, Twitter became an important part of news gathering. Via computer and mobile phone microblogging allows so called “citizen journalists” to provide news and information even from remote areas where regular mainstream media correspondents often are something of a rarity. Stephen and Kim describe the growing importance of the “amateur journalist” towards the daily news business by using the Philippine media group ABS-CBN as an example. However, the most striking change within the last few years might be the uncontested rise of social networking. MySpace, Orkut, Kaixin, Facebook and Co are flourishing throughout Asia. The Philippines are considered “the social networking capital of the world”. According to a recent survey, 90 per cent of Malaysia’s youth are on Facebook. The news exchange and vibrant interaction on these social networking platforms strip the mainstream media of their traditional claim as the dominant “gatekeepers” of information. Newspapers and broadcasting services have to either engage with the tech-savvy social networking community or may lose readership and audience. Stephen therefore also highlights the future impact of the social networks on advertising revenue. 8 Asia’s Media Innovators Vol. 2.0 The drastic changes described in this edition of “Asia’s Media Innovators” are by no means a regional phenomenon. They can also be found in North and South America, Europe and elsewhere around the world. The “Asian twist” of the latest developments could be the extent of the changes, though. Stephen Quinn and Kim Kierans, as well as Alastair Carthew, profoundly illustrate how media in Asia cope with these challenges. The various examples may support media outlets and journalists in less developed and less digitalized Asian countries to diversify the distribution of content and to adjust their workflows accordingly; to engage readers and audiences through the new communication outlets, and, to finally prepare for what seems to be the unavoidable future of journalism and media. My sincere thanks go to the authors who not only analysed and described the latest developments in the region, but also carried “the spirit of innovation” throughout their work. I therefore hope you will enjoy reading the second edition of “Asia’s Media Innovators” as much as I did. Paul Linnarz Director Media Programme Asia Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Asia’s Media Innovators Vol. 2.0 9 Chapter 1 The uncontested rise of social media in Asia t is human to feel the need to connect with other people. Traditionally, Ipeople have formed tribes and societies, and gathered in towns and cities. Connection used to be mainly via face-to-face meetings. Now, digital technology makes it easier to connect, and those connections can be anywhere in the world via the Internet. In the past half decade, two of the biggest developments in terms of digital connections are social media and social networking. Social media describes the media that people create when they connect with each other and share content online. Millions of people around the world have made videos and taken still images with their digital cameras and mobile phones, and put them on the web. The best-known examples of social media are YouTube and Flickr. Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen launched YouTube in February 2005. YouTube’s first video was called “Me at the Zoo” and shows Jawed Karim at San Diego Zoo. That video was uploaded on 23 April 2005. In October 2006, Google bought YouTube for US$1.65 billion. Hurley currently serves as chief executive officer, and Chen as chief technology officer. In February 2008, the author interviewed the Google vice president, Douglas Merrill, in San Francisco.

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