PRINT journalism is here to stay even in the digital age, as long as it does not insist on being the “bringer of news.”
If newspapers don’t surrender that role to social media, they will eventually fold up, said Arturo Samaniego, Jr., Manila Bulletin tech news editor, during the Manila Bulletin Campus Journalism forum last Feb. 6 at the Civil Law auditorium.
Newspapers must instead develop their own stories, come up with in-depth analysis and good opinion columns, and remain true to the basic tenets of journalism, he added.
Using social media will not only ensure media outfits’ survival, it can also increase readership.
“Traditional media has no conflict with new media,” Samaniego said, junking “experts’ prediction” of the death of print and television. “The relation would be more like software update or your house being improved as the need arises.”
Nathaniel Barretto, Manila Bulletin desk editor, said traditional media should adapt to technological changes because in a few years, there will be no more boundaries between the different media platforms.
He assured campus journalists that college papers will not die, but encouraged them to produce interesting content to appeal to non-readers.
“Choose what you read. If you read trash, then don’t expect yourself to write a masterpiece,” Barretto said during the forum, which was attended by journalism students and staffers and advisers of college-based publications.
Other speakers were Miguel Jaime Ongpin and Barbie Atienza, night editor and external affairs head of the Manila Bulletin, respectively. Daphne J. Magturo
