Turn threats into opportunities

As a broadcast journalist, I regard the TV as a powerful and effective medium to communicate with our audience. Without doubt, TV broadcast is fast, instant, immediate and visual. Because of the technology involved in TV broadcast, millions of views can receive breaking news of important events live on their TV screens in the comfort of their homes.

Major and significant events like national elections, wars, disasters and etc are broadcast on the spot, thereby, bringing the audience into a direct experience of the situation. The visual impact of the scenes often evokes emotions and a personal response or reaction to the situation. Audiences are sometime encouraged to participate and comment by providing their feedback through email, SMS or phone.

In contrast, broadcast TV is constrained by time. News which is scheduled fast and fleeting, viewers need to concentrate and focus in order to grasp the information, which is lost, unless it is recorded. Time limitation also restricts the full coverage and an in-depth analysis of the events. Audience must be available and able to tune in at the appropriate time to watch the news or events which are not repeated.

To overcome the weaknesses of TV broadcast, TV station could upload the scheduled newscast into video clip on the internet. This will allow the audience who missed the programs to view them later at their leisure.

To facilitate a better and more in-depth news reporting, TV network websites can also produce a textual format of news with images which can be read and printed out by the viewers at their convenience.

Currently, there are no local TV stations which have utilized multimedia forms on the internet to reach a wider audience. Compared with print and online media in Malaysia, TV stations will lose out to them, if they fail or are slow to use different platforms, such as print and online media, to reach a larger audience.

TV networks that are at this cross road can turn the situation into viable opportunities –just by practicing convergent journalism.