WHICH JOURNALISM PRINCIPLES CAN BE
APPLIED TO DIGITAL MARKETING AND WHY?
Journalism has become part of most of today’s
digital media. It is infused and intertwined in social media, advertising,
bloggers, celebrities, law firms and businesses, digital marketing and
everything that requires exposure at a professional level. Journalism is not on
the verge of extinction all thanks to technology and different mediums. The way
we perceive journalism changes every time technology changes and that changes
occurs on a daily basis. Today’s journalists are digital marketers of tomorrow.
To make it the digital world it is all about
learning to communicate with others and familiarizing yourself with technology
and different media platforms with these elements as a journalist you can set
yourself up in the digital market and digital world all in all. “Journalism is
a form of communication and an exchange of information and opinion and it
changes shape in the way people communicate” – Luca Staccini Anzanello. The concept
of objectivity has played a critical role in in the domain of journalism;
journalistic objectivity is about fairness, factuality and the upholding of
truth.
Media objectivity has started to develop as a
reaction to all the opinionated and sensational and frequent reporting which
takes place in newspaper. Since the appearance and exposure of different social
media networks, television and internet access and digital revolution, anyone
with information could simply distribute information to the whole world within
a blink of an eye. It is that simple to connect and be exposed to information
around you. Although it is expected to be a guiding factor in journalism,
objectivity could still be affected by a number of factors such as medias
profits, personal values or bias and the battling rise of digital media
revolution.
As digital media expands it becomes
exceedingly harder for people to have access to newspapers. Brand journalism is
when marketers use digital publishing tools to speak directly to their audience’s.
A number of principles can be mentioned.
· Journalism first obligation
is truth
When people approach or go to the search bar
in the search engine, Google they are looking for information. Real and true
information. When people share things on social media they do this in order to
entertain or inform their follower’s or fan on different social media
platforms. As a journalist you should publish true fact’s and real information
and this will establish trust and a long term relationship between you and you
target audience.
·
Loyalty belongs to the
citizens.
Put the audience first, don’t lead with
features lead with benefits and give your audience the information they seek.
Change your style of writing and seek different approaches about they should
take well informed decisions. Give your readers the kind of help thy are
looking for and include factors that are not in your favour, This builds
credibility.
·
It must strive to make the
significant interesting but relevant.
Journalism is not about facts and figures,
it’s about making things interesting and appealing with storytelling. It is an
obligation to make it as interesting as possible. Journalist are charged with
producing interesting news piece and facts to attract a large amount of
audience as much as possible.
Find a way to make your headline and your
introduction interesting and wrap the facts into an interesting storyline which
could live your readers in awe and get their full undivided attention. It’s all
about emphasism and understanding your audience therefore ask yourself why
would I want to read this? And in content marketing it’s all about what would
the benefit be?
Most importantly find eye catching
information and facts that people are not familiar with, this is the true
essence of journalism. This way people will read your story in order to learn
something new and trending and this will lead to them accessing their social
mediums in order to share this new information with others.
Consistently monitor and check your growing
content library. Is too heavily weighted on one product or service area? Does
it consist of informational gaps? Are there areas that can benefit from
additional exposure? Can you tie your company stories with current industry trends?
If people, are thirsty for new content and yours is not interesting enough they
may drift over to your competitor’s website. Your content should be original
interesting and readers should want to return time and time again.
Remember keep your eye towards the future,
journalists have taken other jobs outside their field due to lack of defined
opportunities Journalism is based on building your own brand and having a
strategy on how to approach audience on social media by being factual,
realistic and timely. This is well incorporated by marketing principles and
public relations including key messaging and a well-defined goals .it is vital
and of utmost importance that your media channel is suited and customized to
suit your designated audience.
