Media businesses must innovate to be more connected to audiences and respond to contemporary lifestyle needs of people in the current digital era if the sector is to remain sustainable, experts at an ongoing communication summit in Kigali have said.

The three-day seventh forum of the East African Communication Association (EACA), which opened in Kigali yesterday, is charting agenda under the theme, "Media business economics in the 21st century.”

With the growth of internet, traditional media like newspapers, radio, and television must reinvent their operations to remain relevant and sustainable in an environment where every person with access to internet is a potential publisher of news.

With over 100 delegates from East Africa and beyond attending the summit and 100 research papers lined up for presentation at the conference, every bit of information thought as critical to inspire strategy for adopting modern technologies in the media business is being shared.

Prof. Tawana Kupe, from South Africa, said media business analysts need to stop separating them from society if they are to understand their changes.

As an associate professor of media studies, Kupe, the vice principal and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, said media are simply connected to the rest of the society’s system.

Making the media business viable in the digital era, he said, requires continued engagement with society, essentially connecting better with target audiences and trying to always seek public subsidy where it is needed for media to survive.

"If media are market driven, they will not necessarily make a profit,” he said, explaining that today’s media work is increasingly shifting from being a mere public service to a business.

That means some media businesses will thrive as a result of economic environments in which they operate while others might fail as a result of market factors.

"We have to talk about the real challenges of society today when we talk about the economics of media business in the 21st century,” Kupe said.

Media still a big player

Officiating at the opening of the meeting, the chief executive of the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), Prof. Anastase Shyaka, reminded participants that the role of the media remains crucial in transforming society but urged sector stakeholders to keep innovating to make their work sustainable.

"There is need for innovation on the part of media practitioners for them to stay afloat,” Shyaka said, rooting for a vibrant and self-sustaining media sector.

He advised media practitioners to bear in mind the changing needs of the audience as they go about their daily work, emphasising that it is no longer business as usual since media content production and delivery have to suit the evolving needs and lifestyle of the 21st century consumer.

"The format and method of delivery of news ought to change in line with the changing tastes and lifestyle of media consumers,” Shyaka said, urging for coping up with the "irreversible” digital revolution.

Noting that digital media is the new frontier for the media business, Shyaka advised media businesses in the region and beyond to adapt to the changes by investing in quality and diverse content such as blogs, podcasts, and viral content delivered on multiple platforms.

Anette Novak, vice president of Fojo Media Institute Board of Directors and chief executive of Interactive Institute Swedish ICT, an experimental ICT and design research institute, said all the commotion created by social media in terms of message sharing should be used as an opportunity to professionalise media platforms to cement their role.

"Quality journalism is scarce and scarcity is always the most attractive and what you should be able to monetise,” she said.

The 7th edition of EACA’s annual conference aims to examine media and communication developments, challenges and models in the digital age especially in an increasingly market-oriented environment.

It is being hosted by the University of Rwanda’s School of Journalism and Communication in partnership with the Fojo Media Institute based at Linnaeus University in Sweden.

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