Caller ID, SMS spam blocking & Dialer
Mobile News consumption is undergoing two fundamental shifts across the globe. One is the rise in news audiences accessing journalism through their phones and mobile devices, the other, related to this trend, is the increase in people who read or watch news through social platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, WhatsApp, or Twitter. This report documents that these two trends are not national phenomena confined to the US or just a few markets. They are playing out all over the world.
What is perhaps most important about this development is the speed of the change, and the profound change it signals for journalism organisations. The existential question of a decade ago ‘who is a journalist?’ was born out of the access of the general populace to publishing tools. Now the question has been replaced by ‘who is a publisher?’ Protocols like Twitter and social platforms like Facebook are being joined by messaging services such as WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) and Snapchat. News organisations have realised that, in order to reach readers or viewers, particularly in younger demographics, they have to publish through these platforms.
As journalism becomes ever more dependent on these new distribution platforms to find audiences, news publishers are forced to examine their business models and strategies for the future. If a news company wishes to reach a large audience on the web it has little choice but to develop relationships with third-party platforms, but this puts revenue models and decisions over the ultimate shape of journalism even further into the hands of software companies.
One is the rise in news audiences accessing journalism through their phones and mobile devices, the other, related to this trend, is the increase in people who read or watch news through social platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, WhatsApp, or Twitter. This report documents that these two trends are not national phenomena confined to the US or just a few markets. They are playing out all over the world.
