THE RISE OF
SOCIALTAINMENT MEDIA
Some of the growing socialtainment sites in Malaysia.
Source : marketingmagazine
By Rizal Zainal
Media platforms nowadays have evolved in line with the advancement of digital technology. The rise of socialtainment media has begun to dominate the news platform, especially among youngsters who are constantly updated with the development of news media.
Socialtainment media is an online brand or site that focus on creating an entertainment content for the audience. The contents could be a news, blog, videos and audio contents.
It is also a social networking websites that connect people through interactive media such as websites and social media in delivering news to the audience.
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The development and massive innovation of the technology nowadays has create a shift on how we approach it as the various media sites used are seen to be easier for readers to approach because they are easy to access and share with the public.
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Socialtainment media are currently rising in numbers and readers as it is evolving rapidly on the social platform and offers many benefits to the public, such as educating them in a more interesting way.
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It is truly a big impact towards the mainstream news media due to the rivalry brought for the readers because people would choose the best contents for their reading.
The journalists also now need to compete with the writers from the socialtainment media for the contents and readers.
Lobak Merah is active on all media platforms including YouTube.
Source - lobakmerah
Lobak Merah is one of the news platform media that has many followers on its official website as they produce a variety of content among the most trending current issues every day in Malaysia.
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It is very closely related to our society which is often attracted to viral issues and makes it the main reason it succeeds.
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Lobak Merah produces a variety content of current issues that are most popular every day and active on all media platforms including website page, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
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Compared to the mainstream news media such as Utusan Online, The Star and New Straits Times, Lobak Merah had their own style in delivering the news to the public as their writing style is more casual and open for all the readers to assume and judge by themselves.
The head of Malay content editor, Isa Zubir, 36, from Lobak Merah said, each platform has its own house style, the writing style of each platform is different to create their own identity.
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Lobak Merah is more relaxed, and the language used is proper to the current situation so that it is easier to understand. The use of English is allowed on headlines and news content, as long as the meaning reaches the reader.
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It educates the public differently since they do not have much barrier and restrictions in producing the news, the stories produced will consist of a different angle and point of view even if the news is the same as the others.
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“Malaysia has various news platforms to get updated with current news, on behalf of us, we do not only need to compete with the dumping of online portals out there, but we also need to make sure it can be a legitimate reference just like the mainstream media.
“Getting feedback or reactions from certain groups are quite difficult, as we are not an official news site like The Star, Berita Harian and many more as they have a greater network and permission.
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“The mainstream media, has the advantage of getting news directly from any locations and individuals, in contrast to platforms like us,” said Isa.
Journalism and content creator are often considered the same but actually they are not.
Source : doz.com
Based on the doz.com, a journalist is to educate the public about what is happening in the world. Their writing style tends to be more straightforward and concise compared to the content creator, which are totally different as they have their own specific audiences and interests.
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To produce an article or news that exceeds the standard, knowledge in journalism is very necessary so that the results are organized and easy for readers to understand.
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Otherwise, the reader will easily misinterpret the written news because it is inaccurate and incomplete.
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Compared to the official news site, Lobak Merah also has a writer with a background in journalism. So, it is not surprising if their way of writing articles and news is just as well as other official news websites.
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“Lobak Merah consists of seven writers who will produce articles every day, including weekends and some of them are experienced in the field of journalism, and some are even former writers on online platforms,” he added.
Referring to another well-known socialtainment media site, namely Ohbulan, Isa agreed that it is a good platform in producing news, especially about our entertainment industry, at least the reader has another side of context to accept.
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Although it is a new platform, in terms of convenience, it is very good at connecting readers with news through digital and social media platforms that are more relevant nowadays.
The existence of socialtainment media today is seen as something new and acceptable to the public, indirectly it benefits the reader as they have many news platforms to reach and make it easy for them to be constantly updated with the latest news.