Events have conspired to herald a watershed moment for new media. Last week there was real-time online coverage of disputed elections in Iran, Paris Hilton giving brands million-dollar marketing for free via Twitter during her trip to Dubai, and the White House streaming one of President Barack Obama's press conferences live on Facebook.
The old guard – CNN, the New York Times, the BBC – seemed pedestrian in comparison, waiting for directions from blogging and social networking sites on their coverage of the big stories over the past ten days.
CNN, for example, was heavily criticised for its snail-like response to the situation in Iran, appearing to ignore it for the first 24 hours of the newscycle until overwhelming interest online forced it to play catch up.
Breaking news, once dominated by familiar sources, is now more likely to come from the internet. And traditional media has been left trailing in their wake.
Even rumours of the death of Michael Jackson in the past 48 hours sent Google and Twitter crashing, such was the demand for information about the popstar's demise (see panel).
Tuesday's Obama conference allowed Facebook users to give instant feedback on his remarks about Iran, healthcare and other topics – the 'average Shmo' setting the agenda rather than editors and journalists.
Hundreds of Facebook members from around the world posted their comments on a messageboard next to a video of the news conference while it was being shown live.
Even His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has joined the social network revolution, with the launch of a Facebook page.
Indeed, the trend seems unstoppable, underlined by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which said in a report last week that digital and mobile advertising will make up 20 per cent of global spending by 2013 – up from 12 per cent in 2008.
The 'go to' resources for consumers are now just as likely to be YouTube, Twitter and Facebook as CNN or the BBC – users get far more control over how they consume information on these sites while they are restricted to how editors want them to see, hear or read news stories on traditional media. Thus the relationship between news-makers, news-gatherers and the public is broken, or at best blurred. What does this mean for companies and brands fighting to stay 'on message' amid the shifting sands of news gathering?
"The ever-changing online media landscape has thrown up both huge opportunities and threats to our clients," said Ray Eglington, MD – International at Four Communications in Dubai.
"Increasingly, they are not only looking to us for communications advice on content and messaging, but the growth of sites such as Twitter means they are also seeking counsel on the channel itself.
"A lack of understanding of how these new channels work can leave some brands and organisations open to reputational risk; years of positive brand building can be wiped out in minutes if companies don't play by the social media rules and observe appropriate etiquette."
Indeed, last week UK furniture retailer Habitat was criticised for promoting its new products in connection with the Iran elections.
Habitat reportedly added "hashtags" to its own tweets – keywords that help Twitter users locate posts on specific themes, such as 'Iran' – meaning people searching for information about the election came up with posts about Habitat's goods.
However, socialite Paris Hilton's recent arrival in Dubai offered new media marketing opportunities for several firms including carrier Emirates after the socialite posted pictures of her first class cabin on Twitter, free advertising estimated to be worth up to $3 million (Dh11m) to the airline. Emirates swiftly capitalised on the serendipitous coverage, running print ads in the UAE riffing off Hilton's tweet with the tongue in cheek tag line "Paris to Dubai in style" next to photos of the above-mentioned facilities on one of its A380s.
"First and foremost, clients have to understand that the word is out there for better or for worse, for everyone, anyone, around the world to see," said Andrew Bone, Regional Director – Middle East and Africa for PR major Hill and Knowlton in the UAE.
"The challenge is to accurately track who is saying what about your brand and where – on what platform - they are saying it. The next challenge is to listen intently and understand the sentiment of what people are saying and why they are saying it."
"Brands and businesses need to look at themselves, their systems, processes, products and service, and ask themselves how they can change what they do for the better," he said.
"Only after listening and understanding why people say what they do should clients start to engage and offer up gifts to the social media community. Social media communities are public conversations not monologues."
Micro-blogging site Twitter has become so popular that it is de rigueur for celebrities around the world to break news through its text-based posts, or 'tweets', of up to 140 characters. Top tweeters include Queen Rania of Jordan and Bollywood star Shahid Kapoor. Twitter has an estimated six million unique monthly visitors.
In its efforts to tap into new consumer behaviour, CNN has been pushing hard to capitalise on so-called citizen journalism. During the current Iran crisis CNN said it had received more than 3,866 'iReports' from viewers.
It subsequently vetted 131 of these for use on CNN television, or online – which is a double-edged sword in terms of replicating the success of sites like Twitter. While the vetting process removes control again from the audience, it can help sort the wheat from the chaff as a story unfolds.
Letting new media and users dictate the flow of information has its limits. At some point the tweets on Twitter or the messages on social networking sites become so numerous and confused that it is very difficult to sort fact from opinion or even fiction as was the case the longer the Iran elections story went on.
That is the stage in the cycle when journalists are once again critical cogs in the system – through reports, their own blogs, their sources and using editorial judgment they can sift through the deluge and make sense of the chaos.
And at the end of a news cycle, the familiar relationship between PRs and journalists can be exploited again. However, it will be those who are fast enough to react to the breaking news from unusual sources that will benefit most.
"What has made things more difficult is the fragmentation of online outlets, coupled with issues relating to containing stories within certain territories," says Eglington. "The internet has rendered this notion of geographical campaigns almost obsolete; a story can go around the world in a matter of minutes as recent events in Iran have illustrated."
Hill and Knowlton's Bone said future growth in social media networks will come from emerging markets, such as the Middle East and Africa region, where internet and mobile penetration remains relatively low.
"That presents a huge opportunity for clients, especially those that are prepared to listen, to open up, to be transparent, to engage in conversation and to offer something tangible to the communities," he said. "It also represents a huge risk for those clients who think that the world hasn't changed and take a 'it will never happen here' trench mentality."
The final verdict on the battle between new and old media, analysts say, is that a hybrid model will be the way forward – an uneasy truce to keep the peace rather than an outright victory for either side.
Jackson's death crashes websites
Facebook is the king of all social networks.
Within hours of the death of Michael Jackson being reported,millions of individuals' 'status updates' were lamenting the loss of the popstar.
Twitter, albeit relatively new? to the social network scene, was seen by users as vital to spreading to world of Jackson's premature death.
Trendrr, a web service that tracks activity on social media sites, said the number of Twitter posts containing 'Michael Jackson' totalled more than 100,000 per hour.
Millions who 'Googled' 'Michael Jackson' yesterday were greeted with an error page rather than a list of results. The page warned: "Your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application".
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