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ALTERNATIVE AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA IN ARMENIA
Samvel Martirosyan
http://noravank.am/eng/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=5183
02.12.2010
Global tendency of alternative and traditional media merging Current
development of the Internet brought on the one hand to competition
between the alternative and traditional media and on the other hand to
supplementing each other. Global experience of the recent years came
to prove that the so-called civil journalism (which includes bloggers,
the users of the social networks and other similar civil resources)
in some situations appears to be more efficient than the traditional
media1. Moreover, for traditional media social networks become an
essential source of readers who pass by the links from other users
of the networks.
In cases when on-line information on the spot is needed bloggers and
the users of the social networks turn out to be more efficient than
traditional media. The civil journalism is also more effective in
places where the activity of the media is restricted for some reason
or other. Thus, for example, over the period of confrontation between
the authorities and opposition in Iran in 2009, the main sources of
information from the streets where the encounters were taking place
were the bloggers with their mobile phones2.
Such a development of communications brings to the integration of all
the big traditional media with the sources of alternative journalism.
It is mainly reflected in some elements:
Mass media use the environment of the alternative journalism as a
source of information For this purpose the specialists who have
skills of obtaining efficient and, which is important, reliable
information from the blogs and social networks are involved Mass
media open their blogs and boost blogging by their journalists Mass
media tend to increase their presence in social networks and blogs,
to become newsmakers in this information environment, to become
reliable sources of information.
Armenian traditional media at the crossroads The same processes are
taking place in the Armenian information field but with some time
lag. Armenian media today actively try to integrate with the social
networks and blogs. Almost the entire traditional press now works
in the social networks in order to attain renown among the users of
Facebook, Odnoklassniki.ru and etc.
For the Armenian media, especially printed press, social media become
the only possibility to keep afloat. Taking into consideration the fact
that most of the newspapers have a circulation from several hundred to
several thousand copies, one may forecast that under such a tendency
the printed press of the social and political orientation will be
disappearing from the information field due to their uselessness and
expensiveness (which does not correlate well enough with the scanty
coverage of the audience and a weak impact on the society).
At the same time possibility to go on-line and then become a source
of information is an opportunity for the Armenian mass media to
â~@~\rebornâ~@~].
At present moment many Armenian newspapers have almost equal share of
audience in on-line and printed versions3. Taking into consideration
the fact that the on-line version of newspaper is much cheaper and
the potential readership on the Internet is much broader, transitions
of their activity to the Internet becomes more and more topical for
the traditional mass media.
Armenia in social networks The Armenia Internet is now in the phase
of bursting growth.
Competition between mobile operators and internet connection providers
caused an abrupt reduction of prices in the sector. In this regard
the number of the Internet users is growing much faster than in 2008.
Correspondingly, the growth of the number of the social networksâ~@~Y
users is also growing.
If we consider the situation with traffic of the Armenian information
portals as compared with the traffic of the social networks and
blogs the situations is quite an interesting. All the Armenian news
resources registered on Circle.am rating system4 (these are almost
all the main actors â~@~S about 150 sites) have about 170 thousand
visitors per day5. And only 43% of visitors are from Armenia.
Thus, according to the data of Ditord.com there are 450 thousand
registered users of Odnoklassniki.ru social network in Armenia6.
Odnoklassniki still remains the most popular social network in
Armenia. There are about 200 thousand users from Armenia registered
in VKonakte,Ru7.
At the same time the most actively developing network in Armenia
today is Facebook â~@~S the biggest global social network. Here the
number of the users from Armenia is about 80 thousand. And the growth
of the number of the users is approximately 10-15% per month.
If in the quantitative aspect Facebook still drops behind Odnoklassniki
seriously, in the aspect of activity quite an opposite situation
can be observed, According to the data of alexa.com, which carries
out monitoring of the Internet users all over the world, at the end
of August Facebook outstripped Odnoklassniki in the aspect of the
generated traffic in Armenia (according to the statistics Facebook
takes second place after Google, and Odnoklassniki is on the third
place)8.
Facebook has turned into a tool of the civil activity for the socially
active part of the population. Such civil initiatives as the movement
against the demolition of the open-air hall of â~@~\Moscowâ~@~]
cinema and the movement against opening of the foreign language
schools were initiated through Facebook and blogosphere. The group
which struggles against destruction of green zones in Yerevan also
coordinates its activity through Facebook. Those groups are numerous
and they are a source of serious civil activity which opinion is taken
into consideration by both government and political powers in Armenia:
SAVE Cinema Moscow Open-Air Hall â~@~S 6600 registered members9
Õ~DÕ¥Õ~[Õ¶Ö~D Õ¥Õ¶Ö~D Õ¡ÕµÕ½ Ö~DÕ¡Õ²Õ¡Ö~DÕ« Õ¿Õ¥Ö~@Õ¨ (We are the
masters of our city) â~@~S 3670 registered members10 Õ~DÕ¥Õ¶Ö~D
Õ¤Õ¥Õ~[Õ´ Õ¥Õ¶Ö~D Ö~EÕ¿Õ¡Ö~@Õ¡Õ¬Õ¥Õ¦Õ¸Ö~B Õ¤ÕºÖ~@Õ¸Ö~AÕ¶Õ¥Ö~@Õ«
Õ¾Õ¥Ö~@Õ¡Õ¢Õ¡Ö~AÕ´Õ¡Õ¶Õ¨ (We are against re-opening of foreign language
schools in Armenia) â~@~S 3250 registered members11 To compare, the
audience of such groups can be compared with the Armenian audience
of main Armenian on-line news resources.
Correspondingly, informational value of such groups on definite issues
sometimes becomes qualitatively higher than the one of the traditional
mass media. At the same time it becomes important for the press to
be presented in such groups as a source of information which allows
increasing audience.
1See: «УÐ~RÐ~UÐ~[Ð~XЧÐ~UÐ~]Ð~XÐ~U Ð Ð~^Ð~[Ð~X
СÐ~^ЦÐ~XÐ~PÐ~[ЬÐ~]ЫХ СÐ~UТÐ~UÐ~Y
Ð~R Ð~XÐ~]ФÐ~^Ð Ð~\Ð~PЦÐ~XÐ~^Ð~]Ð~]Ð~^Ð~\
Ð~_Ð~^Ð~[Ð~U», Самвел Ð~\аÑ~@Ñ~BиÑ~@оÑ~AÑ~Oн,
http://noravank.am/rus/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=4623
2See: «Ð~XÐ Ð~PÐ~] â~@~S Ð~XСÐ~_Ð~^Ð~[ЬÐ~WÐ~^Ð~RÐ~PÐ~]Ð~XÐ~U
Ð~PÐ~[ЬТÐ~UÐ Ð~]Ð~PТÐ~XÐ~RÐ~]ЫХ
Ð~ZÐ~^Ð~\Ð~\УÐ~]Ð~XÐ~ZÐ~PЦÐ~XÐ~Y»,
Самвел Ð~\аÑ~@Ñ~BиÑ~@оÑ~AÑ~Oн,
http://noravank.am/rus/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=2524
3See: Ð~_оÑ~AеÑ~IаемоÑ~AÑ~BÑ~L
оÑ~AновнÑ~KÑ~E аÑ~@мÑ~OнÑ~AкиÑ~E СÐ~\Ð~X
в Ñ~@ейÑ~Bинговой Ñ~AиÑ~AÑ~Bеме Circle -
http://www.circle.am/?cat=news&for=today&by=visits
4http://www.circle.am/?go=catinfo&cat=news
5Visiting of the site by the same user in 30 minutes is considered
as a new visit.
6http://ditord.com/2010/08/31/facebook-overtakes-odnoklassniki-as-armenias-top-social-network
7http://vkontakte.ru/ads.php?act=union_create_ad
8http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/AM
9http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=343138923439
10http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119537174725392
11http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112426852127161
"Globus National Security", issue 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another materials of author
CYBER TROOPS: NECESSITY DICTATED BY TIME [06.09.2010] SUPERFLUIDITY
OF INFORMATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS[01.06.2010] INCREASING OF THE ROLE
OF THE SOCIAL NETWORKS ON THE MEDIA FIELD[19.04.2010] PROPAGANDA
MACHINERY OF AZERBAIJAN: NEW TENDENCIES [08.02.2010] INFORMATIONAL
CONTEXT OF THE POSSIBLE OPENING OF THE TURKSIH BORDER[21.12.2009]
From: A. Papazian
Samvel Martirosyan
http://noravank.am/eng/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=5183
02.12.2010
Global tendency of alternative and traditional media merging Current
development of the Internet brought on the one hand to competition
between the alternative and traditional media and on the other hand to
supplementing each other. Global experience of the recent years came
to prove that the so-called civil journalism (which includes bloggers,
the users of the social networks and other similar civil resources)
in some situations appears to be more efficient than the traditional
media1. Moreover, for traditional media social networks become an
essential source of readers who pass by the links from other users
of the networks.
In cases when on-line information on the spot is needed bloggers and
the users of the social networks turn out to be more efficient than
traditional media. The civil journalism is also more effective in
places where the activity of the media is restricted for some reason
or other. Thus, for example, over the period of confrontation between
the authorities and opposition in Iran in 2009, the main sources of
information from the streets where the encounters were taking place
were the bloggers with their mobile phones2.
Such a development of communications brings to the integration of all
the big traditional media with the sources of alternative journalism.
It is mainly reflected in some elements:
Mass media use the environment of the alternative journalism as a
source of information For this purpose the specialists who have
skills of obtaining efficient and, which is important, reliable
information from the blogs and social networks are involved Mass
media open their blogs and boost blogging by their journalists Mass
media tend to increase their presence in social networks and blogs,
to become newsmakers in this information environment, to become
reliable sources of information.
Armenian traditional media at the crossroads The same processes are
taking place in the Armenian information field but with some time
lag. Armenian media today actively try to integrate with the social
networks and blogs. Almost the entire traditional press now works
in the social networks in order to attain renown among the users of
Facebook, Odnoklassniki.ru and etc.
For the Armenian media, especially printed press, social media become
the only possibility to keep afloat. Taking into consideration the fact
that most of the newspapers have a circulation from several hundred to
several thousand copies, one may forecast that under such a tendency
the printed press of the social and political orientation will be
disappearing from the information field due to their uselessness and
expensiveness (which does not correlate well enough with the scanty
coverage of the audience and a weak impact on the society).
At the same time possibility to go on-line and then become a source
of information is an opportunity for the Armenian mass media to
â~@~\rebornâ~@~].
At present moment many Armenian newspapers have almost equal share of
audience in on-line and printed versions3. Taking into consideration
the fact that the on-line version of newspaper is much cheaper and
the potential readership on the Internet is much broader, transitions
of their activity to the Internet becomes more and more topical for
the traditional mass media.
Armenia in social networks The Armenia Internet is now in the phase
of bursting growth.
Competition between mobile operators and internet connection providers
caused an abrupt reduction of prices in the sector. In this regard
the number of the Internet users is growing much faster than in 2008.
Correspondingly, the growth of the number of the social networksâ~@~Y
users is also growing.
If we consider the situation with traffic of the Armenian information
portals as compared with the traffic of the social networks and
blogs the situations is quite an interesting. All the Armenian news
resources registered on Circle.am rating system4 (these are almost
all the main actors â~@~S about 150 sites) have about 170 thousand
visitors per day5. And only 43% of visitors are from Armenia.
Thus, according to the data of Ditord.com there are 450 thousand
registered users of Odnoklassniki.ru social network in Armenia6.
Odnoklassniki still remains the most popular social network in
Armenia. There are about 200 thousand users from Armenia registered
in VKonakte,Ru7.
At the same time the most actively developing network in Armenia
today is Facebook â~@~S the biggest global social network. Here the
number of the users from Armenia is about 80 thousand. And the growth
of the number of the users is approximately 10-15% per month.
If in the quantitative aspect Facebook still drops behind Odnoklassniki
seriously, in the aspect of activity quite an opposite situation
can be observed, According to the data of alexa.com, which carries
out monitoring of the Internet users all over the world, at the end
of August Facebook outstripped Odnoklassniki in the aspect of the
generated traffic in Armenia (according to the statistics Facebook
takes second place after Google, and Odnoklassniki is on the third
place)8.
Facebook has turned into a tool of the civil activity for the socially
active part of the population. Such civil initiatives as the movement
against the demolition of the open-air hall of â~@~\Moscowâ~@~]
cinema and the movement against opening of the foreign language
schools were initiated through Facebook and blogosphere. The group
which struggles against destruction of green zones in Yerevan also
coordinates its activity through Facebook. Those groups are numerous
and they are a source of serious civil activity which opinion is taken
into consideration by both government and political powers in Armenia:
SAVE Cinema Moscow Open-Air Hall â~@~S 6600 registered members9
Õ~DÕ¥Õ~[Õ¶Ö~D Õ¥Õ¶Ö~D Õ¡ÕµÕ½ Ö~DÕ¡Õ²Õ¡Ö~DÕ« Õ¿Õ¥Ö~@Õ¨ (We are the
masters of our city) â~@~S 3670 registered members10 Õ~DÕ¥Õ¶Ö~D
Õ¤Õ¥Õ~[Õ´ Õ¥Õ¶Ö~D Ö~EÕ¿Õ¡Ö~@Õ¡Õ¬Õ¥Õ¦Õ¸Ö~B Õ¤ÕºÖ~@Õ¸Ö~AÕ¶Õ¥Ö~@Õ«
Õ¾Õ¥Ö~@Õ¡Õ¢Õ¡Ö~AÕ´Õ¡Õ¶Õ¨ (We are against re-opening of foreign language
schools in Armenia) â~@~S 3250 registered members11 To compare, the
audience of such groups can be compared with the Armenian audience
of main Armenian on-line news resources.
Correspondingly, informational value of such groups on definite issues
sometimes becomes qualitatively higher than the one of the traditional
mass media. At the same time it becomes important for the press to
be presented in such groups as a source of information which allows
increasing audience.
1See: «УÐ~RÐ~UÐ~[Ð~XЧÐ~UÐ~]Ð~XÐ~U Ð Ð~^Ð~[Ð~X
СÐ~^ЦÐ~XÐ~PÐ~[ЬÐ~]ЫХ СÐ~UТÐ~UÐ~Y
Ð~R Ð~XÐ~]ФÐ~^Ð Ð~\Ð~PЦÐ~XÐ~^Ð~]Ð~]Ð~^Ð~\
Ð~_Ð~^Ð~[Ð~U», Самвел Ð~\аÑ~@Ñ~BиÑ~@оÑ~AÑ~Oн,
http://noravank.am/rus/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=4623
2See: «Ð~XÐ Ð~PÐ~] â~@~S Ð~XСÐ~_Ð~^Ð~[ЬÐ~WÐ~^Ð~RÐ~PÐ~]Ð~XÐ~U
Ð~PÐ~[ЬТÐ~UÐ Ð~]Ð~PТÐ~XÐ~RÐ~]ЫХ
Ð~ZÐ~^Ð~\Ð~\УÐ~]Ð~XÐ~ZÐ~PЦÐ~XÐ~Y»,
Самвел Ð~\аÑ~@Ñ~BиÑ~@оÑ~AÑ~Oн,
http://noravank.am/rus/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=2524
3See: Ð~_оÑ~AеÑ~IаемоÑ~AÑ~BÑ~L
оÑ~AновнÑ~KÑ~E аÑ~@мÑ~OнÑ~AкиÑ~E СÐ~\Ð~X
в Ñ~@ейÑ~Bинговой Ñ~AиÑ~AÑ~Bеме Circle -
http://www.circle.am/?cat=news&for=today&by=visits
4http://www.circle.am/?go=catinfo&cat=news
5Visiting of the site by the same user in 30 minutes is considered
as a new visit.
6http://ditord.com/2010/08/31/facebook-overtakes-odnoklassniki-as-armenias-top-social-network
7http://vkontakte.ru/ads.php?act=union_create_ad
8http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/AM
9http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=343138923439
10http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119537174725392
11http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112426852127161
"Globus National Security", issue 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another materials of author
CYBER TROOPS: NECESSITY DICTATED BY TIME [06.09.2010] SUPERFLUIDITY
OF INFORMATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS[01.06.2010] INCREASING OF THE ROLE
OF THE SOCIAL NETWORKS ON THE MEDIA FIELD[19.04.2010] PROPAGANDA
MACHINERY OF AZERBAIJAN: NEW TENDENCIES [08.02.2010] INFORMATIONAL
CONTEXT OF THE POSSIBLE OPENING OF THE TURKSIH BORDER[21.12.2009]
From: A. Papazian