By B.DULGUUN
Social media and digital journalism is advancing rapidly and progressively in Mongolia, leading some experts to evaluate this sector more in depth.
Many Mongolians, including prominent figures, have started to engage in social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, interacting with others on common interests.
Print publishing began in Mongolia over 100 years ago. Transmission of radio broadcasts began some ten years later, explained U.Ganbayar, a board member of the Website Association of Mongolia. Yet online journalism is a relatively new medium – first introduced in 1995, the internet has played a key role in the ongoing development of Mongolia’s media sector.
Television has long since held prime position as the main source of news and information in Mongolia. According to Mongolian Media Today, an annual report into the media sector produced by the Press Institute, the internet is increasingly becoming the main source of information for those in Ulaanbaatar. Last year 23.3 million newspapers were sold across the country – an estimated ten percent decline from the previous year.
Digital journalism is increasingly contributing to Mongolia’s social development. More and more Mongolians are using social media to freely express their opinions on various topics, share information and even blog. People are more attracted to salvaging their need for “on the spot” news about broad range of events happening all around the world through online journalism rather than comparatively slower news subscriptions.
The UB Post interviewed Lisa Gardner, a journalist and media trainer currently based in Ulaanbaatar, to comment on Mongolia’s journalism and social media. (Disclaimer: Ms. Gardner also trains our staff at the UB Post). She responded, “As social media continues to gather momentum here in Mongolia, we’re already beginning to see a growing decline in news subscriptions. This holds significant implications for the profitability of mainstream news outlets. What’s especially interesting about Mongolia’s media sector at this point in time is that, unlike in numerous other countries, we’ve yet to see a significant decline in the number of available news outlets.”
She mentioned that the number of news agencies in Mongolia has increased in the last five years to a whopping five hundred outlets, which is an astonishing figure, given that Mongolia’s population is so small. Gardner regards ‘free’ online news as unsustainable over the longer term. “As such, as the market shifts, if news agencies are to survive and flourish then they’ll need to aggressively consider ways of making news here in Mongolia a profitable endeavour. People are increasingly consuming news for free, online. We learn from examples elsewhere that to ignore social media and the internet, or to survive – as many still do – without a comprehensive digital strategy, will not delay this seismic and inevitable shift in how people consume news. This requires that newsrooms reassess how they both make and make money from news production. This makes room too, for a much-needed discussion as to the value of quality news-reporting [unbiased, transparent and ethical].”
In Gardner’s view, this also means that news organizations will need to change their attitudes about how they gather news. “For decades, Mongolia’s media was consumed as a kind of “one-way message” – the reporter produces news, the audience reads it, end of story,” she said. “Instead what we are now seeing is a highly engaged audience: one that wants to engage with news-makers, will pick up on news errors, and will argue the point with reporters and fellow readers alike. In that, we’ve moved from a kind of ‘directive-issued-from-above’ means of news production to a real dialogue, two-way discussion with local audiences. This is a significant shift, and one that requires some adjustment in prevailing attitudes, especially in traditional newsrooms.”
Mainstream Mongolian news outlets are increasingly taking stock of the advantages and pressures of online technology. Some publishing companies in Mongolia have begun developing online versions, which allow a glimpse of the publications on social media as well as online subscriptions for keeping up with the profit.
Gereg Magazine is one such example: a weekly published magazine that covers various unique topics. Gereg Managing Editor, J.Tegshjargal, explained how his team hopes for their magazine to survive and flourish in Mongolia’s competitive publishing market.
“Many new magazines started to publish since around a year ago. At the moment, it’s true that the market is shrinking. There is a different concept between reading magazines and reading newspaper. From my observation, people who read magazines are very few. We predict the people interested in magazines will increase in three to five years. Some magazines will last while others will not. We’re developing prospect plans to ensure our position among magazines that are still operations at that time. We have few subscribers but it doesn’t mean we have none,” he said.
Tegshjargal also outlined the magazine’s moves towards digital journalism. “We plan to develop applications for our magazine, but it’s not definite,” he said. “Our main objective is to not lose our original content. Many publications provide online versions as soon as it’s published. This itself is toxic for future paper publishing and the company. Contents on paper and magazine will not be the same to protect our readers and paper publishing operations,” he said.
In the digital age, who is a ‘journalist’?
As digital journalism develops in Mongolia, numerous press freedom issues arise. Both here and elsewhere, questions arise as to the nature of “blogging” versus “journalism”: who, in the online world, can be considered a “journalist”?
Just recently, Mongolia encountered its first imprisonment of a blogger under criminal defamation charges, the case of Ts.Bat, also known as Bat Engineer. Ts.Bat was sentenced to 100 days in a penitentiary for badmouthing a senior government minister on Twitter.
“In my view, the ruling in Bat’s case, albeit one that was later overturned, also raises significant concerns as to right to free expression here in Mongolia,” Gardner explained. “These are rights stipulated in both Mongolia’s Constitution and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Mongolia is a signatory.”
Tegshjargal expressed a contrary view, highlighting the controversy surrounding the now infamous case. “The court didn’t case this issue together with journalism. It was spread on Twitter that Twitter was judged as a tool of the media during the hearing but it’s false. It was outburst on Twitter so a lot of people interpreted this as (what Bat had) tweeted… Defamation isn’t connected to journalism.”
In the end, it’s interesting to know that more Mongolian news outlets are being produced and are fighting to preserve its traditional paper printing format despite the speedy development of digital journalism. Digital journalism will probably develop even further in Mongolia as more people access the internet for quick news feed. It may be fast and capable of informing anyone, anywhere with anything they want but it isn’t profitable. Publishing companies will have to crack their brain to find solutions to make it more profitable.