Opinion leaders remain the leading media

In the course of the digital transformation of media, forms and formats of communication, journalists supposedly lost their function as gatekeepers of information content and truth. Anyone who wanted to saw themselves as an author, reporter, whistleblower, revealer. And everyone also saw themselves as important opinion formers. So it’s no wonder that the self-image of many journalists suffered – they felt robbed of their role, their privilege. Today, many things reach the public without journalists, in information and communication networks, flooding them in excess, above all quantitatively.
The change in the media has certainly ensured diversity and colorfulness on all conceivable channels, it has forced transparency and speed, it has created many communication milieus.

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Opinion leaders in the changing media

However, the winners of media change are the leading media! They, most of whom have always been in this role, are becoming increasingly important because their audience is becoming ever more important and influential. The additional – and ever better – participation of these leading media in the digital world further underpins this role. And the anchor journalists of the leading media are increasingly becoming the anchor men and women of their topics – with even more personal attention and personal influence than they could have imagined in the analog world.

Journalists – the winners of media change

With this development, the “usual journalistic quality” is not only increasingly finding its way into the digital world, recognized journalists, commentators, reporters and authors are also conquering new territory with many followers, blog comments, retweets and other formats. They can now find their audience anywhere and at any time, and are rewarded for this with a continuous strengthening of their traditional role.
This high level of acceptance and credibility is the benchmark for the importance of media and journalists. And it is precisely this benchmark that is set by a group that has taken on a key role in the media world, as was recently confirmed in a discussion round of German media representatives led by the “Tagesspiegel”.

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The leading milieus! They are the decisive authority. The leading milieus are formed by opinion leaders who communicate with each other more intensively today than was previously possible thanks to digital expansion. People who, in addition to traditional characteristics such as education, their professional status or their social skills, have a high quality as communicators. This quality is based on credibility, which is the scarcest commodity in today’s chaos of a constantly growing flood of information. And it is precisely this credibility that the leading milieus look for in their sources of information. They find it precisely with the winners of the media change – the leading media and their journalists.
What do you think: Does the media change offer an opportunity for quality journalism?

by Helmut Fritz Nollert