I was in an organizing committee of a workshop, “Social Media for Learning,” that took place in Kathmandu on December 24. Though the topic was “learning,” i was not surprised with the diversity of the topics discussed. As many of us, journalists in the program, we discussed about the way Nepali media are functioning. Some questions that came time and again were: Why aren’t Nepali media serious about their online site? Are Nepali media conscious about the media convergence happening across the globe?

Nepal’s print journalism is 110 years old, radio journalism is 60 years old and television journalism is 25 years old. Nepal’s online history is 15 years old. However, much of Nepal’s journalism history was controlled either by autocratic Rana rulers or by the monarch during the party-less Panchayat system. It has been just two decades that Nepali media are experiencing freedom that was guaranteed by the constitution. And in this time Nepali media have made a lot of progress in terms of quality, technology and impact. It’s not the time to stop here because this is not enough.

A lot of things are happening globally. Convergence is happening in five different ways across the globe: ownership convergence, tactical convergence, structural convergence, information gathering convergence and storytelling or presentation convergence.

It’s not that Nepali media is not following the path. Most of the broadsheet dailies, television stations and radio stations in Nepal are running their websites. But except some, most media, on their websites, are only archiving what is already published in newspaper or broadcasted on radio and television. Nepalese online media are being criticized for not producing unique content.

No guidelines on social media usage so far has been implemented by any media officially in Nepal. Neither any of the Nepalese media based in Nepal has started a good social media strategy for engaging with more
audience.

In the global scenario,things are changing very fast. Different applications are being launched to reach more audience. CNN launched its ipad application 12 months ago. Media across the world are making different applications to reach their audience. But have any Nepali online media thought of
launching a new application?

CNN launches iPad app by CNN_International