Digitalization and its influence on Media and Communication Industry

The digital transformation has influenced various business. It has changed the way we live. It appears in every corner – through your smartphones, laptops and even your digital watch.

To discuss more about the influences that digitalization put on the Media and Communciation Industry, we invited Dr. Kelly Cassidy – Academic Director for an interview.

Dr. Kelly Cassidy – Academic Director of Swinburne Vietnam – shares her thoughts about Media and Communication industry in the Digital Age

What will M&C Industry change in the Digital Age?

Most forms of media are already digital, so the last era of massive disruption is coming to an end. However, digitisation has meant that media is now embedded is almost everything we do, from shopping to dating to ordering food. We are likely to see this trend increase with media playing an even more important role in almost every industry.

What are the new jobs created in the M&C industry?

There is an old adage that most of the jobs people get in the next 10 years don’t exist yet, and that is still very true of media. Going by recent trends, data analytics and data visualisation will continue to grow very fast, as will any job that is involved with implementing media solutions where they didn’t exist before. At the same time, a lot of the old media professions like photography, editing, sound recording has become so accessible that a technical qualification is no longer necessary. The other key thing is that graduates have to be adaptable – they may learn skills in one area but end up working in quite a different field.

Digital Marketing concept was so unfamiliar with everybody when I was young, but now, if you don’t even know what it is, you’re off the pace.

How do you think about the job opportunity in media today? 

Media continues to be one of the fastest growing industries in the world because it has become so central to our every day lives. Understanding how an organization can effectively use media to communicate both internally and externally is becoming one of the keys to success in modern business, so media graduates are in demand in almost every industry. The reality is that many media graduates will not get their first job in a “media” company, but will be using their media skills to contribute to a diverse range of other industries.

Could you share some of your points about the M&C industry in Australia and developed countries?

Traditional forms of media in Australia like television and newspapers have been protected by government regulation for a long time, ensuring they didn’t have too much competition. The digital age changed all that and now traditional media are struggling to survive. Online publications have largely killed off newspapers, and television is struggling to survive against the rise of international streaming services. The key things is that everyone is trying to find the revenue model that works best in this highly fragmented environment. Most media have traditionally relied on advertising to pay the bills, but consumers are beginning to move away from advertising and toward directly paying for content through monthly subscriptions. This will be most interesting in terms of social media, which still relies on advertising to provide its “free” service.

What do you think of growth of M&C Industry in Vietnam?

Media and Community in Vietnam is very similar to the rest of the world in many respects. Local media companies are fighting to survive in the face of growing pressure from international media giants. Traditional media have been largely displaced by digital technologies (especially for young people), but television seems to be more resilient than it has been in other markets such as Australia. One of the key aspects of the Vietnamese media market is the importance of mobile platforms, which continues to grow year after year. This means that graduates in Vietnam really need to understand the specifics of content production and distribution for mobile, perhaps more than for students studying in Australia.

How can M&C course at Swinburne Vietnam meet the labour market needs? What are the key points of the course?

The Swinburne course combines de cades of experience in media and communication from the Australian program with the local expertise from FPT. This creates a program that prepares students for the specific requirements of the media industry in Vietnam, but also gives them the ability to work in media anywhere around the world. Most importantly, it combines practical skills in making, distributing and analysing media with broad contextual knowledge of how media works as a business.

The Media course will be officially launched in 2020. What major of course that students can choose?

Social media has been chosen as one of the initial majors for the Swinburne Vietnam program as it is the area that is currently experiencing the greatest growth in employment. Almost every large company around the world invests heavily in social media, and our course prepares students to not only create content, but also to ensure that content is received by the right audience.

Thank you Dr. Kelly Cassidy for attending the interview with Swinburne Vietnam!

Le Nguyen – Swinburne Vietnam

Trung ST