CIS media officials noted the positive effect of cooperation with social networks at the Forum of European and Asian Media (FEAM-2011) in Astana, RIA Novosti reports.
Gulnara Amirshoyeva, Editor-in-Chief of the Vecherka paper, talked about the contribution of social media to the newspaper. The paper opened an account on Facebook, its users helped it increase the number of readers. Social networks helped fill the content.
Kubanychbek Tabaldiyev, Director of the National Information Agency Kabar (Kyrgyzstan), said that the agency is trying to make use of new realities of modern life such as social networks. Kabar updated the website and started posting material in social networks. The number of visitors doubled and created a special aura around the paper. This demonstrates that future media will not do without new information technologies and social networks.
Igor Kalakauskas, an Estonian historian and publicist, noted that social networks became a norm of life, media and average people long ago. He expressed an impression that many bloggers that post articles in their blogs are the only readers with a few fans. Estonia has respectable media sources but they are respected for their advancement, freedom of speech rather than their availability.
Sergey Rogozhkin, Deputy Director General of Moskovsky Komsomolets paper (Russia), urged participants of the forum to pay attention to content of media sources and not the way it is presented. He believes that it is time to stop financing controlled media. He reminded that 80% of municipal papers are part of regional or municipal authorities. Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine are more advanced in this issue, the expert says.
