TV and Radio Online Journalism Review

By Maria Christina De Carlo

Amidst the contagious pandemic Covid-19, people are trying to cope with the situation of a measure like social distancing. Through the TV and radio, online journalism people would know what is happening by the hour, the knowledge of knowing the symptoms, how many cases arise within a day. All in all, what is it in TV and Radio Online Journalism that engages, informs and provides the interaction with people?

The Department of Health and the Public Health Authorities have made every effort to measure, analyze and share data to track the exposure. With the help of the media, online journalism helps the reader understand better the Coronavirus.

Radio Online News Review

In the first part of this review, I have selected two radio channels, 8.97 Bay and 103 Malta’s Heart. While the website bay.com.mt written in English, Malta’s Heart, in conjunction with Newsbook, has a Maltese and English version with news stories that vary. In both sites, tags are used as keywords to categorize the news, in this case, the Coronavirus. Most articles on the first impression may look long to read, but in fact, the content is broken down by large images that fit into the width of the article.

To inform readers of the Covid-19 situation, on the homepage of the latest news on Newsbook and Television Malta website both have a section of statistics of active cases, recovered cases and other worldwide statistics. Another informational part of the Television Malta site is that they have contact numbers to help the community.

In a post on Newsbook, an example of a produced video shows an interview of Fr. Joe Borg with Dr, Chris Fearne, the Health Minister. The Covid-19 effect resulted in a conversation held online, streamed live on the radio channel as well as on the website and their Facebook page. Important to mention that this interview conducted in Maltese with no English translation.

Another issue that has caught the attention of many who work in the online journalism field is that social media posts made by personalities make the news. After a 72-year-old man, Zaren Borg discharged from hospital, 897 Bay featured an Instagram post of a famous Maltese journalist, Keith Demicoli, expressing his reactions to the story that made the news.

Since Covid-19 is mostly sad news to follow, however, some positive news breaks the monotony of the usual daily bulletin on 897 bay radio. An effect of Covid-19 is that since people kept inside, there were fewer boats, making the sea cleaner than usual, watching dolphins swim in the harbours around Sliema, Valletta and other places. Another instance is the feature on the International day dedicated to Nurses. In the same article, a youtube video from the BBC News is an external link about Malta, the ‘Nurse of the Mediterranean’.

As far as interactivity goes, Newsbook features the Facebook comment plugin at the end of most articles. Space for many readers to leave a comment or two while expressing an opinion. On the other hand, 897 Bay, do not provide any commentary function at the bottom of the articles. However, all articles posted on Facebook offer the capacity to comment, like or share the post with their friends.

Newsbook for 103 Malta’s Heart features the Covid-19 daily bulletin given by Professor Charmaine Gauci. Since the announcement was in Maltese, the speech got translated into English through live blogging.

Some links direct externally to authorities like the Public Health, Education Department and many other entities. These links are essential for accountability with more background to inform the readers.

TV Online News Review

Other TV and Radio online journalism websites include tvm.com.mt for Television Malta, one.com.mt, One news, the Labour station and netnews.com.mt, Net News, the Nationalist station. The political stations offer Maltese journalism while TVM provides the English version of a news website.

One news has a television station and radio channel 98.7 fm. The total number of visits in April 2020 amounted to 1 million, with 31% going directly to the site, 53% visit through social media Facebook, and 16% organic. One.com.mt use no text links so as not to lead people out of their website, but they do have a tagging function as well as Youtube links. Unlike other sites, the daily bulletin of Covid-19 is at the bottom of the page. The position of the video helps people take the time to read or skim through. By embedding the clip at the end will help lengthen the time on that particular page on top of the video length.

While browsing through the Net News site which offers the television station as well as Radio 101, the total visits in April 2020 amounted to 772,879. 50% of readers visit directly to the site, 30% visited the site through Facebook, and 20% are organic. Their stories are relatively short about Covid-19 with the commentary function at the bottom of the page. Their article titles tend to be too long and not engaging enough for readers to click to read on.

Television Malta has about 1.4 million visits in April 2020 with am app store and google app available for all those who want to keep themselves updated with news television programmes and so many more features. Over 35% of people visit tvm.com.mt, 49% visit through Facebook, while 17% are organic. Most articles can be shared on social media how with no function to comment except on social media posted articles. An exciting story of late due to the Covid-19 is the story about a blind woman, Christine Mifsud’s experience of social distancing. In the embedded video at the bottom of the page, she relates her struggles and suggests what could be the alternative.