Global Media Industry Development Conference held in Macau

The Macau Global Media Industry Development Conference 2016 was held recently, marking the second time this event has been held in Macau.

Over 150 people working in the media industry, including communications students from mainland China and representatives of the local government, gathered together to explore the latest developments in the media industry.

Cui Bao Guo, vice dean of Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication, informed the media that the mainland’s traditional media has been suffering a continuous decline in its sales, and that he believes digital media will be the upcoming trend.

Cui is also concerned about how digital media and traditional media could be combined in the future, arguing that neither communications academics nor the media industry have reached a consensus on the issue.

The scholar stated that China currently has the most internet users compared to the rest of the world, and that digital media and new technologies will lead the media industry.

Cui also expressed the view that Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 United States presidential election occurred because he had mainly used online media to express himself, whereas Hillary Clinton chose traditional media, such as newspapers.

In a presentation he delivered to the conference participants, Cui revealed that China’s communications industry has increased 12.3 percent year on year in 2015. Internet media market now represents 51.8 percent of China’s entire media industry.

Another trend in the mainland’s media industry is the shift in news content. According to Cui, robotics-
related news has been increasing in China – while  there were only a few hundred news features on robotics last year, the number has surged over 10,000 this year.

The conference was sponsored and supported by the Macao Foundation and by the Government Information Bureau.

This is the second time that Macau has hosted the conference. The first time was in 2013. Julie Zhu