If the press wants to maintain its 'battlefield', it must return to its core values.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung answered questions from National Assembly deputies on the morning of November 12.

The press wants to maintain its "battlefield", it must do things differently from social networks

Delegate Nguyen Thi Yen Nhi (Ben Tre delegation) raised the question: In the period of information explosion with the support of social networking platforms with high sharing features, the phenomenon of everyone working as a journalist, every household working as a journalist to create their own channel to post online, accompanied by advertisements, has many sensational, offensive, untrue contents, disrupting information, causing public outrage, many advertising contents are untrue, contrary to good customs, and infringing copyright.

The delegate asked Minister Nguyen Manh Hung to provide solutions to rectify the above situation, and at the same time, what solutions are there to enhance the role of the mainstream and revolutionary press to better perform the role of orientation and propaganda?

Responding to questions, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that when social networks were born, it could be said that they “took away the profession of journalism”. For many years, journalism has focused on reporting news, but social networks now report news faster, social networks have tens of millions of “reporters” without paying, they are everywhere.

According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, if the press wants to maintain its "battlefield", it must do things differently from social networks, returning to the core values of journalism, authentic, accurate, objective news, accountability, and professional ethics. Instead of commenting, it should offer solutions, instead of reporting news, it should tell stories that lead to social orientation.

In the past, the press in real space was the dominant force. Now in cyberspace, we may not be dominant in terms of quantity, but the information from the press must guide the main flow in cyberspace, with quality in both news and content.

According to him, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Central Propaganda Department and the Vietnam Journalists Association have identified this as the main orientation to redefine the position and role of revolutionary journalism.

“We also determined that the best way to compete with social networks is to do things differently from social networks and return to our core values. Use social network technology to do journalism and consider social networks as an environment to appear,” Mr. Hung expressed.

Three new solutions to prevent bad, toxic, and false information on social networks

At the question and answer session, delegate Nguyen Duy Thanh (Ca Mau delegation) asked the Minister of Information and Communications to inform him that, in his role as a State manager, what plans will the minister have to manage social networks, especially fake and untrue information?

Responding to this issue, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that this is not only a problem in Vietnam but also a global issue.

In this question and answer session, Minister Hung proposed three new solutions.

First is institutional improvement. According to Mr. Hung, previously only individuals were punished for posting false information. The new decree, which was signed about a week ago, raises the issue of handling social platforms when they violate Vietnamese law.

Second, in the past, we often thought a lot about the responsibility of State management, but according to Mr. Hung, there is a great responsibility for social platforms. They have their own space and subscriptions with hundreds of millions, even billions of users.

“They must be responsible for scanning and automatically removing bad, toxic, and false information,” said Mr. Hung.

“We also determined that the best way to compete with social networks is to do things differently from social networks and return to our core values. Use social network technology to do journalism and consider social networks as an environment to appear,” Mr. Hung expressed.

The third solution, according to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, is communication work, how to make people resistant when entering a new space, the digital space. "The training is not only for us but also for the future generation, that is, the students," said Mr. Hung.

In addition, to provide relatives affected by false and toxic information with a place to report, the Ministry of Information and Communications has put into operation a center to combat fake news and false information.

The government will build a special mechanism for the press economy.

Participating in the questioning session, delegate Ta Thi Yen - National Assembly Delegation of Dien Bien province asked, in the context of fierce competition between traditional press and internet, social networks, in addition to improving quality, promoting digitalization of press, how should the economic problem of press, press business model be solved so that traditional press can compete and survive, play well the role of shock troops on the cultural and ideological front, contributing to the sustainable development of the country?

Responding to the question of delegate Ta Thi Yen, the Minister said that when the market economy developed, businesses were forced to advertise to sell products, so they spent a lot of money on advertising, at that time advertising was mainly in the press. Press agencies also wanted to be financially independent, but then social networks appeared, 80% of advertising was online, so the revenue of the press, especially the revenue of financially independent press agencies, has significantly decreased.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that the number of press agencies established is large (880 press agencies) but revenue is decreasing.

In the Prime Minister's directive on policy communication, it is required that ministries, branches, and local authorities at all levels consider communication as their own business. In addition to proactively providing information, having a plan to provide information, having an information dissemination apparatus, having an annual budget for policy communication, and using the budget to order newspapers. This is a change, and in fact, since last year, agencies and authorities at all levels have begun to increase their budgets for the press.

In the upcoming plan to amend the Press Law, there is also a section mentioning press economics, which allows some large press agencies to do business in content and business around the media field.

The Minister also noted that if the press follows social networks, we will be left behind, so there must be a difference with social networks, which is to use digital technology to regain the "battlefield", increase the number of readers, and from there, advertising will also increase.

In particular, in the press planning, there is a very important content that the state focuses on investing in key areas for 6 key press agencies to become media powerhouses; at the same time, in the process of amending the law, the Government will build a specific mechanism on press economics for key press agencies.

Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/bo-truong-nguyen-manh-hung-bao-chi-muon-giu-vung-tran-dia-phai-quay-ve-nhung-gia-tri-cot-loi-382989.html