“Give wings” to high-quality journalism In the current era of information explosion and modern, multimedia journalism trends, each press agency must constantly innovate and create, enhancing the quality of programs, content, and forms of expression. Creating more and more high-quality press works is one of such efforts. To better understand the creative efforts of the Associations and branches in recent times to improve the quality of the works, the Journalists & Public Opinion Newspaper had a conversation with the leaders of some local Journalists Associations about this issue. |
Continuing to enter a new phase, improving the quality of each press work is not only the project’s own business but also an effort to create an abundant supply for the ministry’s press awards and the National Press Awards. From there, it contributes to improving the effectiveness and prestige of the press in social life. Therefore, to make high-quality press truly… high-quality is the concern of all those who implement it.
What is a high quality work?
This is one of the issues that has been discussed a lot at seminars, conferences, or at training courses on professional skills and has also been a concern of press agencies and Journalists Associations at all levels in recent times. Concerns about this are the direction to improve the quality and value of articles in the most substantial way, not just… selecting articles for the sake of it, fragmenting or leveling.
It can be said that in recent times, the work of supporting the creation of high-quality journalistic works has created many works with depth, reflecting all aspects of social life. The supported journalistic works are typical works, with elaborate investment, discovery, highlighting issues of public concern, bringing a constructive voice, positive criticism, contributing to the successful implementation of the Party and State's policies... However, looking directly at the reality of the quality of works and the selection of works locally, there are still many challenges.
The project to support high-quality journalism contributes to motivating and encouraging members and journalists in their work.
Mr. Tran Thai Son - Director of the Vietnam Journalists Association Electronic Information Portal said: In reality, many Journalists Associations tend to evaluate by an average and equal method. Analyzing this issue specifically, Mr. Son said that in reality, selected press works will have the same evaluation level (all achieving type A or B). The advantage of this evaluation method is the encouragement for members - journalists. In this way, the Provincial Journalists Association can balance the budget and support more authors and works.
In addition, there is a reality that the budget allocated to authors is still limited. If divided into levels A, B, C, there are many cases where the budget for level C is too little, lacking in encouragement for authors. However, this method of assessment does not encourage the creativity of members, does not encourage authors to invest in their works. Press units also lack motivation to pre-select works to submit to the Provincial Journalists Association, leading to low quality of selected press works.
From a local perspective, concerned about the quality of the work, Mr. Tran Cao Tanh - Permanent Vice President in charge of the Quang Ngai Provincial Journalists Association shared that it is not easy to have high-quality journalistic works. The requirement of high quality not only requires the work to reflect accurately, objectively, and convincingly, but also to have "new" content, creative form of expression, accurately express the thoughts and feelings of contemporary people, and have a positive social impact.
Sharing this view, Mr. Tran Quoc Anh - Permanent Vice President of Gia Lai Provincial Journalists Association said that the digital age has brought many advantages to journalists such as timely information transmission to readers. The digital age creates fast, timely, and vivid press products but requires the quality of the content to ensure accuracy and social orientation.
“A vital journalistic work, capable of shaking public opinion, and gaining the sympathy of a large number of readers and listeners, must first of all know how to select and correctly address issues raised by real life, with the distillation from within the process of careful practical research with the intellectual investment of the writer, with all the passion for the profession, the sense of social responsibility and civic duty of the author. On the contrary, if an article is irresponsible, unlively, unattractive, and fails to attract readers, it will cause the role of the press as a bridge between the Party's will and the people's hearts to decline, or even lose that role.”
Creating “rebound” to improve the quality of the work: How?
According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi - Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Journalists Association, following the success of the Support Project for the period 2016 - 2020, on April 8, 2021, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 558/QD-TTg approving the "Program to support creative activities of literary, artistic and journalistic works and projects at the Central level and local Literature and Arts Associations; support high-quality journalistic works at local Journalists Associations for the period 2021 - 2025" . The program continues to promote press support with a larger budget, focusing on improving the professional qualifications and skills of members of the Vietnam Journalists Association, orienting propaganda, exploiting important topics...
Entering a new phase, in order for high-quality journalistic works to meet the requirements of tasks in the new situation, effectively serving political tasks, closely following the breath of life, the requirements placed on press agencies and journalists need to continue to strongly innovate and improve the quality of their activities. The core in improving the quality of journalistic works is first of all to improve the professional capacity and expertise of members - journalists; each member - journalist must constantly cultivate, improve their qualifications, and be politically and ideologically steadfast.
Reporter at work.
In addition, there are also opinions that, in order to have a "rebound" in the quality of works, it is necessary to diversify and unify the selection method. Accordingly, through practical implementation, it shows that in addition to ordering contracts for members, the Vietnam Journalists Association should expand so that local Journalists Associations, in addition to ordering works, can purchase works (ie appraising, evaluating, and supporting quality works with high social impact to be published in the mass media). Many local Associations have been purchasing quality works in the past... and this method is also quite effective.
In addition, it is also necessary to be frank that, in the preliminary selection at the local level, it is necessary to eliminate the leveling mindset and ineffective mass support at some levels of the Association. Regarding this, Mr. Tran Thai Son said: "The Journalists Association should have a balance between encouraging members to improve the quality of their works and encouraging them in a general way, in which a few truly outstanding and excellent works can be recognized at level A, while a few works that are still easy to select at the grassroots level can be recognized at level C (or even eliminated if necessary) to more closely reflect the professional level and efforts of the author in investing in creating the work, and also to contribute to improving the quality of the preliminary selection work of the Associations" - Mr. Tran Thai Son commented.
It can be seen that, to create “rebound” in quality, is still and should still be a concern of press agencies, especially local press in the coming time. Re-evaluating the quality of press works is also a good opportunity for local journalists to look at themselves in press activities, thereby having training, improving their professional skills, improving their capacity, and level of expertise...
Bao Minh
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