Important process contributing to improving the quality of journalism in the new era

Journalism in the new era must be creative and innovate strongly to meet public needs, keep up with the development of the times, and the country's digital transformation.

Phát triển báo chí chất lượng cao trong bối cảnh chuyển đổi số

High-quality journalism conference in the context of digital transformation organized by the Vietnam Journalists Association. (Photo: Tran Hai)

On the morning of November 22, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Journalists Association held a conference on "High-quality journalism in the context of digital transformation to meet new requirements of the National Press Awards Charter and promote sustainable development tasks" in the Northern region.

Journalism in the new era must be creative and innovative.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Permanent Vice President of the Journalists Association Nguyen Duc Loi said that in just over a year, the 14th National Party Congress will take place, and major orientations for national development have been and are important contents discussed to build the draft documents to be submitted to the Congress. In particular, the vision of the country entering a new era, the era of the Vietnamese people's rise, set forth by General Secretary To Lam.

General Secretary To Lam stated: “The top priority in the new era is to successfully implement the strategic goals by 2030, Vietnam will become a developing country with modern industry and high average income; by 2045 it will become a developed socialist country with high income; strongly arouse national spirit, spirit of self-reliance, self-confidence, self-reliance, national pride, aspiration for rapid and sustainable national development; closely combine national strength with the strength of the times”.

Permanent Vice President of the Journalists Association Nguyen Duc Loi delivered the opening speech at the conference. (Photo: Tran Hai)

Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi emphasized that in this important period, when the country is facing a historic opportunity to make a breakthrough, the press must also strive to change and accompany the country. The press in the new era must be creative and innovate strongly to meet the needs of the public, keep up with the development of the times, and the digital transformation of the country.

Solutions to improve the quality of journalism and support reporters and journalists in performing their duties are essential at this stage, so that journalists can produce many good works, contributing to the sustainable development of the country and serving the people.

Digital Transformation: A Matter of Survival for Journalism

According to Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Journalists Association Nguyen Duc Loi, the 13th Party Congress Document clearly stated the political task of the press: "Building a professional, humane and modern press and media".

In particular, professionalism and modernity as required by the Party mean that Vietnam's revolutionary press must also strive to keep up with the world's common development trends, one of which is the fourth industrial revolution and digital transformation.

General Secretary To Lam recently wrote an important and strategic article: "Digital transformation - An important driving force for developing productive forces, perfecting production relations, bringing the country into a new era".

The Party and State's guidelines and policies on proactively participating in the fourth industrial revolution and promoting national digital transformation are clearly stated in many Resolutions and documents of the Party Congress.

Speakers present a paper on developing high-quality journalism in the context of digital transformation. (Photo: Tran Hai)

The Prime Minister also approved the Strategy "Digital transformation of journalism to 2025, with a vision to 2030" with the goal of building press agencies in a professional, humane, and modern direction; fulfilling the mission of information and propaganda to serve the revolutionary cause of the Party and the cause of national innovation; ensuring the role of leading and orienting public opinion, maintaining information sovereignty in cyberspace; effectively innovating readers' experiences; creating new sources of revenue; promoting the development of the digital content industry.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi said that reality shows that digital technology has the first, strongest and most profound impact on the field of journalism and media. Using digital technology to make newspapers has become a matter of survival for the press.

Update more types of works to compete in the National Press Awards

Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Journalists Association Nguyen Duc Loi informed that in order to promptly update new trends in journalism, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association, Chairman of the National Press Awards Council Le Quoc Minh signed and issued the National Press Awards Charter (amended). Accordingly, the following awards were added: Multimedia journalism products and Creative journalism products.

Regarding the criteria for high-quality journalism that meet the requirements of the Charter of the 19th National Journalism Awards in 2024, the representative of the Professional Committee of the Vietnam Journalists Association shared the regulations for journalism types. In particular, multimedia journalism products are: Works and journalism products that use multimedia data and apply production processes, techniques, and digital communication technology in the process of content creation and production organization, with independent formats such as: Infographics, Video clips, Podcasts, Multimedia news packages, data journalism products, interactive journalism...

Delegates ask questions at the conference. (Photo: Tran Hai)

Creative press products are press works, products, and programs that are creative and innovative, thereby clearly demonstrating that the author or group of authors have effective solutions to improve journalistic labor productivity, save production costs, impact the right audience, effectively impact the public's awareness, attitudes and behaviors, and enhance public participation and interaction towards national, regional and local sustainable development goals.

Improve and expand the High-Quality Journalism Support Program

In addition to the National Press Awards, the Vietnam Journalists Association continues to receive the attention and trust of the Prime Minister, who assigns it the task of implementing the Program to support high-quality journalism at the central and local levels for the period 2021-2025 according to Decision No. 558/QD-TTg dated April 8, 2021.

After nearly 4 years of implementation, the Program to support high-quality press works at all levels of the Journalists Association for the period 2021 - 2025 has had many good successes in supporting reporters, journalists and press agencies.

Accordingly, in 3 years (2021-2023), the Central Program to support high-quality press works is 11.46 billion VND for 18 Inter-Associations and 103 Journalists' Associations; thereby supporting nearly 4,000 authors, receiving 3,875 high-quality works of various types of press.

Meanwhile, the Support Program for Local Journalists Associations nationwide is 27.7 billion VND; Local Journalists Associations directly support over 4,000 authors who are members of the Vietnam Journalists Association in localities; receiving 4,263 high-quality works of various types of journalism.

The program also organizes conferences and seminars on journalism to help press agencies improve the quality of their work; supports research, compilation, and publication of books to announce, promote, and archive high-quality journalism works.

Overview of the conference. (Photo: Tran Hai)

In particular, during the implementation of the Program, many high-quality works that received financial support won the National Press Awards and local press awards, press awards of ministries, branches and organizations. In fact, the works that won high prizes (A, B, C) of the National Press Awards in recent years are all high-quality press works that have been supported.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi, in the context of the press facing many new challenges, supporting high-quality journalism has become more urgent. The high-quality journalism support program has partly met this need, helping journalists have more conditions to be creative. However, to meet the increasing demands of the public, the program needs to be further improved and expanded.

Many levels of the Journalists Association continue to propose that the Central Agency of the Association pay attention to and organize more training courses on professional skills in creating high-quality press works from the high-quality press budget so that members - journalists, especially those in disadvantaged provinces, have access to modern journalism content and skills.

After more than 3 hours of presentation and discussion, the conference listened to the opinions and assessments of delegates from the Central Press Associations and 25 Journalists Associations of provinces and cities in the Northern region on the role and tasks of the press in promoting the task of sustainable development of the country.

At the same time, propose solutions for digital transformation of journalism, develop diverse digital journalism products; increase efficiency, effectiveness and efficiency of journalism for the sustainable development of localities in particular and the country in general.

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