With nearly 30 years of working, traveling all over Vietnam, exploring many countries around the world, by 2024, Do Doan Hoang not only has tens of thousands of articles but also published 32 books of all genres: memoirs, travelogues, reports, investigations, notes, short stories, novels, essays...
Reading Do Doan Hoang's works in a seamless system, I can see more clearly his contributions to journalism in particular and to society in general. Besides that, there are the unique values of Do Doan Hoang's reportage. With respect and interest, I have tried to find a way to decode the successes of this investigative reporter.
Journalist Do Doan Hoang in South Africa. Photo: NVCC
We all know that to be successful, first of all, we must have passion and talent. And human talent is rooted in factors such as genetics, family, hometown and era, and education - the most important of which is the self-education of each individual. But in each case, the intensity of these factors is not the same.
Understanding that each author's achievements are always crystallized in typical works, I stopped to carefully examine excellent investigative reports (winning First and A prizes at national and nationwide competitions) that stirred the conscience of readers, had the ability to spread widely, created strong social effects, and contributed to making Do Doan Hoang's name.
These are investigative reports on the largest deforestation cases in Vietnam's history, the largest tiger rescue case in Vietnam's history, the dismantling of the largest sea turtle slaughter ring in Vietnam's and the world's history, investigations against hunting and trading of wild animals in the world (in Laos, Cambodia, in the Golden Triangle and in Africa), series of articles on the topic of preventing corruption, waste and negativity in Vietnam...
Firstly, Do Doan Hoang was fortunate to spend his early years living closely with Vietnam's ancestral mountain, Ba Vi - Tan Vien mountain, where Ba Vi National Park (now Ba Vi district, Hanoi) is located, which is also where Hoang was born. Since childhood, Hoang grew up with the forest, understood and loved the forest with an eternal love and Hoang became a part of the forest.
And the forest played an important role in helping Hoang soon become a boy with personality, healthy, intelligent, quick-witted, adventurous, upright, loyal, open-minded, not afraid of hardship, doing everything he wanted to do, especially loving the forest, loving animals, even being able to call the birds in the forest...
These are the qualities needed for a journalist who dares to commit, the basis for his enthusiasm for the topic of protecting nature, protecting the environment, daring to fight against bad things and evil to protect social justice.
Awareness is a process. After having studied, traveled to many places, witnessed with his own eyes the painful horrors that the forest had to endure, when witnessing the destruction of nature, the peaceful life of the whole community on the brink of danger, he took action, and continued to call for more awareness of responsibility to the community. Do Doan Hoang is not afraid to talk about his aspiration to do something to contribute to saving the forest, saving wild animals, returning green to our common home, the earth, and protecting human life.
Journalist Do Doan Hoang on a reporting trip. Photo: NVCC
Especially when he felt that he had: "Half of his bloodline carries the color of chlorophyll" , the remorse for his actions of massacring forests and wild animals in his childhood and in the community grew, then became the driving force that urged him to investigate, denounce, and write the most appropriate articles, to repay the debt to the forest, even though he knew that journalism is a cruel and extremely dangerous profession - Journalism is a profession that goes hand in hand with gratitude and resentment.
Passionate, knowledgeable, respectful and honoring of nature, Hoang's reports focus on life's vital issues, promoting a lifestyle in harmony with nature rather than advocating domination, domination and control of nature. This humanistic ideology is completely in line with human thinking, so his reports cross borders to friends around the world. Many international organizations have invited Do Doan Hoang to African countries and other continents to write articles, learn, inspire, exchange experiences, and investigate to change reality for the better.
Second, Do Doan Hoang has a deep and wide cultural knowledge. In fact, Hoang is a person who reads a lot, studies a lot, thinks a lot, practices a lot and travels a lot. He studies at school, studies in society, studies from books. Experience helps him to have a rich, vivid and highly practical treasure of folk wisdom. Books help his knowledge become deeper, and his cultural life becomes more and more abundant. According to Du Fu: Reading thousands of books/Putting down a pen seems to have a spirit.
In addition to journalism skills, in-depth professional knowledge, understanding of modern technology, good health, and a comprehensive cultural background in the fields of politics, history, geography, literature and art, foreign languages, law, criminal psychology, nature - society - people; journalist specializing in writing reports - investigations in the 4.0 era, Do Doan Hoang also knows many other life skills such as: driving on forest roads, knowing how to climb mountains and live in the forest for a long time, how to get out of the forest if lost, knowing how to behave skillfully with all subjects, even the most dangerous ones... Thanks to that, he is confident in his profession and has achieved results that few people can achieve.
With a fairly good command of English, Hoang can easily explore and absorb Western culture. Because he knows a little about Han Nom, Hoang can quickly discover the depth of many layers of Eastern culture. From the case of Do Doan Hoang, we can conclude that to be a good journalist, one must also strive to be a culturalist.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh presented Prize A, National Press Award 2021 to Journalist Do Doan Hoang. Photo: NVCC
Third, Do Doan Hoang has promoted the advantages of two types: the subtle combination of journalism and literary art. The meeting between literature and journalism has created an explosion, helping them to have great writing power and a fresh soul, quickly discovering problems, and at the same time expressing the above content in a very vivid and attractive way. Because literature is the art of language.
To become a reporter - investigator, a journalist specializing in this genre, one must be good at using language, love literature and art - because people who love beauty always know how to live beautifully and are passionate about human values in their own way. Therefore, when writing about crime, when going into the dark side of society, they still find a way to help people stand up in the most proud way.
In fact, only great journalists with high political will and good knowledge of literature can write good reports. To create a great social effect, in addition to the nature of the problem, in addition to the specific requirements of journalism, the information of the reportage - investigation also needs to be conveyed through the prism of "beauty", through the way of sending messages to the press public, including the sparkle of literature and art. Choosing and being faithful to then affirming his contribution to the reportage genre - partly because journalist Do has promoted the strength of both journalism and literature in his style and in his works. Thanks to that, Hoang's reports, many of which are attractive, have a long-lasting vitality.
Many successful reports by Do Doan Hoang have had a great impact on society. These include series of articles on: transnational hunting and selling of wildlife; the great disaster of dirty food poisoning consumers; large-scale deforestation; the problem of recycling dirty and toxic waste with too many dangers for Vietnamese people.
The documentaries that Hoang participated in and won awards, such as: Gutting the old forest, Tears of gold, Khoai village trash, Tragedy of living in decay... when broadcast on VTV and VTV special, sounded the alarm about human health issues, protecting living space, moving towards a more transparent and humane society. Those works have had a great influence, as the press has written, Hoang has had social activities for the community, through Hoang's own image and activities outside of Hoang's writing, very effectively.
A series of articles about the pedophile Huynh Cuong and his accomplices (they abused, raped, had homosexual sex, infected many boys from 14 years old with HIV/AIDS...) shook society, the perpetrators were arrested, and were a warning to parents, social managers... Many of Hoang's articles were the direct cause for the police and inter-sectoral forces to intervene...
Journalist Do Doan Hoang (3rd from left) representing the group of authors of Dan Viet Newspaper received the A Prize of the 3rd National Journalism Award for Anti-Corruption and Negativity in 2020 - 2021. Photo: NVCC
Obviously, the meeting between literature and journalism has made Do Doan Hoang's reports more attractive. The sensitivity of the artist's soul helps him discover and express the problem better. Although, nowadays, there are some people who want to separate literature from journalism...
Reading Do Doan Hoang’s reportage, we do not see the literary quality dominating in any “unfavorable” way, but only see the literary quality making his newspaper more classy and educational. Because the nature of art is creativity, not repeating others and not repeating oneself, at the same time art also helps readers aspire to goodness.
From the above analysis, it can be seen that Do Doan Hoang is a naturally talented reporter with many known achievements. And his reports have their own unique values. His success, in addition to his innate factors, his close relationship with the forest, his extensive knowledge and his ability to promote the power of literature and art, I also think that it is the product of a serious attitude towards life and writing, with high professionalism - as Hoang often "passes on the secret" when teaching journalism students and young journalists across the country.
For me, I believe it is not an exaggeration to say: Do Doan Hoang is a shining face of Vietnamese journalism today. And if I were to choose the happiest Vietnamese person, I would choose Do Doan Hoang - a person who has achieved, and done quite well, the things he has longed for since his university days. If I were to choose the most representative contemporary Vietnamese journalist, without hesitation, I would also choose Do Doan Hoang.
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