Breakthrough in innovation to create advantage
According to statistics, in the past, most international information was broadcast from London, Paris and New York, where the headquarters of the four major news agencies, also known as the “Big Four”, were located, including Reuters - UK, AP and UPI - USA, AFP - France. These are global news agencies with a wide network of collaborators and reporters and professional, modern equipment capable of collecting, exploiting and transmitting information.
However, dependence on Western news agencies will make information less objective, and create inequality in information.
Regarding this issue, Ms. Vu Viet Trang - General Director of Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said that to ensure the purpose of providing balanced, objective and diverse sources of information, national news agencies have gradually developed into regional or international news agencies to proactively send reporters to events and hot spots, demonstrating their presence globally. At the same time, bilateral and multilateral cooperation relationships have been expanded to diversify international sources of information.
Ms. Vu Viet Trang said that selecting and publishing international information that is in line with national and ethnic interests and reflects the foreign policy of the Party and State is identified as an important task for the national news agency. (Photo: Son Hai)
Some agencies continue to invest in collecting information, rising to compete with the "big guys" in information. Ms. Bu Viet Trang cited the example of Xinhua News Agency - China, in addition to a network of reporters at more than 180 permanent offices abroad, of which more than 30 are in the Asia - Pacific region, has used satellites to take photos and collect information at hard-to-reach locations such as natural disasters, epidemic areas, offshore, in space, ...
Collecting information using modern means and obtaining accurate field images has helped Xinhua enhance its position with exclusive images and information.
According to Ms. Vu Viet Trang, from only providing information to the press system, news agencies now also have strategies to directly approach the public, affirming their role as mainstream information, labeling "fake news" after verifying suspicious information that is spread at super fast speed on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WhatsApp, ... to help the public know the most accurate and fastest information.
News agencies and press agencies must accelerate the digital transformation process, taking advantage of the application of technology and social platforms to effectively disseminate international information. A solution that Xinhua calls “using technology to control technology”.
In the new situation, national news agencies tend to increase cooperation, in which intra-bloc linkage is an effective trend when member agencies share and have the right to exploit information on a common platform.
Discussing this trend, Ms. Vu Viet Trang gave examples of cooperation within the framework of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA),... and most recently, last November, news agencies of five countries, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, established the Alliance of Turkic News Agencies (ATNA).
Ms. Vu Viet Trang commented that some agencies have launched initiatives to play a good role as host media in national, regional and international events taking place in their countries. News agencies such as Yonhap - South Korea, TASS - Russian Federation, Kyodo - Japan, etc. have established web platforms to provide information about major events so that global partners can exploit them, such as Yonhap's INFONET information system, which specializes in providing information about major events: the Inter-Korean Summit, the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, etc.
On the side of VNA, Ms. Vu Viet Trang said that in recent years, when important domestic events took place such as the 13th National Party Congress, the election of the 15th National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels for the 2021-2026 term, the 31st SEA Games,... VNA has set up a sub-web page in various languages to synthesize information in various forms to provide for domestic and foreign media agencies to exploit.
Challenges in human resources - need for successors
VNA General Director Vu Viet Trang said that in order to have a source of fast, accurate, copyrighted international information, VNA has soon opened branches - permanent offices in the localities.
The field correspondents are always ready to be present at hot spots around the world. Currently, in the Gaza Strip war zone, VNA's Israel correspondents are also updating information through various forms on the developments of the conflict. This is not only an armed conflict but also an equally fierce information war between the two sides.
"In addition to international news, VNA's overseas correspondents comment, assess, analyze, and express Vietnam's viewpoints and stance on regional and international issues as well as assess the impact of international and regional issues and events on the domestic situation," said Ms. Vu Viet Trang.
Training and education work in the coming time needs special attention to create a workforce with journalistic skills and political acumen to handle sensitive international information.
According to the General Director of VNA, in recent years, VNA has increased its news coverage of experiences and lessons from other countries on emerging issues in Vietnam. For example, information on policy adjustments of some countries to develop green economy, circular economy, and land management in some countries.
Activities related to Vietnam abroad, Vietnamese delegations conducting exchanges, trade promotion, cultural exchanges, the lives of Vietnamese people in other countries, citizen protection work, etc. are also comprehensively covered and reported by overseas correspondents.
Ms. Vu Viet Trang commented that having official and authentic sources of information from news agencies of other countries is very important to ensure truthful and accurate information. To diversify authoritative sources of information, VNA attaches great importance to establishing cooperative relationships with foreign news agencies. In addition, VNA selectively and orientedly exploits news sources from major news agencies such as AP, AFP, Reuters, etc. and organizes information translation to carry out the political tasks of the national news agency.
Regarding the challenges in the new situation, the General Director of VNA emphasized the issue of human resources as VNA is currently in great need of a young successor. "In the past, VNA's recruitment of young staff has encountered difficulties due to the need to cut the number of employees and the decline in revenue. Meanwhile, training and education work needs time to have a workforce with journalistic skills and political acumen to handle sensitive international information," said Ms. Vu Viet Trang.
Regarding the story of artificial intelligence, according to Ms. Trang, the application of artificial intelligence can help us get preliminary translations extremely quickly. To turn information that is “ideologically unsound” or “borrowed ideologically” into a journalistic product requires the understanding and political courage of the editor.
In the process of working with AI, two trends need to be avoided. One is to depend on artificial intelligence and the other is to boycott artificial intelligence. " Over-reliance on artificial intelligence will erode our thinking ability. This becomes even more dangerous when unusual situations occur. We lose our professional reflexes, becoming a "chess piece" in the information war where we should be the chess players," Ms. Trang acknowledged.
"We should not stay away from AI because AI is a source of knowledge for humanity. Besides teaching AI to become smarter, journalists also need to learn to enrich their knowledge, and increasingly better fulfill the mission of Vietnamese revolutionary journalists," Ms. Vu Viet Trang added.
The General Director of VNA hopes that in the coming time, the agency will continue to receive the attention and direction of the Party and the State to upgrade and expand the network of foreign permanent agencies to directly produce international information in key areas. At the same time, it will continue to invest resources in digital transformation in general and improve the quality and efficiency of international information in particular.
Hoa Giang
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