Journalism should create positive, constructive and solution-oriented stories, creating balance and diversity in news.

Following the 2024 Editor-in-Chief Forum Program: "Solution journalism - A direction for traditional journalism?" chaired by the Vietnam Journalists Association and organized by the Journalists and Public Opinion newspaper, taking place in Phan Thiet - Binh Thuan (afternoon of September 21) - the second discussion session with the topic: Implementing solution journalism: Which methods and models are effective? took place with many presentations and contributions that were enthusiastic, frank, and practical.

The discussion session took place under the chairmanship of: Mr. Le Quoc Minh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association; Mr. Nguyen Hoai Anh - Alternate Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Binh Thuan Provincial Party Committee; Mr. Doan Anh Dung - Chairman of the Binh Thuan Provincial People's Committee; Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi - Former Member of the Party Central Committee, Former General Director of VNA, Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Journalists Association; Mr. Phan Xuan Thuy - Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department; Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam - Deputy Minister of Information and Communications.

Mr. Le Quoc Minh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association spoke at the discussion session.

It takes a lot of resources to write a good solution article.

Participating in the discussion at the Forum, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Nga - Editor-in-Chief of Giao Thong Newspaper, said that the 2024 Editors' Forum with the theme 'Solution journalism: The direction for traditional journalism?' However, the Forum heard a lot about constructive journalism and creative journalism. "So, how are solution journalism, constructive journalism and creative journalism different?", Ms. Nga asked.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Nga mentioned the recent story when the Vietnam Fatherland Front made a statement of the donations for people affected by storm No. 3; There were many opinions that the spending should also be made public.

From that story, the Editor-in-Chief of Giao thong newspaper said that solution journalism is not just simply reporting news, there needs to be specific recommendations and solutions, what needs to be done so that the revenue is spent appropriately and those who receive the money receive the most accurate information they need. "The opinions and solutions put forward by the press need to be debated by the press to produce works that truly bring solutions to society and are implemented properly," said Ms. Nga.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Nga - Editor-in-Chief of Giao Thong Newspaper.

The editor-in-chief of Giao thong newspaper also said that for a long time, editorial offices could not publish any article without a solution, but to produce an article with a solution, also known as a high-quality journalistic work, requires a lot of resources. In reality, the percentage of high-quality articles in a day's news in editorial offices is very small.

In addition, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Nga also emphasized the issue of funding to produce those works and said that it is a very important factor.

Solution journalism is the political and social responsibility of journalism.

At the Forum, Major General Doan Xuan Bo, Editor-in-Chief of the People's Army Newspaper, said that information journalism is the reason for the existence of journalism, while solution journalism is the political and social responsibility of journalism. Information journalism and solution journalism are two but one, and must intertwine and blend together.

Major General Doan Xuan Bo, Editor-in-Chief of People's Army Newspaper.

According to Major General Doan Xuan Bo, the press has solutions on the whole editorial board, within a series of articles and within an article. "For example, when we deploy a series of 4-5 articles, the last two articles are always solutions. But we have to consider the ratio between solutions and information," Mr. Bo gave an example and emphasized that the press can still exist thanks to providing information, next, the information must be responsible, have the Party's character, the people's character, so there must be solutions, avoid "empty talk".

Major General Doan Xuan Bo said that the People's Army Newspaper itself has been a solution newspaper, right from the first articles, even the predecessors were solutions. Currently, the Newspaper is still persistently following the direction of solution journalism.

The Editor-in-Chief of the People's Army Newspaper shared: To concretize Resolution 35, the Newspaper has launched the contest "Protecting the Party's ideological foundation", with strategic articles on peaceful evolution very early. Investing in solution journalism is a very expensive investment; the royalties for articles on Protecting the Party's ideological foundation are 5 times higher than for regular articles; even for good articles, the Editor-in-Chief personally came to thank the author and looked forward to future cooperation.

Or the contest "Simple but noble examples" organized by the People's Army newspaper for the 14th time, concretizing the study and following of President Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style. "The editorial office also had heated debates about how to make the contest still have vitality or not? And tried every way to make it fit the vitality of the times.

Major General Doan Xuan Bo also added that, like the recent storm No. 3, the People's Army newspaper still deployed solution journalism by sending 4 reporters to 4 directions at the same time, the information covering the newspaper was urgently overcoming the consequences of storm No. 3. "How can solution journalism promote its strengths and trends? Money, high-quality human resources, and qualifications are the key issues? If it is only superficial, it is impossible to do solution journalism. To develop solution journalism, it is very necessary to have mechanisms for press agencies," Mr. Bo emphasized.

Delegates attending the Forum.

Solution journalism needs to be built on a solid foundation built on objective data sets.

Sending a speech to the Forum, Journalist Nguyen Ngoc Toan - Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Nien Newspaper said that solution journalism does not have clear boundaries as a genre, nor is it a set of rules, criteria, or classification definitions. There are many paths for solution journalism to form and create its own path suitable for each press agency.

"At Thanh Nien Newspaper, we believe that solution journalism needs to be built on a solid foundation created from objective data sets, analyzed and explained using scientific thinking methods, and finally "packaged" with the multimedia skills of modern journalists," said Mr. Toan.

Going into details, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Toan said that recently, a number of data articles published on Thanh Nien have exploited data from various sources published in the form of public reports on websites, published reports, studies, statistics... Some data sources are collected through requests for information.

Journalist Nguyen Ngoc Toan - Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Nien Newspaper.

According to the Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Nien Newspaper, the first important thing is to think about determining the topic of data journalism, when to do a data article? The next steps are to hypothesize, ask questions to find data to answer.

From this theoretical part, Thanh Nien reporters will continue with important steps such as building the story structure, finding, synthesizing, and processing data to find answers using data for the questions posed. Questions that cannot be answered using data can be answered through interviews or opinions of related people...

"Both data journalism and solution journalism aim to provide accurate, objective and valuable information to the public, while promoting positive change in society. Combining data and solution journalism will help journalists provide readers with concrete evidence, statistics and detailed, visual analysis, helping to strengthen the persuasiveness of the solutions proposed in solution journalism. This also increases the persuasiveness and credibility of the solutions, attracting the public to learn more about the problem, the proposed solution, and its feasibility. From there, it will gain the attention of policy makers and relevant management levels...", Mr. Toan stated.

The Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Nien Newspaper emphasized some of the impacts of data journalism: Increasing visibility; In-depth analysis and providing evidence-based solutions; Creating compelling stories; Monitoring and evaluating effectiveness; Promoting transparency and accountability.

Million-view articles are not necessarily good content?

In his speech, Mr. Le Trong Minh - Editor-in-Chief of Investment Newspaper said that social networks have proven that readers' need for information is limitless, and there are even content creators on social networks who have ways of creating content so creatively that viewers have never imagined that they would be able to access such information. In that context, if the press only follows the new direction without exclusivity and does not invest in quality content, the existence of the press will face a significant threat.

“How to achieve good quality articles and avoid the situation of attracting views?”, Mr. Le Trong Minh asked. According to the Editor-in-Chief of Dau Tu Newspaper, the root of this problem is the curiosity of readers. Therefore, the dominance of sensational and negative information is still a challenging story. How to make positive information, stories about building and creating solutions that can attract readers belongs to the editorial office is a subjective factor and the objective factor is the subjects paying for that editorial office.

Subjectively, Editor-in-Chief Le Trong Minh believes that the biggest obstacle is the capacity of reporters because not all reporters can do well in solution-oriented works. Even the most ordinary reporters can ask questions that generate solutions when interviewing, but when writing articles, they will need experience and good skills to produce good works with practical solutions.

Mr. Le Trong Minh - Editor-in-Chief of Investment Newspaper.

“The implementation of analytical articles requires a team of collaborators who are managers, business leaders and qualified researchers to participate in answering interviews and writing collaborative articles. All of these issues require the opposite, which is the cost of paying salaries and royalties to collaborators. If not resolved well, the “chicken and egg” story will occur again, the newspaper lacks resources to have good staff, good articles, and when there is no good content, there will be no readers and no revenue for the editorial board,” said Mr. Minh.

Objectively, according to Mr. Le Trong Minh, it is the story of the number of views of news articles - directly related to the press economy. Obviously, newspapers with high traffic will have more opportunities to attract advertising. Million-view articles are not necessarily good content, but they are a measure of advertising, so currently, it is very difficult for press activities to avoid attracting views. "If businesses are willing to say no to newspapers with millions of views but not real views, then the story of views is not essential but secondary. However, once the advertising budget of businesses is still calculated by views, the story of solution journalism will face huge obstacles," Mr. Le Trong Minh emphasized.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam - Deputy Minister of Information and Communications.

Journalists need to find solutions for themselves before finding solutions for others.

Speaking at the Forum, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam - Deputy Minister of Information and Communications stated that one of the issues raised at the Forum is that the press must bring solutions to society, thereby seeing solutions for themselves.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam, the press needs to completely change its approach to turn challenges and difficulties into opportunities. For example: People must seek good environments, even if the environment is good, they must seek a better environment to change.

The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications also raised the question: How can we do solution journalism when there are not small conflicts in society, including conflicts in the government, businesses, and people think that the press is the problem, not them? And when they seek solutions to their own problems, they rarely talk about the press.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam, state agencies themselves are also looking for solutions to effectively resolve the issue of policy communication, but it seems that they rarely turn to the press to do so. There is very little interaction and mutual benefit. "For example, policy communication by state agencies and businesses. They have many forms and approaches to reach people such as through electronic information portals that provide source information, using technology to get information to people as quickly as possible," Mr. Lam gave an example.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Lam also emphasized the need for the press to exercise restraint and not report excessively on sensitive issues.

To develop journalism, especially solution journalism, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam believes that the most important issue to pay attention to is human resource training. "We need to find solutions for ourselves before finding solutions for others," Mr. Lam stated, adding that the vision of press agencies is also very important.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Lam also emphasized the need for the press to be restrained and not to report too much on sensitive issues because sometimes the results are opposite to the original purpose, counterproductive. Mr. Lam said: "For example, reporting too much and rushing about gold prices creates pressure on gold price management. Or there is a tendency to look for financial reports of enterprises to provide information but mainly to expose and judge that enterprise."

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam also believes that press agencies need to see their own problems to promote their strengths and overcome their shortcomings. Because the Vietnamese press is a revolutionary press and if there is a problem that needs to be called upon, oriented to society, and needs to gather forces to do great things, good things for the country, then the government system and the people will always seek out the press and find themselves in the press.

Mr. Le Quoc Minh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association spoke at the Forum.

Newspapers are like a lighthouse to guide users in matters of work as well as life.

Concluding the discussion, Mr. Le Quoc Minh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association said that the press is facing many changes, technological changes are happening at lightning speed leading to outcomes that cannot be imagined in just 5 years or even 3 years. Now, artificial intelligence not only threatens job positions but also threatens all other intermediate positions.

The second is the change of users. According to Mr. Le Quoc Minh, nowadays, users do not necessarily have to go to the press to get information. In fact, the young public, the GenZ generation, now does not read printed newspapers, does not watch television, does not listen to the radio, but they still know all the information.

The change is happening so fast that even businesses may not need the press anymore. They have their own channels, their own ways. The dominance of the press as the “gatekeeper” is really under threat. “Before, there were hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of stories, we selected which stories to report and the public knew the content, but now they know more than what the press reports,” said Mr. Minh.

However, according to the President of the Vietnam Journalists Association, it is also a fact that when the public is overwhelmed by the storm of information, they need press agencies. Amidst the mixed news of truth and falsehood, users do not have enough strength to handle it, they need press agencies to filter it for them.

“After going far and coming back, users want to be guided by official press agencies. At this time, press agencies are like lighthouses to guide users in matters of work as well as life. How to maintain the position of lighthouse like that, press agencies must overcome many obstacles in the present and the future,” Mr. Le Quoc Minh commented.

Delegates take souvenir photos at the Forum.

Mr. Le Quoc Minh especially emphasized: “What makes journalism different is the depth. If we continue to race to be fast and to be more, we cannot win. Therefore, I want press agencies, not all of them, to devote resources to in-depth journalism. However, let's create positive, constructive and solution-oriented stories, create balance and multi-dimensionality in the news to see the difference of journalism.

I really hope that in the future, the Vietnam Journalists Association will continue to organize similar Forums and receive support from localities. I think we should establish a regional Editor-in-Chief Club to exchange and discuss stories of industries and fields, and meet more often instead of waiting until a new year to attend the Forum. When we meet more often, more issues will be revealed, and new and breakthrough solutions will be found in journalism activities."

PV Group

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/bao-chi-hay-tao-ra-nhung-cau-chuyen-tich-cuc-mang-tinh-xay-dung-va-giai-phap-tao-the-can-bang-da-chieu-trong-tin-tuc-post313314.html