A crucial process contributing to improving the quality of journalism in the new era.

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

A high-quality press conference in the context of digital transformation, organized by the Vietnam Journalists Association . (Photo: Tran Hai)

On the morning of November 22nd, in Hanoi , the Vietnam Journalists Association organized a conference titled "High-Quality Journalism in the Context of Digital Transformation: Meeting the New Requirements of the National Journalism Award Regulations and Promoting Sustainable Development Tasks" for the Northern region.

Journalism in the new era must be creative and innovative.

In his opening remarks at the conference, the Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, Nguyen Duc Loi, stated that with just over a year remaining until the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, major orientations for national development have been and continue to be important topics discussed in the drafting of the documents to be presented to the Congress. Particularly noteworthy is the vision for the country entering a new era, an era of national progress for Vietnam, as outlined by General Secretary To Lam .

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

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

Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi emphasized that, during this crucial period, when the country faces a historical opportunity for breakthroughs, the press must also adapt and change, accompanying the nation. In the new era, the press must be creative and innovative to meet public needs, keep pace with the development of the times, and support the country's digital transformation.

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

Digital transformation: A matter of survival for journalism.

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

In this context, the professionalism and modernity required by the Party mean that Vietnam's revolutionary press must also strive to keep pace with global development trends, one of which is the fourth industrial revolution and digital transformation.

General Secretary To Lam recently published an important, strategically significant article: "Digital Transformation - A Crucial Driving Force for Developing Productive Forces, Perfecting Production Relations, and 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 numerous resolutions and documents of the Party Congress.

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

The Prime Minister has also approved the "Digital Transformation Strategy for Journalism by 2025, with a vision to 2030," aiming to build media organizations that are professional, humane, and modern; to effectively fulfill their mission of disseminating information and propaganda to serve the revolutionary cause of the Party and the country's reform process; to ensure their leading role in guiding public opinion and maintaining information sovereignty in cyberspace; to innovate the reader experience; to create new revenue streams; and to promote the development of the digital content industry.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi stated that practical experience shows that digital technology has had the first, strongest, and most profound impact on the field of journalism and media. The use of digital technology in journalism has become a matter of survival for the press.

Updates have been made regarding the types of entries for the National Journalism Award.

According to Nguyen Duc Loi, Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, in order to keep up with new trends in journalism, the Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association and Chairman of the National Journalism Awards Council, Le Quoc Minh, has signed and issued the revised Regulations for the National Journalism Awards. Accordingly, the following awards have been added: Multimedia Journalism Product and Creative Journalism Product.

Regarding the criteria for high-quality journalism that meet the requirements of the 19th National Journalism Award Regulations, 2024, representatives from the Professional Affairs Department of the Vietnam Journalists Association shared regulations for various types of journalism. Specifically, multimedia journalism products are defined as: journalistic works and products that utilize multimedia data and apply digital communication processes, techniques, and technologies in content creation and production, with independent formats such as: infographics, video clips, podcasts, multimedia news packages, data journalism products, interactive journalism, etc.

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

Creative journalistic products are works, products, and programs that are innovative and groundbreaking, clearly demonstrating that the author(s) have effective solutions to improve journalistic productivity, save production costs, reach the right target audience, effectively influence the public's awareness, attitudes, and behavior, and enhance public participation and interaction towards sustainable national, regional, and local development goals.

Improve and expand the High-Quality Journalism Support Program.

Besides the National Journalism Awards, the Vietnam Journalists Association continues to receive attention and trust from the Prime Minister, who has assigned 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 four years of implementation, the Program to Support High-Quality Journalism Works at all levels of the Vietnam Journalists Association for the period 2021-2025 has achieved many successes in supporting reporters, journalists, and media organizations.

Accordingly, over the three years (2021-2023), the Central Program to support high-quality journalistic works allocated 11.46 billion VND to 18 affiliated associations and 103 journalist chapters; thereby supporting nearly 4,000 authors and receiving 3,875 high-quality works across various journalistic genres.

Meanwhile, the program to support local Journalists' Associations nationwide amounted to 27.7 billion VND; local Journalists' Associations directly supported over 4,000 authors who are members of the Vietnam Journalists' Association in various localities; and received 4,263 high-quality works in various journalistic forms.

The program also organizes conferences and workshops on journalistic practices to help media organizations improve the quality of their work; and supports research, compilation, and publication of books to disseminate, promote, and archive high-quality journalistic works.

Overview of the conference. (Photo: Tran Hai)

In particular, during the implementation of the Program, many high-quality works that received funding support won the National Journalism Award and the Journalism Awards of localities, ministries, sectors, and organizations. In fact, the works that won high prizes (A, B, C) in the National Journalism Award over the years were all high-quality journalistic works that had received support.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi, in the context of journalism facing many new challenges, supporting high-quality journalism is becoming increasingly urgent. The program to support high-quality journalism has partially met this need, helping journalists have more opportunities to be creative. However, to meet the increasingly high 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 Committee of the Association pay attention to and organize more training courses on creating high-quality journalistic works using high-quality journalism budget funds, so that members - journalists, especially those in disadvantaged provinces - have the opportunity to access modern journalistic content and skills.

After more than 3 hours of presentations and discussions, the conference heard comments and assessments from delegates of the Central Press Agency Branches and 25 Journalists' Associations of provinces and cities in the Northern region on the role and tasks of the press in promoting the sustainable development of the country.

Simultaneously, the report proposes solutions for digital transformation in journalism, the development of diverse digital journalistic products, and increased efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of journalism on the sustainable development of localities in particular and the country in general.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/chuyen-doi-so-qua-trinh-quan-trong-gop-phan-nang-cao-chat-luong-bao-chi-trong-ky-nguyen-moi-294710.html