Technological autonomy for successful digital transformation

On the afternoon of June 25, the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City organized a June creative connection event with the theme "Digital transformation to serve the press industry". At the event, experts discussed the current situation and proposed solutions to support press agencies in digital transformation.

Reduce dependence on technology services

According to MSc. Nguyen Minh Hai, Head of the Press - Publishing Department of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee's Propaganda Department, digitalization of the press is an inevitable trend of press activities in the current period. Ho Chi Minh City press agencies have gradually implemented digitalization according to their conditions and achieved initial results. Typically, Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper has deployed the sending and editing of news and articles via the CMS system; Tuoi Tre Newspaper has established the Digital Content Development Center; Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper has deployed a project to collect fees from readers of electronic newspapers in the "For VIP readers" section, with initial encouraging results.

According to Mr. Nguyen Minh Hai, despite many efforts, Ho Chi Minh City press agencies still face many difficulties in the process of implementing digital transformation. These include difficulties in technical infrastructure, capital, human resources, data exploitation and analysis, etc. "The press agencies all agree on the need for strong digital transformation support from central and city management agencies to help newspapers innovate and upgrade their infrastructure, and prevent cyber attacks," said Mr. Hai. He also acknowledged that Ho Chi Minh City's press lacks technological autonomy and is forced to depend on technology from partners. This significantly affects the security and commercial capacity of press agencies for their products.

Mr. Hai said that it is necessary to build shared systems or shared solutions for press agencies regarding technical infrastructure, databases, human resources, capital, etc. instead of each agency implementing them separately and fragmentedly. "It is necessary to create conditions for Ho Chi Minh City press agencies to bring their databases to the server of Quang Trung Software Park Company (QTSC), with reasonable service fees, instead of each unit choosing its own partner. Bringing the server here in a centralized manner will help press agencies conveniently process content and security" - Mr. Hai analyzed.

MSc. Nguyen Van Khanh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Press Center, also said that very few press agencies are completely autonomous in terms of servers, CMS, security or Cloud because it is very costly in terms of money and operating costs. "Currently, most of the information systems operated by press agencies have not yet been determined to have an information security level. Press agencies have not yet arranged and invested resources for information security activities. This makes press agencies dependent and can be dominated in terms of content and benefits by technology companies," said Mr. Khanh.

From here, Mr. Khanh recommended that Ho Chi Minh City should direct key technology companies to build a common press content management system (CMS), then share and decentralize it to agencies with electronic newspapers/general electronic news sites for use. This support is aimed at ending dependence on technology service companies for programming, coding...

Delegates shared about the current situation and solutions of digital transformation in press agencies.

AI: Use, don't abuse

At the program, Mr. Pham Tan Anh Vu - Chief Representative of the Southern region of VAIS.VN Company, former Deputy Editorial Secretary of Saigon Entrepreneur Magazine - shared about the application of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help optimize the production process of journalistic works.

According to Mr. Vu, if reporters and editors apply AI tools, they will increase work efficiency by 50%; reduce pressure on processing and collecting content; and increase the value and benefits of content. In addition, there is no fear of running out of topics, creating more new content data sources for AI to advise and support decision making. Mr. Vu also introduced the voice-to-text application "memobot" of VAIS.VN Company to help convert audio files into text, edit text on computers to suit the purpose of use. Up to now, 670 reporters and editors have applied these AI tools to their work and created press products. 80% of students participating in the classes rated this application as a positive, effective solution and can be applied immediately to the news and article production process.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Dien, Director of the Center for Computational Linguistics - University of Natural Sciences (VNU-HCMC), AI is not always accurate, so reporters and editors need to equip themselves with knowledge, have deep and broad understanding and always evaluate the content taken from AI to use for their journalistic works.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Hai emphasized that reporters and editors should not abuse and depend on AI but need to equip themselves with "filters". This filter is created from the political viewpoint, perspective, and understanding of the reporter and editor. From there, apply AI to create appropriate press products.

Financial support for press agencies

Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Press Center Nguyen Van Khanh said that it is necessary to quickly concretize policy and financial support for the city's press agencies. To best support the press agencies to proactively and synchronously digitalize, there must be specific policies, and even the establishment of a "Working Group on Digitalization of Press Agencies" to review the digitalization process of press agencies, thereby promoting and controlling the digitalization process.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tu-chu-cong-nghe-de-chuyen-doi-so-thanh-cong-196240625220833291.htm