Listen, understand and speak practically and at the right level of awareness.
(Baonghean) - In the context of the current information explosion, reporters must be extremely sensitive and proactive in innovating methods to grasp the ideological situation among cadres, party members and people, providing accurate, timely and effective information as a basis for leading and directing the Party's ideological work.
Propaganda must be truly convincing.
Every first Monday of the month, the Cau Giat Town Party Committee (Quynh Luu) organizes a Reporter Conference. At these conferences, town officials and Party cell secretaries of the blocks listen to Secretary of the Block 11 Party Cell Tang Van Que - reporter of the Town Party Committee, inform about the general current situation as well as the propaganda work of the month in the town; in addition, he also directly participates in reporting to political and social organizations and Party cells in the administrative system and the Town Party Committee.
Sharing experiences in propaganda work, comrade Tang Van Que said that in addition to receiving information at the conference of reporters in the district, it is necessary to regularly update information through newspapers and the internet to propagate policies and guidelines to the people, while promptly preventing and combating distorted arguments to share the solidarity of the people and oppose the government.
"To bring the policy to the people, each reporter must prepare propaganda content suitable for each audience, conveying the content in a way that is easy to listen to, easy to understand and easy to absorb."
 |
| Leaders of Cau Giat Town Party Committee discussed ideological work with reporter Tang Van Que. Photo: My Nga |
Secretary of the Cau Giat Town Party Committee Ho Sy Nguyet assessed: Thanks to the good work of oral propaganda, it has contributed to removing difficulties and obstacles in implementing development policies and plans in the area. For example, the town completed the site clearance for projects and resolved 80% of the situation of people encroaching on traffic corridors. In particular, although in the past, some extremists were active in fighting against disturbances, the people in Tan Loc Parish, Cau Giat Town were not lured or enticed to listen to bad guys, but always united to take care of socio-economic development, fighting against harassment activities that disrupt public order and security.
In Nghia Binh commune (Tan Ky), the team of reporters focused on innovating the method of oral propaganda by preparing content for propaganda on the commune's loudspeaker system and sending documents to party cells according to the propaganda direction of the District Party Committee's Propaganda Department.
Every day, from 6:30 in the morning and from 5:00 in the afternoon; each broadcast lasts from 15 to 20 minutes, with a structure of 5 to 7 news items and often a short article in between, quickly reflecting important political events of the district and locality. Currently, 100% of communes and towns in Tan Ky district have grassroots radio stations, aiming to improve the effectiveness of grasping ideas, creating consensus in people's awareness, accompanying the Party Committee and government in socio-economic development.
 |
| 100% of communes in Tan Ky district effectively use radio to convey information to people. Photo: My Nga |
In addition, Tan Ky District Party Committee has decided to establish a team of social public opinion collaborators at the district level with a total of 20 comrades. The collection of social public opinion information is maintained monthly through the team of reporters and social public opinion collaborators of the district; timely and accurate forecasting of information flow and proposing solutions to provide correct direction and decisions, resolutely not allowing "hot spots" to occur in the area.
The establishment of news clubs is also considered an innovation in oral propaganda work. 21/21 district, city and town Party committees in the province have maintained monthly or quarterly news club activities. Many clubs also regularly invite central reporters to give talks on topics in the fields of economics, national defense and security, providing official news information for members, cadres, party members and people to grasp, thereby contributing to strengthening consensus in society.
 |
| Party members in Son Hai commune (Quynh Luu) propagate to sailors before going to sea. Photo: Archive |
The province currently has 2,600 reporters at all levels, of which 58 are provincial reporters; 587 are district and equivalent levels; and 2,424 are commune, ward, town, agency, and enterprise levels. The grassroots propaganda team has about 10,170 comrades. In 2018, 11 monthly reporters' conferences were organized at the provincial level with nearly 1,450 reporters participating.
Identifying the “spearhead” in raising awareness
In recent times, the reporting team of the whole province has been carefully reviewed and selected by the Party Committees at all levels from those with theoretical and professional qualifications; with capacity and practical experience; regularly improving skills, and being trained in content. Reporters at all levels are focused on being arranged to participate in studying and disseminating resolutions, and are provided with complete and timely documents, magazines and means of communication.
In order to create an environment for exchange and discussion among reporters, the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department periodically organizes a provincial-level reporter conference from the 19th to the 21st, 5 days earlier than before, to create conditions for the grassroots level to proactively prepare information content. From the fact that reporters are provided with official information content, the quality of information has been gradually improved, closely following the propaganda orientation and answering many issues that cadres, party members and people are interested in.
 |
| Provincial regular reporter conference in March 2019. Photo: Mai Hoa |
According to comrade Phan Minh Ly (Propaganda Information Department, Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department), the form of information transmission has recently been innovated in the direction of updating, synthesizing information, and guiding document sources, rather than focusing on presenting event developments and specific information.
In particular, according to comrade Phan Minh Ly, the Committee focused on analyzing and commenting on issues, many contents were presented in conjunction with the use of image projection technology... In addition, to promptly provide and convey information quickly, the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department proactively established channels and groups connected via the social network Facebook, setting up a common document mailbox so that everyone can access and search for documents.
 |
| Award ceremony of the 2018 Thai Hoa Town Excellent Reporter Contest. Photo courtesy |
With the rapid and strong development of technology, the access to diverse and multi-dimensional information makes oral propaganda activities somewhat "inferior". Therefore, it requires the team of reporters to be extremely sensitive, prestigious, enthusiastic and capable of propaganda.
Regarding this issue, according to Deputy Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department Kha Van Tam, Party committees at all levels need to focus on building and supplementing a team of reporters to meet practical requirements. In addition to hard skills such as qualifications, knowledge, and practical understanding, reporters need to have soft skills such as: selecting key issues, expressing fluently, and relating to reality... Especially in the era of information explosion, especially with a lot of toxic information on social networks, each reporter needs to focus on oral propaganda work, not only stopping at providing information, but also analyzing, orienting, and creating correct awareness for cadres, party members, and people.
"That requires further improving the quality and effectiveness of oral propaganda work, ensuring that it truly becomes a spearhead in raising awareness, responsibility, fighting and refuting wrong and hostile viewpoints and deviant manifestations."
 |
| Officials of the Propaganda Department of Quy Hop District Party Committee directly mobilize and propagate to the people of Chau Ly commune. Photo: Document |
