Multidimensional view of press integration

In the integration “cycle”, the press is not only an active factor in propagating and encouraging all organizations and individuals in society to participate in integration and know how to integrate in the right direction and effectively, but the press itself must also strengthen and proactively integrate. So how has the Vietnamese press integrated so far? Vietnam Post would like to introduce some opinions on the integration activities of the Vietnamese press.

*Mr. Le Quoc Minh - Editor-in-Chief of VietnamPlus Electronic Newspaper

At the reporter-editor level, we have a long-standing inherent difficulty: foreign languages.

In general, Vietnamese press has integrated quite quickly and there is no shortage of any type compared to the world press, especially since the beginning of the 21st century. Vietnamese daily newspapers and weekly newspapers have progressed a bit slowly, but Vietnamese magazines have print quality and content that is not inferior to international magazines - this has been confirmed by many foreign experts. The same goes for Vietnamese television, which has developed rapidly in a short time. Not to mention the integration of dozens of foreign television channels. The first Vietnamese newspapers set foot on the Internet quite early, from 1997-1998, which is not too late compared to the world.

But to be fair, Vietnamese press has adopted world trends in a “half-hearted” way – meaning they catch up very quickly but stop there and do not continue to innovate. Many newspapers think that having an electronic version on the Internet is enough, without building a long-term digital strategy. Currently, many newspapers in Vietnam are still struggling with building websites, while the world has long moved on to mobile. Newspapers in Vietnam are hardly interested in building applications, and many newspapers have made rather rudimentary mobile web versions.

Many key issues of the world press in the past few years have not been given attention in the Vietnamese press, such as programmatic advertising technology, native advertising, modern and transparent access/user measurement and tracking tools. The Vietnamese press also seems to invest little in researching and developing new media products, still maintaining the traditional way of posting content, although combining text, photos, videos and calling it multimedia, it is still too slow and simple compared to the world's way of doing things when they have combined location-based features, mobile communications or real-time technology (virtual reality) quite strongly. Even the design of Vietnamese websites is old-fashioned, while foreign newspapers have long applied "responsive" design - meaning a unified design that automatically changes according to the size of computer, tablet and mobile screens.

At the reporter-editor level, we have a long-standing difficulty in foreign languages. The majority of reporters and editors who lack this skill are at a disadvantage because they miss out on many opportunities to attend conferences, seminars, short- and long-term training courses... using English and French as their main languages. Also because they are not good at foreign languages, many people struggle to find documents, both in their specialized fields and in modern journalism documents. Also because of the lack of foreign languages, there are not many articles from Vietnam that look at the regional or international perspective, while the press in our neighboring countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia has been doing so for a long time. The way journalism is done today has changed a lot, and I think each individual must improve and transform themselves, because schools - like the law - cannot change to keep up with the pace of development in reality. I think there are many young reporters and editors who are very active with these new changes, the problem is that they have not been given the opportunity to demonstrate their work.

The decisiveness of integration in the field of journalism probably depends largely on the editorial level. If editorial offices still maintain the old way of doing things, considering their newspaper as an oasis and only struggling in that oasis, it cannot be called integration. Some newspapers are also struggling, looking for new directions, finding ways to reorganize in the style of a converged editorial office, applying new technologies to monitor information, and streamlining work flows. But most editorial offices in Vietnam still work according to a formula that has not changed much compared to the way of doing journalism since the end of the last century. I know that, up to this moment, when the 21st century has passed nearly 1/5 of the way, some local printed newspapers still operate like... wall newspapers, stopping production very early and not caring when there is new news. The world press now has to find all kinds of ways to be creative, make new products, accept experimentation and failure, but in the Vietnamese press it is very difficult to find such creativity. Or there are places where creativity is not properly invested, so the products only reach a certain level and then stop developing or even decline. If the Vietnamese press continues to do the same thing as before, I am afraid that the word “integration” will only be a formality.

*Ms. Luong Bich Ngoc - Editor-in-Chief of Discovery Electronic Magazine

This integration achievement has a great contribution from the press and media.

Integration in a new perspective, when almost everything is increasingly open, information exchange, import and transmission also become easier at a dizzying speed. Advances in science and technology, the economic and political situation of countries and organizations in the world have now become daily discussions of many Vietnamese people. And a Vietnam with a stable political environment and beautiful landscape is not strange to any international friends. Bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation between Vietnam and the rest of the world increasingly contributes significantly to development.

This integration achievement has a great contribution from the press and media. Journalists now play the role of “importers” and “exporters”, here no longer tangible goods but the import and export of information.

To “import” quality information and “export” information of interest to the world, journalists in the integration era, in addition to being sharp and sensitive, need to be fluent in foreign languages ​​and technology. Multi-dimensional interaction on that platform helps journalists thoroughly understand the issues that need to be talked about and written about at an extremely fast speed. Only then can they exploit information quickly and accurately to attract readers to their side. Just like the story, if you want to cross the river quickly and safely, you have to find a boat to get on. Journalism in the integration era is the same.

*Mr. Nguyen Truong Son - Director of the Center for International Press and Media Cooperation, Ministry of Information and Communications

Journalism and media is one of the pioneering industries in the field of international integration. It not only has to proactively integrate but also help other industries and fields to integrate.

Journalism and communication is one of the pioneering sectors in the field of international integration, not only must it proactively integrate but also help other sectors and fields to integrate. In recent times, the journalism and communication sector has made great efforts to keep up with the pace of development in the world, the application of high technology is increasingly given top priority. Vietnam has the advantage of being among the countries with the fastest development of information technology, the number of Internet users, the number of television channels, and newspapers are also among the top in the world and the region. This is a favorable condition for Vietnamese journalists, television, and media to promote their capacity and talent.

In recent times, our Center has regularly conducted activities related to exchange and introduction of press and media products to foreign countries. We have organized the ASEAN photo and documentary film festival three times, receiving many photos and documentary films from ASEAN countries. In general, we can see that Vietnamese photo and documentary works, if compared to the regional level, are not inferior to any other. We are even better than some countries.

The advantage of Vietnamese press and media today is that they learn their trade very quickly and are very active when integrating. But one of the disadvantages of Vietnam today is that they often confuse propaganda journalism and entertainment journalism. If we make a general-purpose newspaper, it certainly cannot have depth.

On the other hand, there are many Vietnamese newspapers that are making newspapers in the opposite way to the modern journalism process in the world. In theory, modern journalism requires the design department to design fixed pages from the beginning based on scientific research, for example, each page must clearly specify the number of words, articles, and photos, so that when readers open the newspaper to read, they will not get tired eyes and will get a lot of information. Meanwhile, many of our press agencies base their page design on the content of the news articles, which often makes readers tired eyes and feel bored and stop reading. Or in the field of television, according to the modern journalism process, there must be a script and commentary, then go to filming to serve the content of the film's orientation, but in Vietnam today, there are still some places that after the script is oriented, go to filming, then write the commentary, if this scene is missing, they do not write the commentary anymore, only comment on what they have, leading to the final product being different from the original plan. Like a house that looks very beautiful, every detail looks very beautiful but the whole picture is distorted and messy because it is not uniform.

*Blogger Nguyen Ngoc Long - Head of Black Moon Media Group

Vietnamese press is catching up very quickly with world press. For example, working with smartphones, publishing on app stores, live broadcasting on Youtube and interactive journalism.

Frankly speaking, when integrating, Vietnamese press still has many limitations but also has its own advantages. First is in terms of brand. Many large media agencies in the world have global brands and global operations, so when "entering Vietnam", they will make readers feel more "impressive". However, I think this feeling will not last long, because the characteristic of the press is still the diversity of essential information. And in this aspect, clearly Vietnamese press has an advantage.

Observing copyrighted entertainment newspapers such as Cosmopolitan, Bazaar, Esquire, or foreign entertainment channel MTV, I see that they "cannot compete" with domestic newspapers. Obviously, home field advantage, information acumen, diverse number of contributors, understanding of local culture are still core competitive advantages.

Technical factors are not a big barrier. Although we have only talked a lot about multimedia communication, not multimedia journalism. But in fact, modern means and methods of working are also being caught up very quickly by the Vietnamese press with the world press. For example, working with smartphones, publishing on application markets, live broadcasting on Youtube and interactive journalism.

But whatever is said, the key point of the press must still be diversity and sensitivity of information. I think the Law on Access to Information is an issue that the press needs to pay special attention to. To integrate well, the press needs to compete on a fair playing field. This draft law, when passed, will create a huge boost for the domestic press, and fill in the missing pieces to be ready for the integration game.

As for contributing to the development of Vietnam, I think the press needs to approach universal global issues and globally shared values, such as human rights, transparency and integrity.

Up to now, the domestic press has done a very good job of monitoring and criticizing, thereby helping to improve the administration and management of the country by public agencies. But in a bigger game, we must pay attention to bigger issues.

The concepts may seem unfamiliar, the press must contribute to conveying them in a popular way to the public so that each person can truly be a global citizen. Only with global citizens can we have a global industry and economy, creating confidence and a solid mindset for Vietnam in the process of integration and development.

Integration in a new perspective, when most things are increasingly open, information exchange, import and transmission also become easier at a dizzying speed.

According to Infonet.vn