Training on professional skills for Nghe An Newspaper collaborators: Sharing and spreading

(Baonghean) - Over the past month, Nghe An Newspaper has coordinated with districts and towns in the province to organize journalism training for hundreds of reporters, collaborators, informants and reporters of radio and television stations in districts and towns. With practical content, closely related to the actual situation in localities, the collaborator training program has received enthusiastic response from collaborators.

From early morning, engineer Le Dinh Dinh in Quang Tien ward (Thai Hoa town) was present at the town's political training center. Although he is 80 years old, his demeanor is still agile, sharp and very passionate about writing. Over the years, Mr. Dinh has been an effective collaborator of the Thai Hoa town's internal information page, the ward's FM station and Nghe An Newspaper. When he received the invitation to attend the collaborator training conference, Mr. Dinh was very excited and was one of the first people present before the conference opened.

Sitting in the first row, holding a small notebook, the old agricultural engineer diligently took notes on new theoretical content about how to write news and about electronic newspapers. During the discussion and practice session, Mr. Dinh and another collaborator, engineer Nguyen Minh Thao, enthusiastically joined other collaborators to take photos and write articles about beekeeping in Thai Hoa. While attentively watching the group members process images, the collaborators enthusiastically commented on every dot, comma, and small mistake in photo captions...

Nghe An newspaper staff exchange professional knowledge with collaborators

These are vivid images often seen in training sessions. At the training session in Nghia Dan district, folk artist Hoang Nghia Hoi (82 years old), with white hair and beard, also enthusiastically attended. Uncle Hoi is the Chairman of Nghia Hoi Folk Song Club, one of the people with great contributions in transmitting the art form that has just been recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. On the sidelines of the training, during breaks, the old artist enthusiastically sang folk songs and inspired other amateur singers to perform performances with the Vi and Giam folk song melodies. "If folk artists like us are passing on the heritage to the next generation every day, Nghe An Newspaper is also spreading its "brand" in the hearts of readers and people through specific and practical actions", Artist Hoang Nghia Hoi confided.

Mr. Hoi's sharing is also the sentiment of many other collaborators who attended the training program of Nghe An Newspaper. Ms. Luong Thi Hoai, Secretary of the Youth Union of Na Loi Commune, Ky Son District, said that this was the first time she learned about some concepts of journalism, understood the process of creating an article, and learned how to exploit information on electronic newspapers. After this training, Ms. Hoai will have more skills in writing reports on the work of the Youth Union, writing news about the activities of the Youth Union and other organizations in Na Loi Commune on the internal newsletter and the district's electronic news site as well as sending news and articles to Nghe An Newspaper.

...These days, Mr. Ho Van Ngoc, in Dinh hamlet, Tam Hop commune (Quy Hop) is feeling happy because for the first time, his information has been published. Although he is a simple farmer, he has a hobby of researching and often reads Nghe An newspapers. When attending a training class, he was instructed by Nghe An Newspaper reporters on how to work on a mobile phone, and he boldly went to work during the practice session. The topic he chose was the traffic safety violations on National Highway 48, Hop Long hamlet, Dong Hop commune (Quy Hop). After more than 1 hour, with a tiny phone, Mr. Ngoc wrote the information "The market is held right on National Highway 48", which was highly appreciated by the organizers and was rewarded at the training conference and published on Nghe An electronic newspaper.

Over the past month, Nghe An Newspaper has implemented a program to coordinate with districts and towns to organize training courses on journalism for reporters, collaborators, and informants at the grassroots level throughout the province. On average, each training course has from 60 to 90 participants with all components, including reporters from districts, cultural officers of communes, wards, and towns, Youth Union officers, commune radio station officers, reporters from district radio and television stations, etc. Hundreds of collaborators have been trained and equipped with basic knowledge on information exploitation, news writing, and articles; some propaganda orientations on Party congresses at all levels; ways to exploit information on the Internet, especially electronic newspapers to serve their work; some basic skills on electronic newspapers, electronic information pages, exploiting information on social networks to serve their expertise, etc.

With the form of combining theory and practice, requiring quick operation on modern equipment, the training conferences have brought practical results. After each training session, the organizing committee coordinated with the Propaganda Department of districts and towns to re-evaluate the training process and award prizes to outstanding collaborators. With the criteria of fast, correct, accurate, good, prioritizing multimedia integrated operations, the organizing committee received dozens of works including news, articles, photo series, video clips from trainees after the training session. Many excellent works were awarded and published in Nghe An Newspaper publications.

Collaborators of Thai Hoa town talk with reporters of Nghe An Newspaper at the training conference.

Along with professional training, Nghe An Newspaper also has practical support policies for collaborators such as supporting travel expenses for collaborators; giving cameras to district TV stations that have made great efforts in collaborating on news, articles, video clips, etc. Training programs are organized continuously, in a short time in all districts and towns in the province right before the time when party organizations organize congresses for the 2015-2020 term, which is more and more practical, contributing to promoting the image of the locality on mass media, while improving publications such as electronic information pages, internal newsletters of districts and towns as well as improving the quality of publications of Nghe An Newspaper.

As said by Comrade Nguyen Van Son, Standing Deputy Secretary of Anh Son District Party Committee: Nghe An Newspaper's approach is not simply to equip professional skills for collaborators, but also a way to improve the quality of grassroots cadres, especially in the context of information technology, electronic websites and social networks developing rapidly. Comrade Dam Huu Hong, Deputy Secretary of Tan Ky District Party Committee, commented: Nghe An Newspaper is not only a pioneer in diversifying information content but also has good and creative ways to build a team of dedicated collaborators, qualified to meet the requirements of collaboration.

It can be affirmed that the journalism training program for Nghe An Newspaper’s collaborators is a meaningful professional activity. It not only helps the “extended arms” of Nghe An Newspaper share experiences and learn skills and knowledge about journalism, but also contributes to spreading the Nghe An Newspaper brand to the masses.

Nguyen Khoa