With many activities moving to cyberspace, how do you assess the role of digital technology in journalism development and its management?

The advancement of digital technology is prompting a significant transformation in journalism worldwide, including in Vietnam.

To compete with non-mainstream media, press agencies have rapidly adopted digital tools to provide real-time news updates.

The strong development of the press and its strong application of digital technology has posed new challenges to press management agencies. The traditional way of press management – reading and censoring unreasonable content -- is getting more challenging, because content can be created easily, quickly, and sometimes, it is published without prior thorough editing.

Moreover, verifying the authenticity of information on the internet in the AI era seems to require more time and effort, while the speed at which information spreads is accelerating. This affects the reputation of journalism and regulatory bodies.

The other challenge for management agencies is the protection of intellectual property and copyrights, because it is now very easy and quick to share and copy content. And even if management agencies force information providers to pull down misinformation and toxic content, this is a ‘thing already done and not reversible’, because the content had been viewed and spread by many people.

In reality, many regulatory agencies now are not up to date in updating knowledge, technology, and laws. The overly rapid technological advancement requires management personnel to promptly acquire necessary skills to work effectively in the digital environment, especially when they have to handle issues concerning cybersecurity, information security, and fake news.

How should regulatory bodies apply digital technology to be sure that journalistic content is effective and appealing to the public?

From the perspective of management agencies, there are two most important that need to be done -  enhancing the censorship capability to prevent fake news and inappropriate information, and training staff to meet the increasing demands in modern times.

First, like press agencies, enhancing management capacity can be achieved by applying automated digital tools to detect and alert fake news, labeling misleading news stories, and guiding public opinion.

Management agencies need to build a network of experts not only majoring in media and communications, but also in computer science, applied IT, programming,  cybersecurity and social media. With the support from the experts, management agencies can examine information better, developing a healthy and prestigious press environment.

And management agencies’ personnel must be provided with enhanced technical training. In-depth training from leading digital technology firms can help management agencies better understand the way of operations, develop skills for using data analysis tools, and processing media information and content, to be able to use digital technology apps in management work.

I believe that if the two things can be implemented, officials will better understand journalistic trends and operations in the modern era, thus reducing the fear of making mistakes (which may lead to overly strict censorship and affect the healthy development of the mainstream media).

What would you, a professional media expert, suggest to help both manage the press well and encourage content creativity, to ensure the strong development of Vietnam’s press?

To empower mainstream journalism, media agencies need to improve in collecting and analyzing readers’ data with big data platforms, and distributing, sharing, and storing information.

It is necessary to optimize information resources from journalists, collaborators, citizen journalists, and influencers. This will prevent unhealthy competition and excessive commercialization, which can lead to ineffective propaganda and damage of the reputation of some press agencies and the entire conventional media industry. This also prevents rampant investment in technology and facilities, thus saving time and resources.

So, regulatory bodies need to complete the legal framework for digital journalism, build networks of media agencies to facilitate cooperation and exchange among journalists, experts, and the public, fostering content sharing and creativity.

How would you describe a reasonable management model?

With the development of digital technology, journalistic activities are not just disseminating information. Press agencies need to utilize technology in a way to enhance user experience, attract public interest.

Meanwhile, different management approaches by ministries and agencies, and overlapping regulations and inconsistent policies will hinder journalists to fulfill its mission. Therefore, there must be a unified, comprehensive management mechanism.

Van Anh