Lang Son Journalism: Catching up with the trend of modern journalism

In the 4th Industrial revolution, all areas of social life are affected by the strong development of technology, and the press is no exception. The working process of a journalist to the stages of finishing and publishing works needs to adapt to changes in technology and new forms to reach the public. Faced with that fact, journalists in the province have been actively innovating to catch up with the trend of modern journalism.

Reporters of Lang Son Newspaper, Provincial Radio and Television Station working in Ho Son commune, Huu Lung district

In fact, in the current context, the public is often “afraid” to read text-rich articles and is attracted by custom-designed images and multimedia products on a variety of devices. To adapt to that trend, the press is now developing in the direction of multi-platform through the Internet. Along with that is the birth and development of the genres of “smart journalism” – infographic, megastory suitable for posting on platforms. Accordingly, these works take advantage of the power of technology to illustrate news in a close and vivid way through visual graphics; combined with multimedia elements such as photos, audio, video in the same work.

Currently, the whole province has nearly 200 reporters, editors and journalists working at 3 press agencies of the province, including: Lang Son Newspaper, Provincial Radio and Television Station, and Xu Lang Culture Magazine. Mr. Hoang Dinh Hom, Provincial Member, Editor-in-Chief of Lang Son Newspaper, Chairman of the Provincial Journalists Association said: In recent years, Vietnamese press in general and Lang Son press in particular are undergoing a strong transformation. In particular, the way journalism is produced and the way to access information has changed, creating new challenges and opportunities for journalists. That requires each journalist to adapt and proactively equip, hone skills in technology mastery, and innovate journalism methods. With the facilitation of agencies and units, over the past time, journalists in the province have been actively grasping and gradually catching up with the trend of modern journalism.

For example, from 2021 up to now, the press agencies of the province have increased investment in technical infrastructure and equipment to serve the production of modern journalistic works. At the same time, the press agencies promote the type of electronic newspapers, build their own categories on graphics and multimedia; actively post official information on social networking sites, build news viewing applications on smartphones… to make information available to the general public. For example, on the Facebook platform, Lang Son Newspaper page currently has more than 8,400 followers, Lang Son Television – LSTV page with over 8,000 followers…

Along with that, in order to promptly update knowledge and train modern journalism skills for the contingent of reporters and editors, the provincial press agencies have coordinated with the Provincial Journalists Association to organize many training courses or directly invite lecturers to train and guide 100% of reporters and editors on the trend of modern journalism, technology application skills and equipment to produce modern journalistic works. Equipped with knowledge, the team of journalists in the province has actively innovated in the process of producing information.

As one of the young reporters who regularly explores and effectively applies knowledge and skills to produce multimedia works, and won the prize B at the 3rd Provincial Press Prize (in 2023). Mrs. Duong Thi Kim, a reporter from the Political and Social Department, Lang Son Newspaper said: In the course of my work, I often use computer and software to create more graphics and short clips to make the work more attractive and attract readers. From the beginning of 2023 up to now, I have done over 20 multimedia journalistic works published on various platforms.

Accordingly, in the first quarter of 2023 alone, reporters of Lang Son Newspaper have made 82 clips and multimedia works (up 65 works compared to the same period in 2022) published on the electronic newspaper and the unit’s Facebook, Zalo, created a strong influence with the total number of accesses on all versions of Lang Son Newspaper was 776,255 times (including interactions).

Ms. Hoang Thi Xuan, Ban Van village, Hoi Hoan commune, Van Lang district said: I mainly only watch news via smartphone, a few years ago I rarely saw information about my province. In the past few years, I have seen news in the province widely shared on social networks. In addition, I can go to the website www.baolangson.vn, LSTVgo application to read and watch news in the province, which is very convenient.

The application of modern technology in journalism not only contributes to improving the effectiveness of propaganda and attracting the public, but also helps journalists save time and effort. Typically, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the production of journalistic works has been initially effectively applied by journalists in the province.

Mr. Vu Thanh Son, Deputy Director of Provincial Radio and Television Station, said: The application of some AI software has been applied by the unit since the beginning of 2021 in the field of advertising and conducting propaganda reports.  For press products, since the broadcast from April 2022 to present, The Digital Transformation program (1 program/week) performed by the Specialty Department was edited by the editor using Vbee.vn software to read comments, create novelty and contribute to simplifying the production process of journalistic works.

Through the application of information technology and new skills in production, journalists in the province have been creating journalistic works in accordance with the trend of readers’ access to information, thereby expanding opportunities to reach the public, contributing to improving the effectiveness of propaganda in the current digital technology era.