Held by the Vietnam Journalist Association, the event aims to create an open mechanism to share the practices, progress and best methods for digital transformation in media among ASEAN countries.

Speakers are also anticipated to discuss and propose initiatives and priorities for stronger cooperation in the ASEAN community to jointly develop professtional, modern and humane media agencies, innovate readers’ experiences, create new revenue sources, and promote the development of digital content industry.

The conference will include two sessions with the first one focusing on “General theories on digital newsrooms management” and the second one about “Digital newsrooms management: reality, experience, and solution”.

Le Quoc Minh, Member of the Party Central Committee (PCC), Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the PCC’s Commission for Information and Education and Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association said that the conference is expected to connect and share knowledge and experience in press digital transformation among ASEAN countries, contributing to suggesting solutions to build professional, humane and modern press agencies while renewing readers’ experiences, generating new revenue sources and fostering digital content industry.

Digital transformation brings both opportunities and challenges for all press agencies in the world, including those in ASEAN countries, urging them to quickly adapt, promote and speed up the digital transformation to become more professtional and humane and better serve the society.

Conference looks to promote digital transformation in digital newsroom management in ASEAN region

On December 7, the Vietnam Journalists Association hosted an international conference in Hanoi entitled ‘Digital Newsroom Management: Theory, Practice, and Experience in the ASEAN Region’.

The opening ceremony was attended by Nguyen Thanh Lam, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Information and Communications; Nguyen Duc Loi, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association; Savankhone Razmountry, President of Lao Journalists Association; Low Boon Tat, Vice Chairman of the Malaysian National Union of Journalists; and Chavarong Limpattamapanee, Chairman of the National Press Council of Thailand and Senior Advisor to the Federation of Thai Journalists.

It also attracted the participation of press managers, representatives of media agencies, experts, scientists, and journalists from the eight member countries of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ): Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Lam emphasised that the media and press agencies of ASEAN member countries are facing both opportunities and challenges in continuing to affirm the mission of popularising official information to the public and giving power to the people.

Press agencies will not be able to fulfil that noble mission unless they work together and foster digital transformation, he stressed.

While briefing the participants on the current digital transformation among newspapers in Vietnam, Lam noted with pleasure that many Vietnamese press agencies have worked out measures to introduce their products on digital platforms and cross-border social networks.

This conference provides a valuable opportunity for participating press agencies to exchange experience and learn from each other in applying technologies in newsroom management in their countries.

During his speech, Nguyen Duc Loi, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, stated that with regard to journalism, digital transformation is the process of applying modern technology to news production and distribution activities, enriching the digital media ecosystem with new and superior features while improving the quality and effectiveness of communication to the public.

In addition, digital journalism strongly promotes social super-interaction: interaction between newspapers, between newspapers and the public, between newspapers and social networks, between the public itself, between the public and authorities, and between press agencies and policy planning and administration agencies.

He added that digital journalism creates metadata in cyberspace and connects and mobilises the public to solve problems at the community, national, and international scale.

However, he pointed out that in addition to these opportunities, digital transformation also brings significant challenges, especially the fierce competition with social networks, which are easy to access, easy to share, and have quick and divergent information.

Given the situation, he stressed that these opportunities and challenges force all press agencies in the world including those in ASEAN countries to quickly adapt, promote, and accelerate the digital transformation.

He reported that the digital transformation of press agencies in Vietnam aims to create an overall and comprehensive change in working methods, organisational models, and press creativity, create an important change in the mind-set and attitude of leaders, reporters, and editors of press agencies, promote journalism development based on a converged, multi-platform, multi-service, multi-media model to effectively perform the function of providing updated, objective, multi-dimensional information to the public domestically and around the world.

He called on delegates at the conference to clarify general theoretical issues about digital journalism and digital newsrooms, including digital platforms and digital tools in newsroom management.

At the same time, they should identify and discuss new issues that need further research in building digital newsrooms, he stated.

Participants should also pay attention on discussing the development trends of digital journalism in the world and in ASEAN countries, and exchanging practical experiences from other countries, propose practical and feasible solutions to transform the operations of newsrooms towards building a digital newsroom model, he added.