Opening up unlimited creative space for journalists

(CLO) The structure of the 2024 National Press Awards will add two new awards, namely the Multimedia Press Award and the Creative Press Award. This change is considered by many experts to promote increased participation opportunities for all authors and press agencies without being limited by type and genre; promote innovation to create momentum for the development of multi-platform, multimedia journalism, data journalism, application of technology in media journalism and digital transformation of journalism.

More than just addition

It can be said that the term Multimedia Journalism has never been mentioned as much as it is today, a type of journalism that opens up unlimited creative space for journalists and press agencies to express a journalistic topic with many different languages ​​and forms.

According to Mr. Le Xuan Trung - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Newspaper, multimedia journalism is a combination of journalistic languages ​​such as text, graphics, images, audio, video and even livestream. However, this combination must be done in a quality and creative way to upgrade multimedia journalism, not just the addition of languages.

"If we can promote the quality of language in a journalistic work, it will convey information in a diverse and vivid way, conveying clear and easy-to-understand messages and especially inspiring and influencing viewers through interaction and immediate feedback," said Mr. Trung.

Journalist Le Xuan Trung - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Newspaper. (Photo: Social Insurance Magazine)

To have high-quality multimedia journalism works, journalist Le Xuan Trung said, authors can rely on lessons from multimedia works that have won high prizes in recent National Press Awards such as: 5-part series: Fierce disasters from natural disasters, landslides: As long as there is destruction, there will be pain! by VietnamPlus; The name on the mountain rock has become the name of the street by a group of authors from Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Several local newspapers have also won high prizes in the 2023 National Press Awards, blurring the lines between reputable press agencies and local newspapers. These include the 5-part series: Big fields build big fields by Thai Binh Newspaper and the 3-part series: Sowing “Red seeds” in FDI enterprises by Binh Duong Newspaper.

According to Mr. Le Xuan Trung, the common point of high-quality multimedia works is that they have topics that are worthy of important current issues of the locality, region and the whole country; events and characters that many people are interested in; new, unique, and attractive discoveries that are impressively presented in multiple languages: text, photos, videos, audio, graphics, etc. The works are led in a logical flow, easy to follow, impact the viewer's emotions and are invested in elaborately and carefully.

In particular, the works must bring positive social effects, receive a lot of interaction and feedback from viewers and relevant agencies and organizations, leading to positive changes after the work is published.

In which journalist Le Xuan Trung emphasized 'solution-oriented topics'. "Currently, the public is more interested in content that has solutions, exits, and confident solutions, whether the problem is old or new, easy or difficult. Avoid focusing too much on boring, deadlocked situations because real-life problems are often repeated, which people often call 'rehashing journalism'," said journalist Le Xuan Trung.

Interactive product of Vnexpress newspaper.

Regarding presentation, Mr. Trung believes that works need to start with familiar things, that is, approaching from stories or everyday characters will attract viewers more than raising dry, macro issues or figures. At the same time, "music and lyrics" juggle with each other, in which the content and presentation must be compatible, support each other, have highlights, lead in a logical flow, avoid mechanical assembly.

In particular, promoting the strengths of photos and graphics instead of listing and illustrating content contributes to making the content lively and concise. For example, photo reports today are not only about showing photos and normal captions but also short interviews to provide solutions and solve problems.

According to the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Newspaper, journalists need to constantly and continuously search for new ideas, new approaches, and new forms of expression because of the more demanding demands of the public in the digital age when they have seen too many things on the internet.

Pushing boundaries with innovation

According to a survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, only 47% of editors, managers, and founders are confident about the prospects of the journalism industry in 2024 due to many impacts in the world , while readers are moving towards reading more news on social networks, content creators on social networks are stronger than press agencies in bringing information to new platforms.

Social media platforms like Tik Tok are growing video incredibly fast and reaching an increasingly young audience. Dylan Page, a video content creator (UK), provides relatively authentic information about the weather or events that attracts a lot of followers and viewers more often than the BBC or the New York Times on Tik Tok.

Journalist Ngo Viet Anh - Deputy Head of the People's Electronic Department, People's Newspaper, commented that on social media platforms, individual content creators are stronger than press agencies in some aspects, showing that the approach and journalistic thinking have not really attracted young people on social media. There is a press trend that is having positive results, which is Podcast - a form of spoken journalism that is very developed, especially during the Covid19 pandemic. Press agencies can pay attention to this direction in the development of the editorial office.

Journalist Ngo Viet Anh - Deputy Head of People's Electronic Department, People's Newspaper.

Regarding the Creative Journalism award category added to this year's National Journalism Awards, Mr. Ngo Viet Anh said that it is a trendy direction because the nature of journalism is creative and international awards are all aimed at innovation and creativity. The prestigious annual Global Digital Media Awards of WAN-IFRA recognizes excellence and groundbreaking digital innovation. Award-winning products and programs tend to inspire the media industry to push the boundaries of innovation. In particular, it recognizes the changing way people receive and interact with news, blurring the element of journalism genre.

Citing creative journalistic works in Vietnam, journalist Ngo Viet Anh mentioned VOV's work "Small Alley" which won the Excellence Award in the Digital Content category of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) 2022.

The work is about an alley with many freelance workers in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. When the Covid19 pandemic broke out for the fourth time, people in this area had to send off 7 funerals in less than 2 months. "It is a great innovation in the field of radio, applying many modern methods. The work has 3 interviews about a husband who lost his wife, a sister who lost her brother and a child who lost his father with impressive visual images, the public can click on each character to listen to the story and can pause and listen again, this work is released on digital platforms" , Mr. Viet Anh said.

Or like the work of Vnexpress Electronic Newspaper - an interactive product about the bribe money flow of the rescue flight with moving images allowing readers to see and feel clearly the whole picture of this shocking incident, where does the money flow go?; to which characters?

Regarding creative journalism products, journalist Ngo Viet Anh cited the supplement of Nhan Dan newspaper. The panorama picture "Dien Bien Phu Campaign" on the front is a combination of two technologies: QR code scanning and augmented reality (AR). The back shows the progress of 56 days and nights of Dien Bien Phu campaign, bilingual in Vietnamese and English.

This supplement is part of the 70th anniversary Dien Bien Phu Victory propaganda campaign of Nhan Dan Newspaper and most recently on November 6, it was awarded the Gold Award by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in the Best Marketing Strategy category.

To implement creative journalism works and products, according to Mr. Ngo Viet Anh, regarding human resources, it is necessary to organize project teams that combine many units, possibly foreign partners. Divide the component projects, prioritize human resources with multimedia and multi-platform thinking.

Regarding technology, prioritize the application of new technologies and cooperate with technology companies in the context of difficulty in recruiting good technology personnel.

"In particular, media finance is an extremely important issue, how to effectively use the budget while promoting socialization, focusing on promotion on social networks. If this issue is not done well, it will be very difficult to spread, a work or creative product that is not known to everyone is meaningless," said journalist Ngo Viet Anh.

Recently at the Conference "High-quality journalism in the context of digital transformation to meet the new requirements of the National Press Awards Charter and promote the task of sustainable development in the Central Highlands region", journalist Tran Trong Dung - Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Journalists Association said that in order to meet the requirements of creating a source of works for the National Press Awards with the new structure, press agencies can effectively coordinate with local Journalists Associations in supplementing and developing the Program, from the stage of selecting topics, evaluating outlines, supporting implementation and evaluating the quality of works, thereby orienting, leading and creating journalistic works with modern journalism methods such as Infographic, Long-form, E-magazine, Podcast...; applying the latest achievements of digital technology such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence to create data journalism products, news packages, multi-platform journalism - communication projects...

Hoa Giang

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/bao-chi-da-phuong-tien-va-bao-chi-sang-tao-mo-ra-khong-gian-sang-tao-khong-gioi-han-cho-nguoi-lam-bao-post320642.html