VietNamNet Bridge - The future of news media and what it must do in response to severe competition from technology companies and social networking services were the key issues discussed at the 2017 KPF Journalism Conference entitled "Future of News Media: Platform, Trust, Innovation".

The event was organized by the Korea Press Foundation (KPF), with the participation of journalists, experts and representatives of leading technology companies from many countries, in Seoul, South Korea on November 13-14.

The power of news media on the decline 

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-Yeon speaks at the conference.

The vigorous growth of technology companies, Google and social networking services has become a threat for news media because publishing information is no longer the privilege of news media and the news media is no longer the top choice of readers worldwide. 

Speaking at the conference, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon stressed: "The power of news media is declining because everyone can now publish the news. The readers are changing as they read not only newspapers and watch television but also content on the mobile." He said that news media must change to catch up with the new era.

Nic Newman, one of the founders of BBC website who is now working for the Reuters Institute, said that news media is under heavy pressure from technology companies such as Google and Facebook. Television and print media will no longer be advantageous as readers are turning to watching video on the internet and prefer to watch and listen rather than read, which also leads to a gradual decrease of income from advertising of the media.

Prof. Yoon Young Chul from Yonsei University, President of the Korea Association of Newspapers and Media Research, cited an example in his country that technology apps like Naver could affect the identity of news media. Naver is the leading search site in Korea with many useful applications for readers. Naver pays for the news feed from Korean news agencies.

Yoon Young Chul believed that although Naver paid for news from Korean news agencies, the fact that readers read more on Naver than on newspapers will cause newspapers to lose their identity and readers forget the names of newspapers or the names of the writers. Comments will be made on Naver rather than on the source pages. According to the Reuters Institute, less than 50% of the people reading news through technology portals could remember the name of the sources.

Prof. Emlily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, New York, USA.

Professor Emily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, New York, USA spoke about the dangerous side of social networking - false and fake information. She took the US presidential election as an example: the volume of false and fake information was much more than the official information. Therefore, she called on technology companies such as Facebook, Google to be more responsible for their information.

News media for readers

The conference attracts journalists, experts and representatives of leading technology companies from many countries. 

The drastic changes of technology platforms and the development of social networking services have forced news media to answer the questions: Will news media disappear and how can it maintain a role in the future?

Most of the answers raised at the conference went straight to the issue: The news media must adapt itself to the trend of the times.

It is a fact that information published by news agencies is more responsible than information on social networks. According to David Levy, director of the Reuters Institute, the institute’s surveys conducted in many countries show that only 24% of people believed that there is a clear distinction between real and fake information while 40% said that the news media did a good job of separating between the real and the false news. So it is time for journalists to tighten up their information checks to increase their credibility to readers in order to hold the readers. Information should be cross-checked at least three times before it is published.

The news agencies should constantly update technology to ensure that the content will always be attractive and new to their readers. New York Times photographer Lee Chang Wook, who won the Pulitzer Prize 2002 for the photos of the September 11 attacks and its aftermath, introduced the latest photographic techniques which can create special effects. The Guardian's virtual reality design team also demonstrated the impressive virtual reality filming technique at the conference. These modern techniques are very good but many journalists attending the conference said that they are costly for news agencies in developing countries.

A journalist speaks at the conference.

One of the solutions for online newspapers when the number of readers decreases and the revenue from advertising declines is the development of subscribers. The New York Times is the leading newspaper in this field. It currently has up to 2.5 million subscribers. Since 2010, the number of its subscribers has grown steadily, with a growth rate of up to 46% in 2017.

The secret behind the success, according to Tim Herrera, the first editor of Smarter Living at The New York Times, is a reader-based policy, with the following main direction: the content aims to give advice to readers to help them have a better life; diversify distribution channels (via social networks, search optimization on Google, cooperating with technology firms whose websites attract large numbers of readers); and diversify writing styles ...

Pointing out a lot of difficulties and many solutions, the majority of attendees agreed that news media would forever keep with its basic values, as Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak -Yeon said at the workshop: "When I was 20, the press provided the truth, and now I am over 60, the press still provides the truth."

Do Phuong