Striving to establish a wide range of trust in mainstream media will increasingly encounter greater resistance and resistance.The attack on reporters and journalists has become a common phenomenon around the world.With the help of artificial intelligence and scammers, fake news and error messages -these sounds that sound almost outdated -they are re -burning.
The World Health Organization website lists some suggestions made by the global anti -crown disease epidemic.
On the one hand, it recommends that we listen to the state and local official opinions and suggestions, and pay attention to credible news channels.On the other hand, it also recommends "minimizing news push."
For all people engaged in news work, this is a suggestion that we need to take and consider carefully.
There is no doubt that the worst days of the epidemic have passed.But how many people can say that even now, the suggestions of the WHO several years ago did not make sense to some extent?
Not only that.In May of this year, Dr. Vivek Murthy, a US Medical Medical Director, released a warning on social media and youth mental health.He admits that it is true that teenagers are almost using social media, and this is indeed some benefits.However, there are "signs of signs" that social media may also harm the mental health and well -being of children and adolescents.
He calls on policy makers, technology companies, researchers, families, and adolescents to take emergency actions.And create a safer and healthier network environment to protect children. "
On the list of people who must take emergency action, I want to add us -editors and reporters.After all, when we tried to reach them on their linger platforms, was it doing good or bad things?How can we recognize the disadvantages of social media on the one hand and cooperate with all parties to alleviate them. On the other hand, we continue to provide content to keep them on these platforms?
The status quo of the news media
In our discussion, the term "subversion" always appears.But the most important subversion may threaten the core of our work, that is our relationship with the audience.
Reuters Journalism Research Institutions announced a warning fact this year, that is, the number of times to directly access news publications through URLs or applications has decreased year by year.
When we talk about words such as "news avoidance" and "news fatigue", we must realize that these are the symptoms of dissatisfaction that are hidden but very understandable.They may cause greater threats to our work than technology.
Some of these can be attributed to the common sense of boredom.After all, after a generation of news consumption during the epidemic, who can blame humans to the Ukrainian war, or the natural response of the Middle East War?
But as a reporter, we really need to reflect on ourselves and ask ourselves.
Some people may ask, how many of them are not just bored, but a more proactive avoidance, which stems from trust and the importance it considers is declining.
Another problem is that the increasingly serious avoidance phenomenon is the extent the consequences of our society's own obvious bipolar differentiation trends.What role do we play in puzzling or alleviating the polarization?
Finally, what should the news media be done?In particular, we who claim to be "mainstream" and eager to be the best public service news media.
Balance between Trust and Touch
Regardless of the answer to these questions, I think that most of the problems are about strengthening trust and improving touch within society, and it is becoming more and more difficult to get balance.
Reuters Journalism Research Institutions also pointed out that the international trust in the world has declined comprehensively and reversed the results achieved during the epidemic.
In Singapore, compared with major newspapers around the world, we are fortunate to maintain a high degree of trust in the media.73%of respondents believe that the Straits Times is trustworthy, an increase of three percentage points over 2022.
While increased trust, we also saw that the online touch rate increased from 40%to 42%, an increase of two percentage points.However, these two numbers in other countries are opposite.
As many newspapers from all over the world have proven, trusted does not necessarily mean being widely read, and extensive reading does not necessarily mean trust.Maintaining trust will become more and more difficult.
Striving to establish a wide range of trust in mainstream media will encounter greater resistance and resistance.The attack on reporters and journalists has become a common phenomenon around the world.With the help of artificial intelligence and scammers, fake news and error messages -these sounds that sound almost outdated -they are re -burning.
For all news editors, this is a difficult battle.
There are also more and more readers avoided news, especially those news that distress them, or feel unrelated to their lives.But they are still reading, watching and listening.
This brings another challenge to the news editor room.The news that attracts readers may not be a typical product that the news editor has once thought.
A few months ago, one of the most popular reports of the Strait Times was about a Malay bear in the Chinese Zoo.July and August are the unusually densely dense month of Singapore's political journalism.But it turned out that the bear completely defeated major political news.
Nevertheless, the professional news editor room cannot survive only by the report of Malay bears.If we try to do this, trust will definitely decline.
Expand the scope and strengthen practicality
So, in the face of such reality, what should the news editor room do?I can only talk about what I want to do in the Straits Times in general.
First of all, we realize that it is precisely because of these challenges that it is now the best time to play in the news editor room like us.
Now we are the best time we are committed to public journalism.It will be unwavering guidance principles and dominate all our work.
We will also focus on expanding the scope of reports and strengthening the practicality of news.
Earlier this year, we set up a new team called "St now" to let the audience understand what is happening and popular trends.The team always pays attention to what is happening in Singapore and around the world, as well as news that triggers the Internet and social opinion.
The unique value that the Straits Times can bring is that while reporting these news, we will adhere to our consistent editing spirit.
Another way to deal with news fatigue is that we must understand, just like diet, diversification is indeed helpful.
Some readers may find that we have published more and more opinions and topics.Some people may say that this is "less serious."I don't think so, but I think these articles reflect our many aspects of our lives, interests and attention.
Our report has been expanding.This is a step -by -step process, but it is more to gradually expand the scope of news, rather than promoting the reform.As we all know, the diet plan made in the new year is often not successful.
This is also the method we adopted when we provide a variety of content in the forms of features, long and narrative news.
Finally, IWe will also further work to attract our audience through platforms such as podcasts, as well as the best interaction and visual narrative methods.
All these will eliminate news fatigue and stabilize and increase the audience?we do not know.
But what we know is that for readers who are still reading the Strait Times, they should find that we are a better newspaper.If they can get more information, then we achieve the purpose of being a public service news media.
Strengthen judgment
The second aspect involves the "strengthening judgment" I call, that is, recognize the importance of the strategy of the news editor room.To this end, we decided to form a team of reporters to focus on several things.
First of all, it will study how journalism and audiences have evolved.This will include long -term readers' group models, as well as platform development trends in Singapore and other regions, so as to provide a basis for our daily and long -term editing and organizational goals and decision -making.
Secondly, it will focus on how our team better cooperates and work, and follow up and regularly integrate technology and cultural innovation into our news editor room to serve our news work.
For example, we have studied generating artificial intelligence and used many tools in appropriate places.All of this is not to replace reporters; artificially still indispensable, especially in an industry with high requirements for authenticity and accuracy.However, artificial intelligence has helped the news editor room to do more with less resources. What we have to do in the next step is to improve our ability and know when to use artificial intelligence.
Facing the future news editor room culture
shaping our culture determines everything we do.This is the third aspect of the news editor room.
It is culture that allows everything to run and let reporters enjoy the work he has done.
First of all, when it comes to data, especially when the audience data, we must be willing to adopt and let the data provide information for our editors and decisions.But we must not be subject to or blindly obeying data.On the basis of data, as reporters and editors, we have to make editors.
This requires courage.We must have the courage to learn lessons from the audience's data, but the same, we must have the courage to make the editorial decision we must make; in other words, sometimes we must have the courage to say "no".
The second is the courage of "dare to test".
Whether it is testing new ideas or new workflows, the future news editor room must encourage experiments, promote creativity, and receive inevitable lessons from errors and failures.
The third is to establish a culture that recognizes, cultivated and supported us in a coherent and long -term manner.This is what I call the development of the news editor room.Whether in terms of mental health, training, recruitment, employment growth, or career development, the news editor room has no choice but to become the preferred employer for continuous development and improvement.
Courage to celebrate
I have talked about various forms of courage, but I want to end a value that we do not often talk about in the journalism.That's fun.
When talking about the challenges we face, we may be very depressed, but I dare to say that our work is still full of fun and meaning.Get the pleasure of exclusive news; see a sense of satisfaction of a good news; cooperation with others to complete the mission of mission than we even newspapers, and the privilege of the platform.There are still many jobs that can promote us to get up every morning and face challenges.
However, everything people hear about journalists and journalism are related to our challenges or failures.We should also cheer for the fun of doing work and the huge impact of it.I dare to say that this also requires courage.
The author is the editor -in -chief of the Straits Times
This article is an excerpt from the author's speech at the General Asian Digital Media Conference of the World Newspaper and Press and Publication Association (WAN-IFRA) in 2023.
Originally contained in the Straits Times on October 20
Golden Shun Translation
