By Sun Qi

Boao Forum Boosts Media Cooperation

By Sun Qi

Traditional and new media from across the Belt and Road combine to establish fresh cooperation mechanism

The Asian Media Leaders Roundtable at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2017.

Amid global sweeping changes, the traditional news industry is in a period of rapid evolution. Across Asia, journalists are scrambling to find new ways to make local media heard on a global scale. How should appealing Asian stories be told? How can crossborder cooperation improve Asian journalism?

Media leaders from more than 10 countries along the Belt and Road sat down at a round table meeting to seek the answers to these questions during the 2017 Boao Forum for Asia. Under the theme of new prospects for Asian media cooperation, the meeting aimed to enhance media cooperation under the Belt and Road framework in the face of a changing world.

At its fourth session since first being introduced in 2014, the Asian Media Leaders Roundtable has built a “circle of friends” focused on development and exchange among regional media outlets, setting the stage for dialogue, discussion and action,facilitating cooperation and connectivity.

All in the Same Boat

In his speech at the roundtable meeting, Guo Weimin, vice minister of China’s State Council Information Office, said that new media and new technologies that are popping up all around the world have brought the media industry tremendous opportunities and challenges, making industry convergence crucial. The Belt and Road Initiative opens up new opportunities and channels for media outlets in countries along the routes to cooperate with one another, therefore increasing their influence. Guo said he hopes they will be able to swap more news products, find new modes of cooperation, increase personnel exchanges and deepen their dialogues, exchanges and cooperation, especially in the field of new media.

The internet has been transforming journalism every day. Traditional media is now feeling mounting pressure from the rise of new media. But the development of the sector varies in dif f erent countries due to respective cultural backgrounds and national conditions. Kem Gunawadh, director general of Cambodia’s national television TVK, proposed at the meeting that traditional media should no longer work independently as before, but instead converge to meet the challenges posed by new media by of f ering audiences improved experiences.

Gunawadh has attended three Boao annual meetings, and TVK is a founding member of the Asian Media Cooperation Organization. Gunawadh added that national media companies are obliged to provide the public with real and precise news information. As for the organization, members have the obligation to share authentic news stories between one another so they can promptly receive precise information in an ef f ective way.

The rapid growth of new media is also a concern of Khurshid Ahmed Malik, a director at Radio Pakistan. Malik admitted that the top challenge traditional media now face is from new media, but such challenges are not to be feared. He argued that traditional media has remarkable strengths in many areas including rich reporting experience gained over the course of years of practice, the techniques of which can be studied by those working in new media.

Malik urged his fellow media workers to remain upbeat.

“Never feel disheartened,”Malik said. “Even though we may lag behind right now, we won’t stay there forever. As long as we make significant ef f orts and press forward, we will come to the forefront again one day.”

Guo Weimin, vice minister of China’s State Council Information Office, addresses the Asian Media Leaders Roundtable meeting.

Convergence will not only lead to fusion of traditional and new media, but also mobile products that bring social networking, information, services and entertainment together.

Cooperation Imperative

Mario Vau, a division manager at Indonesia’s Elshinta Radio, observed that many new reports on China in his country exaggerate facts to grab the attention of local audiences. He proposed closer cultural contacts and exchanges of ideas between the two countries, which he believes will bring Indonesians a better understanding of what modern China really is.

Wang Fanghuai, president of China.com, said he was impressed by the roundtable discussions, which he has attended for the past four years. He was impressed that participants of the 2017 session were of a greater number and more diverse, making them more representative of Asia’s media industry. What’s more, this year’s discussions moved from simply opening up dialogue to substantive cooperation. Wang said he hopes that a regular mechanism could be established on the basis of the annual gathering to boost extensive cooperation among regional media outlets.

Such cooperation is actually what the Asian Media Cooperation Organization is meant to do. Its members have so far made encouraging progress in terms of information exchange. However, more has to be done in areas such as program sharing, joint technological development, channel sharing, terminal sales and investment cooperation.

Bayarsaikhan Bider, director general of the Mongolian National Broadcaster, also attended this year’s Boao Forum, marking his third appearance at the forum. He recalled thathis company joined other participants at the 2015 Boao Forum to launch the Silk Road Initiative, and went on to found the Asian Media Cooperation Organization with other 12 media outlets and organizations at the 2016 forum.

At the 2017 roundtable meeting, 10 media companies, including Thailand’s Thansettakij newspaper, joined the Asian Media Cooperation Organization as the second batch of initial members.

“At this year’s meeting, media leaders discussed the organization’s charter, nature and operation sphere, and reached consensus,” Bider said. “We tried our best to lay down a solid foundation for the organization.”

The Mongolian National Broadcaster, as a founding member, looks forward to the establishment of a media resource database, which will give Asia a more prominent voice in the world, and allow Asian media to co-produce programs, carry out personnel exchanges and training and swap political, economic and cultural information between them. Bider added that his company would commit itself to this project and seek common growth and progress on the basis of mutual understanding.

New Prospects

lvan Polyakov, chairman of Russia’s Radio Siberia, lauded the roundtable meeting as a welcome platform for media cooperation, on which media leaders held pragmatic in-depth talks on details about the Asian Media Cooperation Organization. Polyakov said that in a world reshaped by new media, the news organizations of every country need more than ever to find a common platform that can give them a greater international voice.

Polyakov said he felt pressure from China’s thriving new media, but was also inspired.

“More and more Russians are using Chinese microblogs and Wechat,” he said. “It would be great if Chinese social media could do more to explore the Russian market, for instance, rolling out Russian-language platforms.”

Wang Gengnian, president of China Radio International, predicted that 5G and other new technologies will usher the world into the era of convergence, which will redefine ways of thinking and behavior in every industry. Under such circumstances, media convergence is inevitable. Convergence will not only lead to fusion of traditional and new media, but also mobile products that bring social networking, information, services and entertainment together.

At the 2016 roundtable meeting, 11 Chinese and foreign media outlets, together with the Boao Forum for Asia and China Public Diplomacy Association, co-established the Asian Media Cooperation Organization. At the 2017 meeting, 10 more media companies joined in, marking a further step towards a regular mechanism for cooperation among Asian media.