Journalism professionalism for a transitional Vietnam: current status & future challenges

"Contemporary Challenges in Transitional Vietnam" Symposium

British Academy, London, 29/02/2012

Dr An Nguyen Senior Lecturer in Journalism

The Media School – Bournemouth Universityanguyen@bmth.ac.uk

The media explosion in Vietnam (03/2011)

745 print media organisations with 1003 titles compared with 450 and 563 in 2000

Three national broadcasting networks and 63 provincial broadcasters

200 domestic channels and 67 foreign channels

333 online-only newspapers, e-zines and "electronic information sites"

17.000 MoIC-recognised journalists

Behind the numbers: a long way to professionalism?

"Reflected in many aspects and at many levels in our news media system – from leadership appointments, media regulation, recruitment and use of journalists, organisational structures for news outlets, human resources development to the acquisition and implementation of modern information and communication technologies"

(Lê Quốc Trung, former VP of the VJA)

This paper

Where is Vietnamese journalism – as an occupational group – in the professionalism ladder?

Why things must change?

What can be done?

What is professional journalism?

Gathering and communicating news and truths in the interest of the citizenry

Mastering a body of specialised knowledge and skills

both practical skills and abstract theory, obtained from a formal training or education process

Autonomy over newswork and its standards individual and collective level

Strict adherence to shared code of journalism ethics

e.g. balance, fairness, objectivity, impartiality, avoiding conflict of interest, minimising harms

Professional organisation

Any space for an autonomous public service journalism? (1) An increasingly more receptive and tolerant

approach to media control e.g. an emphasis on propaganda, collective

organisation and agitation now shifted to "information, education, organisation and criticism" in recent CPV Congress’s political report

Thanks to political plurality within CPV and its incremental

changes pressures from a more autonomous economy, a

fledgling civil society and their associated rise of people’s power

pressures for further reform from international and global stakeholders

Any space for an autonomous public service journalism? (2)

Hence, an increasingly public-oriented, daring and assertive media

From a mere mouthpiece of state to a more remarkable voice of people (audiences and publics, not masses)

From "party and state" to "people and nation" ideologies

From the darling of government officials to a fearful anti-corruption mechanism

Still a to-and-fro relationship between media & state but there’s an increasing space for real public service

Recent setbacks can be seen as part of that ambivalence

My main concern

Some 75% of Vietnamese journalists have had no formal training

Journalism seen more as a result of natural aptitude than a pro-longed formal training process

Where, then, do that 75% learn and appreciate their professional skills and knowledge, ethical standards, legal restraints and other things?

So, what kind of news and information have they been producing and injecting into the public’s mind?

Some salient symptoms (1)

Unclear sense of what journalism is not about systematic alignment of journalism and PR confusion between journalism and other media

activities

Blur boundary between journalism and literary writing

not always clear-cut distinction between fact and fiction, news and views etc.

absence of professional news writing methods (e.g. the inverted pyramid formula)

Limited ability to effectively adopt and implement new concepts, methods and technologies

Some salient symptoms (2) Fundamental ethical and legal principles not

yet an integral part of daily newswork few journalists aware of VJA Code of Ethics or Media

Law e.g. publications inundated with one-sided news

stories, defamatory reporting, lack of respect for people’s dignity

Vulnerability to unhealthy practices from Western tabloid journalism

sex, rape, murder stories inundated under sensational, desensitised and inhuman headlines, esp. in the online news world

Some salient symptoms (3) Wide acceptance of unprofessional practices

A recent survey found 49% of journalists saw no problem in accepting financial incentives at press conferences and 24% in writing advertorials or embedding promotional information in content

Others (e.g. news sites stealing each other’s content; journalists taking advantage of relationships with sources to sell advertising or obtain personal gains)

Less frequent, but not uncommon, serious problems

e.g. "salon journalism", exaggeration, distortion, fabrication, "mercenary writing"

The acute need for change (1) A journalism without a shared set of

professional standards is like "a palace on the sand"

It cannot develop in a rigorous and vigorous fashion It could drive itself in dangerous directions

A transitional Vietnam cannot go far without a relatively professionalised journalism.

reliable and trustworthy news and information is critical to socio-economic, political decisions at individual, organisational or national level in a globalising Vietnam.

a public forum via the media is essential and critical for effective governance in a democratising Vietnam.

The acute need for change (2) A professionalised journalism is an inevitable

demand of a democratising Vietnam. growing media literacy and more legally minded

citizenry the rise of citizen journalism, online public sphere

and other forms of people’s power more demanding media market

If not gradually professionalised, Vietnamese journalism risks losing its legitimacy and authority in the long term. It would then serve nobody – not the state, not the people.

Where to from here?

A more pro-active VJA designing and promoting professional standards demanding and providing formal training for working

journalists in individual newsrooms as well as provincial, regional and national levels.

A radical reform of the journalism education system in higher and further institutions

A less hostile and more collaborative relationship between journalists and journalism educators

The key challenge

Not the dark side of commercialisation, not the one-party system, not the absence of a facilitating legal environment, not the lack of essential resources, or any other commonly identified obstacles.

Key challenge: attitudes of journalists themselves.

Are journalists willing to take pains to scrutinise themselves so that they recognise, appreciate and start to tackle their perennial problems?

A less indifferent, less complacent and more open-minded attitude is the most needed in the professionalisation of Vietnamese journalism.