Incorporate Social Media To Remain Relevant, News Agencies Told

News agencies should incorporate social media as a tool for their news operation in order to attract more readers and remain relevant in a changing technological landscape, Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) former general manager Datuk Yong Soo Heong said in Putrajaya today.
Yong, who retired in October, said a news agency must utilise the social media for its benefit including enhancing its reputation through news dissemination to a wider public.
"Look at the 'big boys,' Reuters, AP, Bloomberg and CNN and how they are devoting a lot of their time to the social network.
"We should not be apprehensive of the social media," he said at a luncheon talk for delegates attending the 38th Organisation of Asia Pacific News Agencies (OANA) Executive Board Meeting.
The three-day meeting themed 'The Advent of Social Media and Challenges Confronting News Agencies' ends today.
Yong also said that journalists working in news agencies must harness their social media competency to help them have an upper hand in delivering better news to the public compared to the sometimes unverified news by citizen journalists.
He noted that through social media, professional journalists could conduct research on political and social landscape of a country, besides getting sources for their news report.
"Journalists can't be everywhere, every time. Sometimes we can get better quotes (through social media) than go out to random people for comment," he said.
On OANA, Yong said that the organisation could be even more powerful and influential for common good through better cooperation and emphasis on training for young journalists.
OANA was formed in 1961 on the initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to secure direct and free exchange of news among the news agencies of a region inhabited by more than one half of the world's population.
The organisation comprises 44 news agencies from 35 countries, including Russia's TASS, China's Xinhua, South Korea's Yonhap, Indonesia's Antara, Emirates News Agency (WAM), Vietnam News Agency (VNA), Bahrain News Agency (BNA), Iran's IRNA, Turkey's Anadolu and Bernama.

By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz
-- BERNAMA