MANILA – The Telum Media and the Singapore Press Club had facilitated the webinar event in the afternoon of June 24 dubbed as: “Current state and future of journalism” for journalists and media outlets in the region.
Among the speakers of the event were Stephanie Phang, Managing Editor, Southeast Asia, Bloomberg; Joon-Nie Lau, Director, Asia World Association of News Publishers/Vice President Singapore Press Club; and, Yeo Sam Jo, Multimedia Correspondent, The Straits Times/Management Committee Member, Singapore Press Club.
The event discussed the insights of the panelist who are media practitioners on the current state and future changes in the world of journalism. The sharing was arranged on the topics about the newsroom transformation and diversity, evolving business model for media, the remote/displaced newsroom, new usage of internet for news for reporting and consumption, and how communications industry has to adapt to these changes.
Stephanie Phang discussed on the need for media outfits to be flexible in the new normal where journalists will be working from home and not anymore in the newsroom as they used to be. She also underlined the necessity to be more creative and to work harder because of the demands of work, physical limitations of roaming around to get information, and the demand of consumers.
Phang also emphasized the need to highlight local perspectives and to involve women and to use media platforms like the “New Voices” of Bloomberg to advance their rights like quoting more often women leaders in news articles and media coverages.
On the other hand, Joon-Nie Lau agreed that the landscape for the media has changed and there is a sort of a consolidation wherein, because of competition and limitations of resources, smaller media outlets may be subsumed by the bigger ones which have repercussion on journalist and media workers.
The young Yeo Sam Jo talked about the need for targeting audiences in media work. He narrated his experience in covering a local health concern of a remote community and his story was important to that particular community but may not be interesting to other parts of the country. He also stressed the importance of creating interest of younger generation in media work. Journalism may not be a high-paying job but its impact to the world may be bigger than anyone can think of.
The panelist also talked about the balance between the business and the service sides of journalism, the need to maintain credibility amidst online fake news, which will be ongoing topics of discussion for journalists and media people in the years to come.
