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Professionals upbeat on traditional media's future despite shock of the new

Xinhua, November 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Media professionals and experts expressed optimism about the future of traditional media during a forum in Beijing on Wednesday, despite challenges brought by the rise of social medial and citizen journalism.

Professional content is gaining an upper hand against User-Generated Content (UGC) in terms of user clicks on major Chinese websites, Li Haidong, researcher with CCTV, the country's national broadcaster, said during the Global Video Media Forum (VMF) 2015 on Wednesday.

Two of China's biggest video portals, Tencent and Youku-Tudou, are considering cooperation with traditional media organizations to bring more professional content online to draw Internet users, according to Li.

Although UGC has been playing a bigger role in complementing traditional news gathering and reporting, especially for breaking news, it still lags behind in terms of quality, accuracy and depth, experts said.

John Pullman, global head of video & pictures at Reuters, said everyone can become an "i-witness", but that does not make them a journalist. "We should be careful that we don't undermine the goal of journalism."

Meanwhile, experts noted that traditional media organizations are stepping up to embrace new technologies to raise their game.

Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president & executive editor at Associated Press (AP), said AP is introducing Virtual Reality (VR), a cutting edge technology, into their reporting.

New inventions have enabled traditional media to expand their reach and hone their competitiveness over the past few years, said Zhao Zizhong, professor at New Media Institute of Communication University of China.

More news organizations are employing camera drones and Google Earth's satellite imagery to enrich reports, Zhao said, adding that AP's VR trial offers a good example.

However, big data and cloud computing, which will allow the industry to distribute nuanced, fragmented but denser streams of news to individual customers, will bring more fundamental changes, he said.

The VMF is hosted by CCTV News Content (CCTV +), which now enters into its fifth year. CCTV + has also launched its newest global distribution system of video footage during the forum. Endi