Commentary: Harmonious world needs diverse voices

The third World Media Summit (WMS) will kick off here on Sunday when leaders of major media outlets from across the world meet to discuss and map out plans for strengthening cooperation and exploring ways to deal with major challenges the media industry is facing.

In the age of the mobile Internet, almost everything we know about time-honored journalistic traditions is undergoing rapid change.

It is an imperative task for both traditional media and New Media to promote innovation and achieve in-depth integration at a time when new technology and new communication media are mushrooming and spreading rapidly, and information communication is becoming increasingly mobile, smart and personalized.

In face of unprecedented changes and transition, news organizations worldwide might find it necessary to work together and jointly rise up to challenges.

By deepening cooperation and learning from each other's strong points, they could effectively promote innovation and integrate development thus to achieve win-win results.

In the meantime, media organizations over the world should also focus more on their roles of serving the public and promoting public interests.

Speaking specifically, it is their duty to strive to build a proactive, healthy and harmonious public opinion environment, and resist the spreading of propaganda and fear by terrorist and extremist groups through new media, especially social media.

Moveover, they should also make due contributions to promoting unity and consensus among countries in their handling of international hot-spot issues such as the climate change, the refuge crisis and poverty alleviation.

The voice of developing countries has not been listened to with due attention as international communication has long been dominated by Western media outlets.

It is a sad fact that some mainstream Western media have chosen to distort truth and twist facts while reporting on certain countries and regions.

Therefore, in the absence of objective and fair coverage on many international and regional hot-spot issues, news organizations around the world have upon their shoulders the historical mission of building a more equitable and just international communication order.

In this respect, it is of great urgency for media groups of the developing countries to unite together to make their voices heard and strive to expand consensus with their counterparts in the developed world so as to pioneer the reform of international communication order.

The WMS, since its inception in 2009, has already become an important platform for world media organizations to share insights and carry out cooperation.

We have every reason to believe the two-day summit this year will significantly push forward and enrich cooperation among participating media organizations.

More importantly, media workers around the world need to cherish this opportunity to communicate in a candid manner so as to enhance mutual trust and make concerted efforts to contribute their own part in building a more equitable and just global governance system. Endi