Traditional media facing a big challenge of staying relevant these days - Ramesh Jaura

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM - During his recent visit to Astana and the headquarters of Kazinform International News Agency Ramesh Jaura, IDN-InDepthNews Director-General and Editor-in-Chief, sat down with Advisor to Kazinform Director-General Kanat Tokabayev to talk about the changing role of news agencies in the light of social networks boom and how developing news agencies can compete with bigger players in the market.

When asked about the role of news agencies nowadays and how they are affected by social media, Mr. Jaura pointed out that ‘news world has become extremely difficult because there are a lot of agencies, TV channels and Internet which are coming up with breaking the news.

"Now what is broken today that ceases to be of any value within the next three hours, if not tomorrow. That is why the traditional media is facing a very big challenge how to keep itself relevant and how not to be overtaken by sensational news, because there is a big difference between providing in-depth background or better understanding of what's happening than just running banners, headlines and all of that," he said.

Ramesh Jaura believes that's kinds of a disease that is taking the world of news, which means new agencies can't ignore social media because this new component of social media is coming up.

He emphasized that news agencies have to be careful not to follow the line social media do, not to provide fake news. Instead, he said, news agencies should provide serious journalism, but follow the rules of social media.

"I think that journalists are in the position to be innovative and to make difference and distinction between what is reliable news and what is fake news. That why we call ourselves beyond breaking the news. We are not breaking the news because we don't have the resources for that. There are so many others doing that, it doesn't make any sense," Jaura added.

IDN-InDepthNews Director-General also shared his thoughts on what traditional media can do to attract readers and to make people interested in their news. According to Mr. Jaura, if the traditional media stick to professional traditional ways of giving news and to Ws - what is happening, why is it happening, where is it happening - than they can face the competition.

"This is a big challenge because each one of us being a journalist thinks ‘I have to be quicker than the other one'. But quickness is not something which is going to help. I'm quite optimistic that we can face the challenge despite all the difficulties," Jaura noted.

Speaking of the role of developing international news agencies, he said common reader might not have the time to read the newspapers and that is where the developing news agency can step in and provide a small summary of what have appeared, for example, in the New York Times, or Washington Post, or even other Kazakhstani newspapers.

In conclusion, Mr. Jaura praised Kazinform for doing an excellent job, adding that he believes it has a very good future. In his words, since Kazinform's intention is to expand to the Central Asia region and beyond, it has a very important role to play and Kazinform team is absolutely capable of fulfilling that role.

 

 

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