Zhang Qian

zhqcindy@163.com

HUNDREDS of government officials from publicity departments, media practitioners and technology experts gathered in Shenzhen over the weekend for a two-day forum focusing on media convergence in the new era of technology. How traditional media content can be better spread with cutting-edge technologies was the essential topic.

The forum, hosted by the People’s Daily, Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the CPC and Shenzhen Municipal Government, was themed “We Are One,” representing the combination of conventional media content and advanced technology tools.

During the opening ceremony at the Wuzhou Guest House on Saturday, chief editors from a handful of State media, including the People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Daily, delivered speeches introducing their theories and practical experience regarding media convergence.

The idea of a “Central Kitchen” was brought up and discussed frequently during the forum Friday and Saturday. The phrase was used to refer to a system that incorporates all resources, including technologies, talents, sources and some others.

An academy of media convergence under the name “Central Kitchen” was announced at the ceremony. A few State-media companies signed cooperative deals to share resources and cultivate media practitioners.

Panel sessions were organized mainly to discuss the two most essential components of the ideology of “media convergence,” namely content and technologies.

Pony Ma, a Chinese technology company magnate and the CEO of Tencent, talked about how Tencent will contribute to the development of media with its big data technologies and the application of AI (artificial intelligence). Ma pledged that Tencent will collaborate with the People’s Daily to invent robots that can help compose news articles.

Ma particularly mentioned an HTML5 WeChat link that reproduced photos of users wearing military uniforms during the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at the beginning of this month.

The online campaign, developed jointly by Tencent and the People’s Daily app, was launched two days before Army Day on Aug. 1 and the page views reached over 1.04 billion in only one week’s time. Ma said it was a successful example of traditional media outlets working with technology firms.

The application of big data was one of the most discussed topics. Yang Song, deputy general manager of Peopleyun.cn, a new-media consulting firm, said that conventional media outlets have the advantage of collecting data, but how to effectively use the data is the key to transformation.

To support his opinion, Yang gave a few examples of how Peopleyun.cn created hundreds of lists based on the data collected and policies provided by its owner, the People’s Daily, over the past few years. The lists were readable and quotable for not only media, but other industries as well.

For media to have valuable big data, having journalists that can write as well as code is essential, according to Huang Zhimin, the founder and CEO of Data Factory. He said that some journalism schools overseas are now preparing their graduates with coding abilities so that future journalists can not only report on the news, but also code programs.

In recent years, the development and application of AI is as hot as that of big data technology. At another panel discussion, several experts from technology firms shared their understanding of AI and how different sorts of AI technologies can innovate the media industry.

Zhang Wei, the R&D director of SenseTime, said applying DeepLearning technology to images would greatly aid media outlets in the preservation of their IPR, allowing them to distribute precise content to their target readers and making the content more readable and interactive.

It is the third year that the People’s Daily and the Shenzhen government have organized the forum on the development of media convergence in the city.