Zhang Qian

zhqcindy@163.com

SHENZHEN Press Group has awarded 41 outstanding staff from various news organizations and departments with honors in celebration of the group’s 15th anniversary. A seminar was held Thursday afternoon and several representatives of the eminent staff spoke to share their working stories.

The selection of the outstanding staff started earlier this year and most of the honored staff are journalists, editors and commentators working for different newspapers and news portal. Lin Min, head of the Shenzhen Daily’s News Desk, was among the staff who stood out.

In addition to leadership and some staff from the press group, officials from the city’s publicity department and guests from Shenzhen University’s Faculty of Communication also attended the seminar.

At the beginning of the seminar, seven representative media practitioners shared stories about their work and thoughts about current challenges faced by many media outlets.

Their common point was that most newspapers are facing an unprecedented challenge due to the fast-growing Internet and new media. Being vigilant about learning to report stories using multimedia was a main solution drawn from the journalists’ discussion.

Zhang Yan is one of the selected excellent journalists from the Shenzhen Economic Daily. She has been working for the newspaper for 14 years. During her speech, Zhang told her story about reporting on the sperm whale that was found but unfortunately died in the sea between Huizhou and Shenzhen earlier this year.

“I was very lucky to arrive there soon after I got the information because I was near the spot and I sent back the first picture of the whale to my editor who put it onto our app instantly,” said Zhang. The journalist said in the era of new media, journalists and editors’ work are more demanding because time spent disseminating valuable news should be minimized as much as possible.

Another representative journalist and Zhang’s colleague, Xiao Han, said that in-depth stories are more suited for topics that readers want to read about for the purpose of acquiring knowledge. Thus, journalists must arm themselves with solid knowledge in certain areas and stay sensitive to all kinds of social affairs at the same time.

Other journalists also made contributions to the seminar. Chen Yin, president of Shenzhen Press Group, later gave a report to reflect on the past 15 years of the city’s largest press group and encouraged others to learn from the 41 role models selected.

Chen said that the mechanism of honoring the outstanding journalists, editors, commentators and administrative staff will continue to be carried out as a way that praises those who work hard and make outstanding contributions.

Li Xiaogan, head of the city’s publicity department, congratulated Shenzhen Press Group’s 15th anniversary. He acknowledged the press group’s irreplaceable role in recording and promoting the city as well as spreading positive energy to all residing in Shenzhen.

He also said that despite the gloomy feel of the press environment all around the country, Shenzhen Press Group has been making tremendous efforts to innovate and grow.

Gu Xiaojin, former editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily and now a professor at Shenzhen University, analyzed the current situation of the press. “Most of the traditional newspapers will gradually wither away, but those who explore ways to innovate their means of spreading news that contain quality and in-depth content will survive,” said Gu.