Calls made at Boao conference for more regional media cooperation

Media representatives from 20 countries across Asia have shared their perspectives on the media's role in global governance and on cooperation among the region's media organizations at the Asia Media Cooperation Conference on Friday at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference in Hainan Province.

The Asia Media Cooperation Conference was held on Friday, March 29, 2019 during the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference in Boao, Hainan Province. [Photo: China Plus]

Industry representatives at the conference, which has been held annually for the past six years, discussed the challenges and opportunities for the media sector, the role of Asian media as a voice in the international community, and the mission and responsibilities of media organizations in what the organizers have called the "omnimedia" environment.

The emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G networks have brought revolutionary changes to the media landscape, Guo Weimin, the vice minister of the State Council Information Office told the conference on Friday. He emphasized that the rise of digital media should not be seen as a threat to traditional media.

Guo Weimin, the vice minister of the State Council Information Office, makes a speech during the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference in Boao, Hainan Province. [Photo: China Plus]

And Yan Xiaoming, vice president of China Media Group, said that over the past year cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and 5G networks are no longer future technologies that the media reports on, but are tools that they are now using.

Yan Xiaoming, vice president of China Media Group, delivers a speech during the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference in Boao, Hainan Province. [Photo: China Plus]

Several attendees expressed the view that Asian media organizations should seize opportunities to work together on the development of the region's voice in the international community. Han Yonghong, an associate editor from Singapore's Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao, said that international opinion had long been decided by Western media. If this is to change, he said, Asian media need to cover the continent's achievements from their own perspectives instead of being solely guided by the views of the West.

Han Yonghong, an associate editor at Singapore's Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao, speaking at the Asia Media Cooperation Conference during the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference 2019 in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, March 29, 2019. [Photo: China Plus]

The Asia Media Cooperation Conference was co-hosted by China Media Group, the Secretariat of the Boao Forum for Asia, and the China Public Diplomacy Association.