FILE PHOTO: The Blue book

On July 20, the Blue Book of New Media (2021) was released. At the concurrent seminar on China’s new media development, more than 150 experts and scholars discussed media convergence.

Presently, the media industry is consciously transforming to new media. China’s traditional media has carried out numerous successful reforms in developing new media, adjusting organizational structures, and expanding channels and platforms. However, the development of media convergence still needs to be strengthened.

Since 2020, China has intensively promulgated top-level plans for the development of media convergence, which has put forward requirements and guidelines to develop media convergence from an institutional level. This demonstrates the importance and urgency of facilitating media convergence.

New media is becoming the backbone of China’s media industry, and an omnimedia communication pattern is taking shape, said Tian Yuhong, a member of the leading Party members’ group at the All-China Journalists Association.

The Blue book theorizes that establishing an omnimedia communication system involves four aspects. At the structural level, omnimedia construction vertically covers media on a central, provincial, municipal, and county level. On an operational level, through cross-field integration, it uses user data to regenerate value, realizing the diversified expansion of “news + government + service + commerce.” At the management level, through intensive and integrated resources, it innovates with coordination, operation, and alignment mechanisms of content and resources. At the content level, it realizes the integrated development of online and offline media.

Tang Xujun, director of the Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said that the current task for China’s new media development is to seize development opportunities and achieve “leapfrog development” in building a new development pattern.

“Our country’s new media should prioritize and optimize its development in the new pattern of world information exchanges, continue to promote media’s in-depth convergence and development, while deepening international exchanges and cooperation in internet governance,” Tang said.

CASS Vice President Wang Linggui highlighted the necessity of carrying out problem-oriented, in-depth study of the laws of new media development, to enhance the foresight. It is also important to promote the integrated development of basic research and applied countermeasure research.

The Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies at CASS released the “Evaluation System for Integrated Media Communication” at the conference.

Fang Yong, secretary of the Party Committee at the institute, said that media convergence is a systematic project and should be evaluated based on the national strategy of media convergence. A key to establishing the evaluation system is to comprehensively examine all factors and form a systematic and flexible evaluation system to better encourage the media to achieve in-depth convergence. In order to achieve fairness, openness, and credibility, the evaluation system will strive to achieve the coordination and unity of differences, adaptability, and rationality in indicator selection and weight distribution.