News agencies need to be modernized and have a successful transition in the digital age, especially in the post-COVID-19 period.
This was emphasized in the proceedings of the 29th Assembly of the General Assembly of the Alliance of Balkan News Agencies (ABNA) that is being held in Prishtina, organized by the KosovaPress News Agency.
The President of ANA-MPA in Greece, Aimilios Perdikaris said that communication with citizens by news agencies, should be transformed with digital products.
Perdikaris: News agencies need to be modernized
“We must continue with further development, at the same time not to compromise our work, we must clarify this issue, as society wants as much information as possible… We must adapt to this revolution and change with the work we do. This is a reality today and we hope to get out of the COVID adventure soon… We need to emphasize our communication with citizens, we want news agencies to become more modern, to have more digital products. We have already signed it for a modernization of news agencies”, he said.
The need for digitalization of news agencies was also presented by the General Director of Albanian Telegraphic Agency, Valbona Zhupa, who said that news agencies should be even more vigilant in avoiding fake news.
Zhupa: We are working on the digitalization of ATA
“The COVID pandemic has had a huge impact on the media, from the beginning, the information has become important to citizens, more than ever. Information during the pandemic played an important role for the citizens, but there was also misinformation, especially about vaccines… People are turning to traditional media and news agencies because of the seriousness they have and the verified information. To function as a post COVID media we need to set priorities for our customers, but this should not affect our work, as it is the exact transmission of what is happening… We will digitize our archives, we have quite a lot of photos and an extensive collection. This is our goal at the moment, digitalization is done when we have a technical support”, she said.
Whereas, Halit Hajdini, Deputy Director at Macedonian News Agency – MIA, said that traditional media such as news agencies should be in their place in the media market.
Hajdini: News agencies must have the right place
“Traditional media have been very good, but technology is advancing very fast and traditional media deserve to be in the right place. But how can this problem be controlled? What is needed is for the facts to be verified, and there should be help from institutions so that citizens do not read everything”, he said.
The 29th ABNA General Assembly and Conference is supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC.
KosovaPress is part of ABNA since 2017, while the goal remains membership in the European Alliance of News Agencies – EANA.
