A Month In China, A World Of Experience
FIJI SUN’S ROSI DOVIVERATA TELLS OF LEARNING DATA JOURNALISM, DRONE JOURNALISM AND MORE
Data Journalism, artificial intelligence, drone journalism, fake news and how to address this.
These were some of the fast emerging items studied and discussed by Fiji Sun Managing Editor Digital Rosi Doviverata during a one-month Dongfang Journalism Fellowship in China.
The programme on Media Transformation highlighted digital technologies disrupting the traditional media landscape.
Ms Doviverata was the first editor from the Pacific Islands to be selected for the elite programme.
She took part alongside 11 editors and senior journalists from Kenya, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, Nepal, Kazakhstan and Spain.
The programme was run by China Daily, in conjunction with two top-rated academic institutions, Shanghai International Studies University and the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
China Daily is the widest circulating English-language newspaper in China. It also has a big international following online. Ms Doviverata talked about her experience in China. Here are excerpts from her interview yesterday. nomics in Beijing.” “The professors highlighted and explored the sometimes complex shift that traditional media outlets have to undertake in order to stay relevant. For most of us, the issues and challenges discussed were similar to what we now face in our different newsrooms.” site called Sixth tone. Both sites are popular among China’s tech savy youths. Pear Video is another ‘new media platform’ among the increasing number of digital news platforms. It calls itself ‘China’s leading short news video platform.’ “They have over 30,000 videographers across China who feed them with possible news. Videos are posted on their website, app and social media platforms. In terms of revenue generation, Pear Video is yet to turn a profit – a challenge most ‘new media platforms’ face.”
On a visit to Hanghzou, the capital of Zhejiang province. It is also the hometown of e-commerce giant Alibaba.
“The highlight, of course, was the visit to Jack Ma’s Alibaba headquarters. While they prefer to be called a tech company, Alibaba is not only instrumental in China’s e-commerce boom, but it has also moved into lending, wealth management and insurance through Ant Financial.
“Some of their products include Alipay, Huabei, MYbank and Ant Micro Loan. MYbank, for instance, is the first bank to run entirely on the cloud with no physical branches. For Small Micro Entrepreneurs who find it difficult to secure small loans at banks, through the MYbank app, it takes less than three minutes for an SME user to apply and get a loan approved.
“Thanks to its AI-driven capability – it analyses the applicant’s credit history and grants the loan without the need for human intervention. At HEMA supermarket, a chain of Alibaba’s cashless su- permarkets, the vending machines would give you ‘bu’ (coconut juice) and even make pizza while you wait for three minutes.” “Networking internationally through our chat group with fellow participants. With our Chinese colleagues we want to continue further collaboration not only in China, but also here in Fiji. For example, Chinese journalism students could come and do their international internships at the Fiji Sun.
“Using this experience to help our digital development at the Fiji Sun. I started today with an initial briefing for our news reporters.”