Media Leaders Discuss Challenges In Pandemic World

BEIJING: Leaders and representatives from more than 260 media outlets and institutions across the world gathered in person or online at a media summit to discuss challenges and opportunities brought by COVID-19 and how they could cooperate to cope with new media trends shaped by the pandemic.

The fourth World Media Summit (WMS), hosted by China’s Xinhua News Agency, focused on the theme of “Media Growth Strategy under the Impact of COVID-19.” The participants recognized the pandemic’s impacts on the media industry and discussed the media’s responsibilities in fighting COVID-19.

“The pandemic endangers the health of mankind, and the media have a mission to fulfill,” said He Ping, executive president of the WMS and president of Xinhua.

He called on world media to fully reflect the consensus and actions of all countries to jointly fight the COVID-19 pandemic, tell the anti-pandemic stories well, spread positive information, reflect ordinary people’s feats, and tell the glory of human nature.

As a bridge linking people’s hearts and a driving force for social development and progress, the global media should join hands to undertake the missions in promoting solidarity amid the global fight against the pandemic, and play a positive role in advocating the common values of humanity and advancing the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, Ping said.

Stressing the importance of solid interviews in spite of the challenges brought to face-to-face communication by the virus, Toru Mizutani, president and editor-in-chief of Kyodo News, said media workers must talk to their sources to make sure they have authentic information.