By Liu Xin
BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhuanet) --- Participants of the BRICS Media Forum held in Beijing have stressed the urgency of multimedia innovation and communication transformation.
Zenariah Barends, Co-chairman of the BRICKS Media and chief of staff in South Africa's Independent Media, pointed out that media organizations that do not take innovation on board are doomed to failure in the present world of dramatic changes.
In his keynote speech on Thursday, Cai Mingzhao, president of Xinhua News Agency and executive chair of the forum, pointed out that participating media organizations all agree to actively explore cooperation in areas such as integrative development, video, new media and social media.
Last year, Xinhua established the cooperative and sharing platform "On-Scene Cloud," which can offer its members media content, channels, technologies and other services. "We are willing to open that platform to BRICS media free of charge," he noted.
"As innovation is transforming media from print to digital, we have to get used to a different kind of business model, Barends told Xinhuanet on the sidelines of the forum on Thursday.
"In addition, all media across the world are struggling with the same issue -- how technological development affects and forces media to change the way they basically tell the stories, ” she said.
"Therefore, we can not rely solely on print," she added.
Sharing experience of multimedia innovation, she said Independent Media has a digital office based on strategy, and investment is being largely put into digital innovation.
Dinara Toktosunova, CEO of Russia’s Ruptly TV and deputy head of news RT, told Xinhuanet that news RT is leading multimedia innovation across the world.
"We have successfully developed, and already applied 360 panoramic videos in covering certain major events, such as military parade in Red Square, and quite a few large-scale sporting events," Toktosunova said.
Themed "Deepening media cooperation among BRICS countries, promoting equity and justice in international media," the forum focused on multimedia innovation for media development, as well as media outlets' duty and social responsibility.
