IRNA Says OANA In Dire Need Of Getting Modern

Tehran, June 17, IRNA – There is the dire need to transform OANA member media into the modern media, according to IRNA Country Report to the 37th OANA Executive Board Meeting, held in Manama, Bahrain, from June 16-17. The following is full text of the country report: ˈHonourable OANA President ˈRespected BNA Director General ˈDistinguished Colleagues ˈThe Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) of Iran would like to thank the Bahrain News Agency for the invitation and hosting of the OANA Executive Board Meeting in the beautiful city of Manama and also to thank the OANA Secretariat at Itar-Tass News Agency for organizing the board meeting. ˈIRNA marks its 80th anniversary in 2014 and has achieved a higher ground in securing the countryˈs national interests with each passing day by professionally functioning as the nationˈs mother source of information. It is an honor to see that our news agency has also made a significant stride among todayˈs prestigious media and in professional gatherings such as OANA. ˈEsteemed Colleagues, ˈThe rise of new media has increased both the level and volume of communication among the world community and the Internet has enabled the people to express their messages through blogs, websites, pictures, clips, social media and other user-generated media. Globalization of media has vastly expanded the magnitude of what information lies within an unrestricted sphere. In fact, it is the sharing of such information that will continue to influence the personal lives of every individual vis-à-vis their relationships among each other as well as the relations among states they dwell in. ˈTraditional media is evolving to modern times. The emergence of pseudo-news agencies and the increasing extent of their coverage have proved to be a challenge. Today, every news agency and even newspapers have a website, but the question is whether they will be as vigorous as the new and emerging media and have all of their standards? Probably not! But in all fairness, the new media faces many challenges and has its limitations. A more enhanced media outlet will translate to higher readership and revenues. In light of the fact that viewers lack patience with poor web performance, there is strong evidence that the higher the performance, the stronger the viewersˈ loyalty. The degree to which news appeal to the end-users also determines the media pick up -- traditional and new alike. ˈIt is next to impossible to freeze the spread of news today and this is partly because of the mushrooming of new media in every country. Private, semi-official news agencies and news websites in Iran have increased sharply over the past years. The extent of diversity and increase in news sources and voices would certainly be in the interests of people. Nevertheless, national news agencies would generally see it as a challenge because of the great competition it causes in every sphere of their activity of news dissemination. Overlooking voluntarily the exclusive rights that we used to enjoy, IRNA has always supported constructive competition and the right of existence of such news agencies in Iran. ˈDistinguished Colleagues, ˈNational news agencies such as IRNA and their private counterparts play a key role as an affordable, significant and privileged source of news and information for political, economic and financial institutions, and for providing services of domestic and international news to national and local media. Their news aim to be comprehensive with respect to the representation and interests of the major different constituencies of the nation. ˈOur news agencies function as a conduit for services of international news agencies to local, domestic media, and also feed local and national news to international news agencies and can thus influence the international representation of the nation. In fact national news agencies are typically more driven by goals of public service than of profit maximization. They are regarded as means of national development and as vehicles that offer positive and balanced images of their respective countries for international consumption. ˈRegarding the theme of todayˈs meeting -- The Changing Face of Mass Media and Enduring Values – the above challenges can also be opportunities to improve the professional operation of our news agencies. So the need of the hour is to redefine the working procedures of media industry to keep our heads above the water. This could be achieved by setting up training and professional courses in all areas of journalistic, managerial and technical skills, through new working standards, enhanced online services, seminars, workshops and media diversified tailor-made services. Networking, pooling of experiences, of news and other content, sharing of resources, and other approaches to mutual aid through news services like the audio, video, mobile, radio, TV, web, and new media graphics will contribute greatly to achieve our goals. ˈIRNA also believes that there is an urgent need to strengthen professional relations among news agencies at the global, continental, regional and the sub-regional levels. We appreciate the OANA chair-agency and the hostˈs initiative to invite FANA as an inter-news agency coalition to participate in this meeting. Considering our closer interests and enhancing ties with such agencies, including inter-governmental ones, IRNA is confident that we will go a long way to further strengthen bilateral relations as well as negotiate multilateral ties between OANA and other professional gatherings. ˈIn sum, there is the dire need to transform our agencies into the modern media. By doing so in our respective organizations as part of the training programs, we will be able to better share information on how we talk about what we do, quality of our stories, what we have published in our media and what resonates with our views. By teaching the staff how to write for the web and for online reporting, we can publish more content to benefit our viewers. After all, the main mission of the mass media is to help peoples make connections, communicate and uphold common human values.