Hanoi (VNA) – In the context that websites and social media areflooded with unverified information, members of the Organisation ofAsia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) shared experience in regaining trust inmainstream news on the occasion of the 44th OANA Executive Board Meeting hostedby the Vietnam News Agency in Hanoi from April 18-20.

To verify information circulating on theInternet and make it useful for its news coverage, Kyodo News of Japan createdthe “D-Watch team” in 2012, which is in charge of monitoring various websitesand social media, like Facebook and Twitter, every day from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.and regularly reports to its News Department’s nerve centre, called the NewsCentre, about newsworthy information.

If the News Centre judges that it is betterto cover something, based on information from the D-Watch team, the centre willinstruct news sections to send reporters to the spot where the news is happening.Reporters verify the information on the spot, and write news articles and takephotos as well as videos if necessary. Kyodo reporters directly contactwitnesses or information providers via social media and obtain more details,photos and videos.

On the other hand, news sections may askthe D-Watch team to closely monitor information on websites and social mediawhen a big accident or a huge natural disaster happens. Information from theD-Watch team has sometimes resulted in breaking news stories, the agency sharedin its country report sent to the 44th OANA Executive Board Meeting.

According to Kyodo News, along withmonitoring information on websites and social media by itself, the D-Watch teamis now using an AI-assisted system called “FASTALERT”. The system, developed byJX Press Corp., detects accidents, disasters and other newsworthy things at anearly date, collecting information posted by witnesses on social media.

In this digital era when cyberspace isflooded with various unverified information, one of the important roles for thetraditional media is to verify such information and offer to readers what istrue. In this sense, going back to the basics of news agencies - reportingfacts rapidly and accurately - is the key to regaining trust in mainstreamnews, the agency stressed.

Sharing measures to win global publictrust, Director General of Turkey’s Anadolu Agency Senol Kazanci said that newsagencies should grow continuously, increase production and keep up the qualityof its services.

He shared that AA is the dominating primarynews source for the Turkish media, which proves that the agency has won thepublic trust as the mainstream news source in Turkey.

To that end, AA has increased its broadcastlanguages up to 13, positioned itself in a global photo distribution networkwith its high quality photos, increased the number of its worldwide offices to41 and representatives to 100, signed cooperation agreements with 70 leadingnews agencies and gained subscribers from 76 countries.

Presently, the agency is providing newsservices with the staff from 124 different nationalities, he added.-VNA