Journalists and the media must keep up with modern achievements, use them in the right way, but they must not allow journalistic principles to be lost, ethical norms to disappear, and artificial intelligence to replace human intelligence, but only to serve as a good tool for easier, faster and more efficient content creation.
In short, that would be a summary of the first regional Media Fest, which was held from June 14 to 16 in Trebinje, entitled "Media and the Digital Age". The festival gathered journalists and editors from 50 media houses from the region.
Three panel discussions were held as part of the festival, and the first, "Media and the Digital Age", moderated by Nikola Marković, director of RTV Nikšić, was attended by representatives of media companies from the region.
According to Boris Raonic, general director of RTCG, we are in the fifth revolution, which the media, unfortunately, is not following and many media are not ready for the digital online space, to which many Western countries have already largely moved. As artificial intelligence was discussed for a long time during the first panel, Raonic pointed out that even the media, which understand the importance of using modern technology, perceive artificial intelligence in a wrong way as something that will threaten them, and not as something that will make their work easier.
"On the other hand, we see that citizens are not waiting for us, as traditional media, to adapt to the new times, but are switching to other platforms...Countries that are serious and that started this process on time have defeated Netflix and Tik Tok and all social networks have attracted young people to their platforms to use them for education, entertainment, and for information, and for everything that the media serves, primarily us from public services," said Raonic.
That is why it is necessary, as he said, to turn in the right direction in the new era of digital development, use technologies in the right way, while preserving professional standards and ethical norms.
"It is a great challenge, but also an obligation, because if our children spend time on Tik Tok, Facebook or other content that does not provide information about local culture, about local content from our traditions, if they do not receive educational content, if they do not receive quality content, then we as a society will slowly disappear", said Raonic, convinced that in ten years, following the trends in the world, many media will either disappear or will have to be changed.
The general director of RTCG believes that Montenegrin media legislation is not keeping up with the times and that we have not done anything, for example, in the matter of artificial intelligence.
Milijana Kos, the editor of ATV from Banja Luka, pointed out that journalists must use new technology, including artificial intelligence, but that they must not allow it to create content, but that journalists must do it.
Ivana Androić from Libertas TV from Dubrovnik, said that in Croatia the regulatory agency fought for commercial media so that for 14 years they have funds from which they are financed and that 72 percent of the content produced by commercial media in that country is of high quality. If there is no knowledge and journalistic postulates, the information, as she said, will be bad and will last a short time.
In the region, according to Tahir Žustra, a journalist from Nova BiH, the audience that follows traditional media is predominantly old, traditional, so the challenge of the media is all the greater because it needs to satisfy the taste and needs of both that and younger audiences, which need to be interested in media content. Taking into account the fact that the media sky is oversaturated with portals, TV and radio stations, it is necessary to pay as much attention as possible to media literacy, because, as he pointed out, only a media literate person knows how to distinguish an amateur from a professional.
"Artificial intelligence should serve a purpose and all new technologies should be used in the right way, but we journalists must not forget that we work to inform the audience, not for information," said Žustra.
As he said, today it is challenging to be a journalist precisely because of the situation that anyone can be a creator of any type of content. It is good, as he pointed out, while journalists make mistakes unintentionally. The problem is intentional mistakes, which is why it is necessary to make citizens media literate, and only after the successful implementation of media literacy, according to him, can we tackle artificial intelligence and modern technological achievements.
Nada Veletić, chief and responsible editor of the RTRS news program, believes that if the journalist relies entirely on artificial intelligence, we will come to a situation where he will not be able to write the text and it will happen, slowly but surely, that the word "dull". The use of modern technology is necessary, she believes, but currently in the region, with the exception of Croatia and Slovenia, there is a media jungle in which both journalists and consumers of information find it increasingly difficult to navigate.
The topic of the second panel discussion was "The media then and now", and the panelist was the presenter and actor Ivan Ivanović. According to him, journalists have lost the quality of their status in society. He believes that the slow deterioration of quality journalism was easily overcome, so today we have reached a situation where everyone who has a mobile phone and a high-quality number of followers considers himself a journalist. As he said, the platform is not as important as the content, because whoever controls the content can influence public opinion. Media workers, primarily journalists, according to Ivanovic, cannot and must not ignore new trends and it is up to them to raise the media to a higher level.
"Great importance was attached to the things we protest against today, we strengthened them. We have to create content", said the well-known host and cited as an example Twitter and the situation where journalists started to create texts from posts on those social networks, so that someone with, say, 30 thousand followers, made it possible for his notification, through the media, read e.g. 300.000 citizens.
According to the host of the show, which is entering its 16th season from September, it is the journalist's duty to go to the limit, and it is up to him whether he will accept whether that limit is acceptable to him or not.
"And while we are still waging a 'bloody' war for survival, we are still fighting which 'uniform' to wear," Ivanovic said.
Actor Andrija Milošević and producers Maja and Marko Maršićević were participants in the third panel discussion, during which they presented the platform "andrijamilosevic.net".
According to Maja Maršićević, she pointed out that the platform, which was presented for the first time as part of the Trebinje Media Fest, is in fact a "boutique platform" where they have "handmade chocolate" as part of which are exclusive formations. Milošević pointed out that the platform will serve him to reach the audience in a "more lethal and powerful" way and thus remind them of the true values that have been forgotten in the era of sensationalism. As he pointed out, we are surrounded by superficial people, although there are many who want a real life.
"We tried to reach the human, the child in a humane, sympathetic and infantile way. Today, it has become a little to be a man, one does not talk about a man, even though the most difficult and greatest thing is to be and remain a man," Milošević said.
As part of the platform, there will be space for others to market their content and projects, and Milan Kalinić will be the first to use it.
There are currently two contents on the platform - "Good evening with Andrija" and folk tales.
The patrons of the Media Fest were the City of Trebinje and the Cultural Center of Trebinje, where the festival was held, opened by the Mayor of Trebinje, Mirko Ćurić, who said that the gathering of media workers was a good opportunity to show them what Trebinje has to offer, in order to present the rich offer of the city to others. environments. And in addition to all the cultural and historical sights, natural beauty, gastronomic offer and good wines, the greatest value of Trebinje, as Ćurić pointed out, is the people, so it is not surprising that whoever comes to Trebinje once comes again.
Director of the Trebinje Cultural Center, Miljan Vuković, pointed out that the Media Fest is an important event for this institution, which is almost completely dependent on the media and depends on them in how it will market its work.
According to Nikola Marković, the goal of the Media Fest is to point out all the problems that the media community faces in the digital age.
"Technologies are changing so quickly that it is difficult to keep up, that's why it's important to talk, so that in all countries of the region we can improve work and try to give answers to the question about the role of the media in the digital age," said Marković.
On the first night of the Media Fest, actor Andrija Milošević performed the monodrama "I go along the road and hug a tree".
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