B.galaarid: Digital Journalism is the Future of Journalism

Trans. by B.DULGUUN

The very first Mongolian Forum on Digital Journalism was organized by the Mongolian Journalists' Union at the Government Palace of Mongolia, on May 1, in advance of World Press Freedom Day.

The forum was successfully organized with over 800 participants from various media outlets, universities and top businesses in Mongolia. The highlight of the forum was the main speech given by President of Mongolian Journalists' Union B.Galaarid.

Below is our translation of President B.Galaarid's speech in its entirety.

The three pillars of digital journalism are professionalism, ethics and social responsibility

The history of the Mongolian journalist running around to cover exclusive stories and having them published in newspapers is a very recently established image of the Mongolian journalism and media sector.

In the early and mid-1980s, there was a fabulous assumption that computers, one of the wonders of this world, were only operated by specialized engineers and that the minds of these people were as great as computers and absolutely incomparable to the minds of humble people like us. If you told people at the time that Mongolians would be able to exchange whatever they wished to share through electronic networks, and that even two and three year olds would be able to correctly use electronic devices 10 to 20 years later, people would've insulted or pitied you for talking nonsense.

I wonder how many people accurately predicted that information and communication technology (ICT) would develop so rapidly, and that Mongolians would compete with other countries for the benefits of development, and sometimes, become the first to receive those benefits. Although it was clear that journalism, the media sector, and the publishing industry would digitalize, how many would have guessed that the wave of the digital revolution would invade Mongolia powerfully, like a hurricane, bring huge reform in a short time to the stereotyped image of the media, and lead us to approach many things from a new perspective?

In general, the reform movement in the 1990s allowed Mongolians to engage in things that people gossiped about, the livelihood and commodities of foreigners and capitalist countries. One of the things that was introduced was the technology within the media sector and journalism, along with other diversity. The growth of ICT expanded and enriched journalism, allowing it to become multi-pronged and much more valuable. Many professions...