Vietnamese Revolutionary Journalism in the Digital Era

After more than a century accompanying the nation, Vietnamese revolutionary journalism is entering a very new and fundamentally different stage of development in almost every aspect. The digital space has become an essential component of everyday life. Digital technologies, big data, artificial intelligence, social networks, and cross-border media platforms have fundamentally transformed the way information is created, distributed, consumed, and verified.

Today, people study, work, communicate, shop, entertain themselves, express opinions, and participate in social affairs through online platforms. The rapid and diverse flow of information creates enormous opportunities for knowledge dissemination, social democracy, and innovation. Major policies of the Party, new State policies, and positive information can reach tens of millions of people simultaneously through various forms and channels. Technology has helped journalism become closer to the people and receive feedback more quickly.

However, the online environment has also made the information landscape more complex, increasingly vulnerable to temporary emotions, misinformation, algorithmic manipulation, and deliberate information campaigns. Fake news, partially true or misleading information, fabricated images and audio, AI-generated content, copyright infringement, cyberattacks, and data theft are becoming increasingly sophisticated. False information can spread widely before the truth is verified. Edited or manipulated statements can damage the reputation of individuals and organisations and even undermine public trust in the policies of the Party and the State.

In the new media order, journalism no longer holds an almost exclusive position in delivering information. By the end of 2025, Vietnam had approximately 85.6 million Internet users, equivalent to 84.2% of the population, and around 79 million social media user identities. According to the latest statistics, Vietnamese users had about 110 million accounts on domestic social networks, while accounts on foreign social media platforms reached approximately 203 million. Such a digital environment gives journalism unprecedented opportunities to reach broader audiences, while also forcing it to compete directly with the enormous volume of content generated every hour and every minute by platforms and users.

In the digital space, almost anyone can report information. Any social media account can influence a particular community.

However, these changes do not diminish the role of Vietnamese revolutionary journalism. On the contrary, when information becomes overwhelming, society needs reliable sources to determine what is true, what requires further verification, and what is merely the result of crowd emotions or deliberate manipulation. This requires professionalism, a serious work ethic, and resilience in the face of all pressures.

Journalism must become a place where people turn when they need reliable confirmation, rather than a place that simply follows trends. Society needs trusted sources to understand the truth correctly. People need to know what happened, why it happened, who was affected, where responsibility lies, and what solutions are based on evidence.

The digital space also requires journalistic works that are rich in data, diverse in content, innovative in expression, and profound in policy analysis. Many current issues — from digital transformation, green transformation, administrative reform, social welfare policies to global economic fluctuations — cannot be fully understood through fragmented news pieces alone. Therefore, the responsibility of journalism is not merely to be faster, but above all to be more accurate, deeper, and more useful.

From this requirement, digital transformation in journalism cannot simply mean creating additional online pages, opening social media accounts, or acquiring modern equipment. It must be a comprehensive transformation in leadership thinking, newsroom models, production processes, data management, content distribution, audience measurement, journalism economics, and professional culture.

Digital journalism is not old journalism placed on a new platform; it is a new way of organising journalism in a new context.

Within a newsroom, each work must be viewed as an information product with a clear purpose. Every form of presentation must adhere to common standards: accuracy, humanity, verification, and responsibility. It is necessary to avoid a situation where professionalism is maintained on the main publication channels but standards are lowered on secondary platforms. The more multi-platform journalism becomes, the more consistent its standards must be.

In the digital era, data is a pillar of journalism. Data is not merely numbers; it is the foundation for verification and a tool to build and deliver journalistic works in a more convincing and comprehensive manner. Major and reputable news organisations around the world are investing heavily in data development and allocating significant human resources to data journalism. When data is properly built and managed, journalism can strengthen its credibility and identify issues at an early stage.

Another major challenge is maintaining initiative in relation to cross-border platforms. Journalism needs to reach audiences wherever they are present, across all platforms, but it cannot become dependent on external algorithms. If news organisations only chase views and recommendation mechanisms, they risk losing audience data, distribution control, identity, and face uncertainty whenever algorithms change.

Mastering the digital space means knowing how to utilise global platforms while simultaneously building independent channels, communities of readers, proprietary data systems, and trusted brands.

Therefore, national information sovereignty must be understood more fully. Vietnamese revolutionary journalism must be a leading force in protecting that sovereignty. Protecting information sovereignty does not mean closing oneself off. Vietnam needs a strong, multilingual, multimedia digital foreign press capable of conveying Vietnam’s messages to the world through modern language while preserving Vietnamese identity.

The achievements of national renewal, cultural values, and the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation, and development must be presented through attractive products supported by persuasive data.

To fulfil this mission, journalism needs sustainable development resources. The digital journalism economy is not opposed to the goals and orientations of revolutionary journalism. A media sector lacking resources will struggle to invest in technology, protect copyrights, train personnel, and retain talented professionals.

However, the journalism economy must serve the mission of journalism, not lead journalism toward sensationalism, clickbait, exploitation of private lives, or commercialisation of political and social information. Journalism needs new revenue sources from digital subscriptions, copyrights, data, and specialised products.

Without a healthy digital journalism economic model, journalism will find it difficult to maintain investment capacity for high-quality content, investigative reporting, analysis, verification, and copyright protection.

Copyright protection in the digital and AI environments must also be taken seriously. Journalistic content is the result of creative labour, reporting, verification, editing, financial investment, and legal responsibility. Unauthorised copying, editing, exploitation, aggregation, and commercialisation weaken the economic foundation of journalism. Protecting copyright means protecting legitimate labour and information quality in society.

Ultimately, the decisive factor remains people. All orientations and strategies depend on human resources. Journalists in the digital era must know how to work with data, digital tools, social networks, open sources, and information security standards.

The more tools available, the more journalists need professional integrity and judgement. Journalism must avoid the practice of publishing first and verifying later, or allowing social media to dictate its agenda. Journalists must never trade credibility for views.

Before publishing a journalistic work, journalists need to answer three questions: Is it accurate? Is it necessary? Is it beneficial to society?

Media leaders must also change. The editor-in-chief of a digital newsroom is no longer merely the person who approves content, but also the architect of strategies for products, data, audiences, technology, and human resources.

News organisations need a new working culture: professional, disciplined in verification, responsive to change, open to innovation, willing to experiment while never compromising standards. Continuous retraining must become a regular task, focusing on digital verification, data security, multi-platform journalism, AI ethics, and compliance with intellectual property laws.

In the context that the Digital Press Law No. 126/2025/QH15 will take effect on July 1, 2026, completing the legal framework for digital journalism is extremely necessary. Institutions must protect lawful journalistic activities, encourage innovation, create conditions for digital newsrooms, digital journalism economics, data journalism, copyright protection, and responsible AI use.

At the same time, journalistic discipline must be strictly maintained; violations involving information, professional ethics, or the misuse of journalism for personal gain must be handled promptly.

An urgent task is to build nationwide capacity for information verification. There needs to be close cooperation among regulatory agencies, major media organisations, technology experts, training institutions, platform businesses, and communities to detect, verify, warn against, and counter fake news, fabricated statements, fake images of State agencies, and deliberate information disruption activities.

Such a network must operate rapidly, with clear procedures, using data and evidence to persuade the public.

Throughout the process of transforming journalism, audiences must be placed at the centre. Today’s digital audiences do not merely receive information; they regularly provide feedback, ask questions, conduct their own verification, offer opinions, provide data, and demand greater transparency from journalism.

Journalism must know how to listen but must not chase every temporary emotion. It must respect debate while absolutely rejecting harmful information. With young audiences, journalism can innovate through appropriate language, formats, and platforms, but it must never lower its standards.

Vietnamese revolutionary journalism in the digital era must therefore harmoniously combine political steadfastness and technological capability, revolutionary ideals and innovative thinking, combativeness and humanity, national responsibility and global integration.

Mastering the digital space cannot be achieved through slogans alone; it must begin with every newsroom, every verification process, every data repository, every journalistic product, every training programme, and every interaction between journalists and the public.

On the occasion of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day, I hope that press organisations and every journalist will transform revolutionary traditions into a driving force for innovation.

Press organisations must become modern digital newsrooms, centres of data and knowledge, and trusted addresses for the people. Journalists must continue to be soldiers on the front line of ideology, culture, and digital information — steadfast in their convictions, pure in professional ethics, deeply humane, and proficient in technology.

With this direction, I firmly believe that Vietnamese revolutionary journalism will continue to make worthy contributions to the cause of serving the Fatherland and the people in the digital era.