How to enhance online journalism in Cambodia?

Ich komme aus Berlin schriftlich.
Cambodian journalists back home know very well that ‘multimedia and online journalism‘, an advanced and futurist element for journalists, is still underdeveloped and that a lot can be done about it.
The prediction that every journalist has to adapt to the change to the ‘multimedia platform’ is becoming obvious. New sites have begun to integrate ‘multimedia’ into their online sites. This also means opportunities will come to those journalists working for whatever media outlet to embrace this.
Back to my country, it is NOT that we do not want to improve it, but considering that Internet technology started late in Cambodia, media houses should now start to train local journalists in this area.
What I’ve learned
The lack of this knowledge in my country has prompted me to take a two-month course on “multimedia & online journalism’ course organized by GIZ organization. The first week of the course was such a fruitful time because my class lessons touched on one important issue that every Internet user including online journalists face every day: Internet Security. How can you protect yourselves when you are online? Check this out.

Cambodia starts to think about multi-media now?

The following second week made me think of what I can do for the media houses back in Cambodia or what online news websites there can transform themselves to a full-fledged and perhaps more widely-read source of news.
From what I have learned for the past two weeks, there are more than
What do you think the Phnom Penh Post should change?

several significant elements for a news site to consider. Taking the example fr
om the newspaper site I am working for, I plan to discuss these integration parts with the newspaper head.

  • Concise headline + attractive precise teaser + short paragraphs (writing for the web)
  • More outlets that should come along with a news story: good photos, slide show, audio/podcast, soundslide, video

Working as a print journalist for nearly three years, I do not think it is extremely difficult to convert to a multimedia journalist, and for those media houses to gain more online readership, texts or photos alone can make readers click.
Tips for print journalists to become multimedia ones (Reporter’s guide to multimedia proficiency.pdf)

3 thoughts on “How to enhance online journalism in Cambodia?”

  1. Very good points you are making here, Kounila!
    And an excellent guide for multimedia proficiency that you have included.
    Do you thing Cambodia will see independent and strong digital only news organizations appear in the next years? I am asking because newspapers are so weak in Cambodia. Even the biggest ones have very few readers compared to the size of the population and what we see in most other countries. At the same time internet penetration now is growing very quickly. Therefore it seems to me that the strong news organizations on the web in the future might not necessarily be the same as today’s media houses. Or am I wrong? What do you think?
    Talking of print journalists and the web, I wrote a blog post recently that might be of interest: The digital makeover of a journalist: Here is your one-year plan!

  2. Hi John,
    Thanks for your comment! I am quite skeptical that Cambodia will see this change in the next years. Newspaper, though containing a significant substance of the truth, is not so widely read. It can only be accessed in urban areas or business centres. This happens because of the low Internet penetration in Cambodia, but I’m positive that change is happening right now, though a bit slowly. I feel certain that tomorrow won’t necessarily be the same as today. 🙂 Many newspapers will go digital when there are more Internet users in Cambodia!
    Thanks for the link! I’ve read it up many times. Nice one! 😀

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