Popular Ghanaian news portal News Ghana participated in the 6th World Media Summit at the prestigious 6th World Media Summit (WMS) held in Urumqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China.
Senior journalist Francis Kobena Tandoh represented News Ghana at the summit held between October 12 and 17, 2024, which brought together over 500 media practitioners, including journalists, technology experts, and government officials from 106 countries, to discuss the future of the media industry in a digitally woven age.
The summit, co-hosted by the Xinhua News Agency of China, partners of News Ghana, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was under the theme “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Media Transformation.”
Fu Hua, President of the Xinhua News Agency, who addressed the summit at the opening ceremony on Monday, emphasized the significance of AI in enhancing the work of the media in a fast-changing world.
He stressed the fact that while AI has opportunities and challenges, it should be considered as a tool to augment human creativity rather than replace it, hence the need to maintain the interest of the people in news reporting and content creation.
Hua explained that technological innovations adopted have led his organization to make a quantum leap in its operations.
“The World Media Summit has become a major platform for media discussions. The opportunities and challenges artificial intelligence presents are enormous. It is important for the media to embrace AI and push for its upgrade in order to enhance the work of media practitioners,” said Hua.
“My organization’s leadership in investing in media AI technology and the development of AI tools have increased Xinhua‘s efficiency by about 70 percent,” added the Xinhua News Agency President.
He expressed the desire of the Xinhua News Agency to collaborate with other media outlets across the globe to uphold the ethics of journalism and urged others to do the same.
Beyond the main discussions at the summit, participants were also given the opportunity to have first-hand experience of the Xinjiang’s rich culture, history, amazing infrastructural development, as well as its beauty.
Among several places the participants visited were China Energy, which was doing so much in terms of wind and solar energy generation, and Tianchi Lake, where the Chinese have craftily packaged the area as a mouth-watering tourist site.
Participants also had the opportunity to visit GAC Motors, a car manufacturing company in Xinjiang, which produces thousands of SUVs on a monthly basis, as well as the Islamic Institute, showcasing religious tolerance and how the five major religions have co-existed peacefully in the region over the years.
Since 2009, the World Media Summit has become a key forum for fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange among journalists across the world.
Most of the participants said the 6th WMS, which comes after the previous one held in Guangzhou in December last year, will improve people-to-people contact and further boost relations between China and the rest of the world.
