Prof. Zhong Xin, a teacher at the School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University, China, has advocated dialogue on peaceful development as a strategy to advance media operational growth.

Peaceful development is a strategic choice made by China to realise modernisation, make itself strong and prosperous, and make more contribution to the progress of human civilisation.

Zhong, a researcher on public diplomacy and crisis communication at the Chinese University, gave the advice while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Beijing.

She spoke on the sidelines of a lecture titled: “Vision, goodwill and credibility”, organised under the auspices of the China Africa Press Centre (CAPC) Programme 2022.

Zhong said, “Media organisations need to tell more actual stories about the importance of peaceful development.

“There is a need for media organisations to create adequate room for dialogue about peaceful development, to enable people to gain more understanding about the subject.

“When we talk about the media, we are talking about different forms of communication; media organisations globally must try to uphold this important strategy to promote peace in conflict situations.

“We should drive conversation on peace; we are not here to create war, but to create peace, understanding and bridges and with this mindset we will unravel stories and contribute to world peace.”

The teacher said that when people undersood the essence of peace, they would embrace or believe it, and could boost more cooperation.

According to her, global cooperation is possible, when people understand that there is the need to end wars and cooperate with one another for common good.

She said measures had been taken to carry out a peace development project through partnership with media organisations in Nigeria and other parts of the world, to achieve targets.

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“The project is centered on ways we can publish stories and make people feel confident about cooperation.

“If we have too many wars, too many conflicts with people, we are going to be hopeless; this is where dialogue has become a very important means of peaceful development.

“Now the online media situation is very fragmented, so how can we try to lead dialogue online and make people talk and be more rational?

“Sometimes online discussion can be quite irrational and become unrealistic,” she added.

She decried the spread of fake news over real news to be a war media organisations need to conquer, to promote correctness in reporting, trust and make people understand the subject of peace development.

“Fake news and real news are competing, so we must try to win in the battle field of media operations.

“I think the media can do a lot to coordinate people through dialogue on peaceful development so that people can have basic trust as we see today.

“If they trust China more for instance, they will not trust fake news about the country, so the basic trust is very important in peaceful development.

“If they trust China more to have credibility in a specific area, fake news will not work that much; this is why we try to invite more people to come to China to see and to understand Chinese culture and values,” she said.

No fewer than 90 Journalists from 67 countries across Africa, Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, are participating in the programme, which began in June.

The programme, which is being hosted by the China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA), is expected to end in November. (NAN)