In the context of hostile forces promoting sabotage activities in cyberspace, taking advantage of ethnic, religious issues and political events to distort and incite, propaganda work is facing the requirement to innovate and be more sensitive in grasping the situation, orienting public opinion and protecting the Party's ideological foundation.
To clarify the achieved results, the issues raised and the key tasks in the coming time, Lao Dong Newspaper had an interview with Ms. Nguyen Thi Phong Vu - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Committee of Gia Lai Provincial Party Committee.
Madam, what is the biggest challenge for propaganda work in Gia Lai province today?
- After arranging administrative units, Gia Lai is the second largest province in the country, with 47 ethnic groups living together; ethnic minorities account for nearly 24% of the population. The province also has a rich religious and belief life, with about 637,650 followers, accounting for 18.38% of the population.
The area is large, the population distribution is uneven, there are many border areas, remote and isolated areas, and the diversity of ethnicities and religions both create resources and rich identity, and pose very high requirements for propaganda and mobilization work.
In addition, hostile forces and political opportunists often take advantage of ethnic and religious issues, complex cases and cyberspace to distort, incite, and cause division in the great national unity bloc.
In that context, the biggest challenge is how to firmly grasp, analyze and accurately forecast the ideological situation and public opinion; and at the same time bring official information to the grassroots level quickly, accurately, and appropriately for each area and each group of subjects, not allowing passivity, surprise or formation of "information gaps" for bad actors to take advantage of.
This requires propaganda work to be increasingly proactive, sensitive, and close to the grassroots level; strongly innovate the content and methods of propaganda; promote the effectiveness of the contingent of cadres, reporters, propagandists and core forces at the grassroots level, truly taking a step ahead in ideological orientation and public opinion.
Faced with increasingly sophisticated sabotage tactics, according to you, what is the core factor to help propaganda and education work improve the effectiveness of protecting the Party's ideological foundation in the province?
- The core factor is to consolidate trust, raise political awareness of cadres, party members and people, thereby firmly building the "people's heart battlefield". When people are provided with official, complete, timely and accurate information; issues of concern and concern are listened to, answered and handled right from the grassroots level, then false and distorted information will hardly have conditions to impact and lure.
To effectively implement that requirement, in the past time, the Propaganda and Mass Mobilization sector of the province has focused on innovating the content and methods of propaganda in a direction that closely follows reality, increases orientation, persuasiveness and is suitable for each area, each target group, and strongly focuses on grassroots levels.
Along with that, propaganda work is closely linked to the task of protecting the Party's ideological foundation, proactively identifying and fighting against wrong and hostile views, especially in cyberspace, in ethnic minority areas, remote and isolated areas, border areas and key areas. Thereby, contributing to maintaining political stability, strengthening social consensus and consolidating the great national unity bloc.
According to you, how can official information go one step ahead, enough to guide public opinion in the face of the rapid spread of bad and toxic information?
- In the current context, official information not only needs to be correct but also fast, if it is slower than bad and toxic information, public opinion orientation will face many difficulties. Therefore, propaganda and education work must proactively forecast and grasp social issues of concern, and promptly provide accurate and objective information suitable for each target group.
Promote digital transformation, apply digital platforms and artificial intelligence to improve the quality and effectiveness of propaganda work. At the same time, strengthen coordination between agencies, units, forces, teams of reporters and propagandists, creating a comprehensive strength of the entire political system in propaganda and information orientation work.
More importantly, official information must originate from practice, accurately and accurately reflect the issues that people are concerned about, and take the development results of the locality as the basis for creating social consensus and strengthening people's trust.
Faced with the rapid change of sabotage methods, how should the Gia Lai Propaganda and Mass Mobilization sector change to always maintain the initiative on the ideological front?
- In the coming time, the Propaganda and Mass Mobilization sector must strongly shift from handling situations to proactively grasping, analyzing, and forecasting; early detection and timely advising on handling ideological and public opinion issues right from the grassroots level, not allowing the formation of "information gaps".
Along with that, it is necessary to innovate the content and methods of propaganda in a fast, accurate, modern, practical and suitable for each target group; promote digital transformation, effectively exploit digital platforms to spread positive information, improve the capacity to identify and fight against wrong and hostile views.
The overarching goal is to maintain the Party's ideological battlefield, consolidate the people's trust, create social consensus, promote the strength of great national unity and contribute to the successful implementation of the province's development goals.
Thank you very much, Madam!
