Digitisation driving TRT’s human-centred journalism: Deputy DG

TRT is engaged in “human-centred journalism” with a mission to “create a fairer media where untold and unknown stories are shown to the world,” TRT Deputy Director General, International Broadcasts, Omer Faruk Tanriverdi has said.

He was speaking at this year’s Global News Forum, held at Kuching, Malaysia, on July 10-12 with the theme of ‘AI, Leading Change & Inspiring a Greener Future’.

Media professionals from around the world participated in the conclave to discuss and debate some of the most significant issues for newsrooms in 2023 and the biggest challenges facing the planet.

Global news executives also shared their perspectives and provided valuable observations regarding the future of artificial intelligence in news organisations. They discussed essential factors for driving change, including the significance of creating engaging content that motivates people to take action.

Tanriverdi said TRT will host the 2024 ABU General Assembly meeting in Istanbul next year.

Time for digitalisation

Tanriverdi raised inquiries about the recent transformations the media industry witnessed.

“The media industry, in particular, has undergone a profound evolution, presenting challenges and opportunities.”

He highlighted the rise of digitalisation in the industry and the vast possibilities artificial intelligence (AI) presents in improving content creation, distribution, and engagement while acknowledging the accompanying risks.

He stated that it is crucial to keep up with the changing path of the media landscape. “The change should be based on three principles: Digitalisation (which is using high-tech), efficiency, and cooperation.”

Describing the transformation of TRT’s international broadcasts based on these principles since last year, Tanriverdi captivated the audience by presenting compelling data to demonstrate the remarkable success of TRT’s rapid digitalisation phase in recent years.

Speaking on the progress TRT has made within a year from April 2022 to March 2023, Tanriverdi said the network has launched three digital channels in eight different languages, including TRT Africa, TRT Francais, and TRT Balkan.

In 2023, TRT Africa began to highlight stories of and from the continent to a global audience in four languages: Swahili, English, Hausa, and French. TRT Francais is solely devoted to catering to its French-speaking audience.

TRT Balkan, launched to target over 30 million people from the region and the Balkan diaspora, offers a wide range of content in multiple languages, including Albanian, BHS (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian), and Macedonian.

According to the data Tanriverdi shared, TRT international digital channels’ TikTok accounts received more than 246 million views last year, while they received more than 131 million views in the first half of 2023.

These digital channels also reached more than 390 million people on Facebook and had more than 330 million views on YouTube last year.

TRT used the digitalisation data to build a better multi-platform distribution strategy to reach people where they are, according to Tanriverdi.

He also introduced TRT's plans for Metaverse creation and the freshly-launched Video on Demand (VoD) digital platform Tabii and announced that TRT international broadcasts would start airing podcasts in 41 languages and dialects very soon.

Cooperation call

As the Deputy Director General of TRT, who is in charge of international broadcasts, a structure with a staff of 2500 working to operate two TV channels, seven digital channels, and 41 radio stations, Tanriverdi underlined the significance of well-established teamwork for achieving the goals.

He called all industry members to establish alliances, engage with other stakeholders, and embrace partnerships that capitalise on their combined strengths.