Considering the fast-changing nature of media under the influence of new technologies, the news agencies, dealing with time in broadcasting news, are more affected and need more adaptation with the new trends and technologies and improvement of the quality of their content.
In this regard and to this end, Mehr News Agency has launched its Comprehensive Evaluation Model to enhance the performance of each and every one of its journalists as well as their corresponding services which will all in all result in improvement of the news agency as a whole. The model monitors and assesses the quantity and quality of a journalist’s work and provides him or her with guidelines for next quarter to remove shortcomings.
Performance of journalists is measured based on factors including number of exclusive reports and interviews, creativity and quality of news production according to the service editor, organizational behavior, etc. Another criteria for assessment is the number of reflection the news and reports receive on other media outlets. Number of views and comments the audience leave for a news piece are other factors for evaluating a journalist’s work.
Meanwhile, an assessment on the performance of each service is also made which is similarly based on number of viewers and republishing on other media outlets. All in all, every quarter, the evaluation reports are provided by the managers to the people with graphs and charts illustrating the performance from previous periods as his or her profile. The evaluation reports concludes with suggestions for the next quarter to improve the skills of the journalist and performance of the services.
In the country report presented during the last meeting of EBM in Malaysia, Mehr News Agency expressed its emphasis on more use of social media and smartphone capacities to boost its reach to the audience. As a result, encouraging journalists to engage with social media and social applications more and more is among suggestions given to the colleagues in evaluation model; however, Mehr News Agency’s approach toward mobile world is not limited to this.
This has gained more momentum as smartphone social networks have been widely welcomed by Iranians. Different news media in Iran are using such means of communication to reach more audience and enjoy re-sharing of stories by the readers themselves. But Mehr News Agency has not been persuaded by this and stepped forward by creating its own smartphone applications.
Along with an advanced, full-featured application for newsreaders’ better and more user-friendly access to news, Mehr News Agency has also launched the test version of its user-based photo sharing and photo contest application MehrGram. The application provides users with the chance to share the photos they take of events and also participate in thematic contests which will be introduced every other while by Mehr News Agency and seek awareness raising among the public by encouraging them to engage with the theme of the contest. The participants send their photos through the application and vote for contestants and the winner would be selected by the user votes.
The last but not the least important development of Mehr News Agency which has been carried out to improve services to the audience is launching of its Kurdish service. Following months of studies and planning, last month, the Kurdish edition of Mehr news was launched to target more closely people in western Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Despite its short life so far, Kurdish edition has been widely received by the target society and many people have left emails or comments appreciating the initiative.
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