The press of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations and the stability of intelligence: the journey from the possible to the impossible

1. The calling of science and the press

There are many ways to develop science and technology, but no matter what, there has the be the involvement of the press. There are three reasons for this.

Firstly, the end product of the intellectual are works where they could display the results of their research, as well as reaffirm their own personal role and status in the scientific research community. This is partly achieved via announcements in the press to establish who is who within the scientific community, as well as verify the copyright of creations and inventions. Hence, for science and technology to exist, the press must exist as well. In fact, there ought to be a lot of press, as every scientific newspaper or journal can be shaped for the same practical perspective, but the approach to solving the same research problems can often be very different.

Secondly, the press informs people of the status of research issues: what has already been solved and in what manner, mistakes made and how much research and investment still needs to be made into those issues. Without this, science and technology loses its ability to shape its own direction.

Lastly, the press honors scientists and people with honesty and a relative lack of selfishness, relating them to other social groups, and helps the public find understanding and admiration with exploration, invention and creation. Through the press, society contributes to repaying scientists and inventors working for the good of mankind; those who may need little in material but would not say no to honors from the public.

Hence, without developing the press, the ability to develop science and technology would also be gone, as well as the ability to connect people working in those fields.

2. The press of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA)

VUSTA is one of the few bright spots in journalistic activity in Việt Nam. Finding its origin in the creation of the Science and Life newspaper, but flourishing in the Renovation period, the press of VUSTA had a period of strong development in both of its directions: publicization of scientific and technological works, alongside popularization of scientific and technological knowledge. This period lasted for 30 years, beginning as Renovation found its way into daily life after the famine in North Việt Nam in 1988, up until being reshaped as it is today in 2018 after planning of the press was established. However, at present, many publications under VUSTA are struggling to exist. There are also three reasons to this.

Firstly, due to constraints imposed by many things outside of science, the journals under VUSTA are unable to develop according to their calling, leading to them losing readers, especially among those within the profession, as well as losing their skills and enthusiasm in their work.

Another reason is that the economic basis of the press of VUSTA is not stable. Many newspapers and journals have to rely on meager or non-existent subsidies, leaving them unable to compete with publications that receive substantial subsidies. Poor market orientation after many years of non-market existence, as well as the habit of science and technology sponsorship among the rich remaining rare (they are more used to sponsoring spirits or beauty pageants) leads to the lack of necessary investment for the scientific and technological press, especially from social sources.

Finally, many in the scientific community remain uninterested in domestic publication. This can be attributed to dated thoughts of science and technology being something advanced and high-brow, leading them to deem domestic scientific journals not having enough prowess for them to show off. The Vietnamese readers are also yet to understand the thoughts of the scientists, as they do not frequently write about science as a whole and popular science in particular. Hence, the readers still think like how they did in fairy tales long ago: that science and technology is a journey to Go to the infinite, and bring back the invisible.

Mr. Pham Ngoc Linh, Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, spokeat the launch event of the Marcom-AI Platform-a technological initiative aimed at advancing the communications sector and announces the establishment of the Data and Artificial Intelligence Alliance (D.A Alliance) by Vietnam Economic Times/VnEconomy.

3. What’s next

The new direction for Việt Nam to grow at present is to rely on breakthroughs in private economy, as well as to completely rely on science and technology. Hence, developing journalism is a necessary condition to achieve those things, for the sake of the development of private economy, as well as science and technology. And if we really want Việt Nam to become a developed country by 2045, we must first change outdated thoughts that are impeding the progress of scientific and technological journalism as a whole, as well as the press of VUSTA specifically.

If, in the immediate future, we can remove the limitations that are impeding the development of the press of VUSTA, then the issue of connecting people working in science and technology will automatically be solved! It is for their own benefit. And the intermingling of the scientific community alongside VUSTA, assuming VUSTA is an organization that can represent them, will be very organic and bring real benefits to society. This has happened before and can happen in the future as well, if…

By Phạm Bích San
“Go to the infinite, bring back the invisible” Russian fairy tale

Translated by Nhat Nam