Four representatives in China’s online self-media, akin to “citizen journalism,” shared their understanding and practices at the Zijin Network Communication Innovation Summit in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, April 27.

　　Chen Lu, as the deputy chief at Changzhou News Radio, is also a live-streaming anchor on Changzhou Mobile TV, an app by Changzhou Media Corporation. She said the criteria for a successful program depends on the attention it gains and whether it can generate huge traffic on different media platforms.

　　In the age of ‘content entrepreneurship,’ everyone can operate a self-media, but few can turn their content creation into a brand and earn business profits from the endeavors. Ding Feng, founder of media startup ergengtv.com, said the platform’s content generation is based on principles of real people, real feelings and real stories. Ding said the platform shot videos of nearly 5,000 people over three years and each of those 5,000 works is about real people and their touching stories.

　　To make profits from content creation is not easy. Xu Danei, founder of social media trends- tracking startup New Rank, said ‘content entrepreneurship’ is a quite big word that needs more specific breakdown. Sharing and promoting knowledge is rather at the superficial level, so the development trend in the future is to serve readers and users, and then provide more comprehensive, detailed services.

　　Young people today don’t like be lectured in stiff ways and it’s better to tell a story in ways they favor, said Xu Chuan, Party chief at the College of Marxism, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.