Pen in one hand, microphone in the other and fingers stained with the black ink of freshly printed paper. Recreating a journalistic newsroom does not take much. All it needs are computers, newspapers, fifteen tables scattered across two rooms of a conference centre and groups of youngsters ready to get in the game.
Now in its third edition, PRESS (Progetto Redazione e Scrittura per la Stampa) [literally Project Editing and Writing for the Press], organised in Rome from April 17th to 19th 2024, by the NGO United Network (UN), simulates the tasks performed by real journalists in the workplace. The hierarchical positions within the simulation, aimed at high school students, mirror those found in reality: Editor-in-Chief, Vice and Secretary.
During the simulation, students engage in various activities guided by UN’s staff members who take on the role of editors. The first day includes four tasks: writing an article to debunk fake news, watching a short film and drafting a review, elaborating a newspaper article and creating an infographic. The second day is dedicated to producing a news broadcast, while the last day is divided into two parts: a press conference and a closing ceremony. This year, the event featured a speech by Federica Angeli, a reporter from La Repubblica.
“Today’s youth approach this world almost unconsciously. Even though they don’t realise it, they often deal with communication-related matters. I believe PRESS can be an opportunity to begin managing this relationship more consciously and also, why not, to guide someone who wants to approach this profession,” explains Edoardo Pieretti, Editor-in-Chief of the project.
Indeed, PRESS helps many students find their path. Eighteen-year-old Agnese Andolfi, a student at Foscolo in Albano Laziale, confesses the reason why she decided to participate: “I want to become a photojournalist, so I thought an introduction to the journalistic world could be useful. A few years ago, I watched a documentary and realised I could not continue to live turning away, without paying attention to the world’s ills. I also want to represent the beauty of these realities that, as complex and difficult as they may be, still encapsulate something precious. And this is exactly where photography should come in.”
“It is essential to make the participants understand that their voice matters, that they should express their opinions and that they have the ability to do it. In the end, seeing their satisfaction shows us that we have transmitted something to them in our small way,” says Letizia Morgi, the Vice Editor-in-Chief.
If it is true, as author Jón Kalman Stefánsson writes, that “words can be bullets, but they can also be rescue teams,” thanks to the project PRESS, young journalists learn the value of a job crucial for combating ignorance and denouncing social injustices. They learn the importance of choosing the right terms, reading between the lines and listening to the unspoken and the sighs present in a text, proving that writing can be a safe place to gather and never separate.
(Read also in Italian at page 36 of our magazine: https://zetaluiss.it/2024/05/06/metropoli-zeta-numero-19-aprile-2024/)
