by Alessandro Russo
How can we do our job best and create good information on a daily basis? I’ve always wondered how it happens to every journalist in love with this strange profession with the firm aim of not falling into the all too easy mistake of putting opinion before news, confusing one’s ideas with facts. Since I have been part of this large network, the question has become unanimous. Teamwork is what makes a network great, which makes it become a point of reference for information, far from prudery and spite that are often confused with news. And so the question is repeated over and over again a day, every time in to which we have to “work” a piece of news, deepen it, read it from every side to allow a pluralism of voices. We have a very clear editorial line, which is on the side of truth, rights and justice. Not only the one that in our Calabria, unfortunately, is always in the news, but also of social justice. If I chose this profession, like most of my colleagues in our editorial offices, it is because I know that there cannot be democracy without a free press and correct information, a precious contribution to the service of citizens, capable on the one hand of giving them a voice and to represent their needs, on the other to supervise those who administer us, increasing, through information, transparency and responsibility of politics and institutions.
We are back in the election campaign: we must send any type of solicitation back to the sender, even for a title that does not seem exactly in line with the wishes of this or that politician, this or that party. In the editorial office we often joke about it: if each party complains about the fact that we favor the other party, it means we are doing our job well.
In recent weeks, jokes aside, we have repeatedly asked ourselves how to prepare for the next election: the electoral campaign climate has been felt for some time, now the heaviest month has begun in which every event, every initiative, every statement risks turning into propaganda. It happens at a local, national, European level. How can we give a voice to everyone, in a correct and plural way, without further widening the chasm that has been created between citizens and institutions, but rather helping readers/spectators/voters to better understand the differences and basic principles of each political party?
The electoral round of 8 and 9 June will involve 3,717 municipalities for the administrative electionsinvolving almost 17 million voters, more than a third of the entire electoral body that will be called upon to express its opinion, in its entirety, for the renewal of the European Parliament.
Constructive journalism applied to elections
The main objective we set ourselves with our publisher is to go beyond the habit of many newspapers of becoming containers of electoral messages, implementing a project we have been working on for some time. Our Network is following and will continue to follow political and electoral news with the objectivity and authority that distinguish the work of each of our publications, but we have decided to experiment with a new way of doing journalism, which is an integral part of our line editorial: constructive journalism. By regularly reporting on solutions to local or global issues, information can help provide readers with the knowledge to build something new and “correct the problems associated with current societies”, to use the words of David Bornstein, pioneer of this new way of providing information. Constructive journalism invites conversation, participation, and the search for all possible solutions. Applied to electoral information, it helps to provide real information, to abandon the role of electoral megaphones, more or less followed and effective, and to reclaim the key role of journalism: that of watchdog, of control of power and institutions. It is no coincidence that the function of the mass media as instruments of democratic life is defined as the fourth power, which is notoriously based on the three powers – legislative, executive and judicial.
Let’s start from Vibo Valentia
Among the many local administrations called to renew the mayor and council There is also Vibo Valentia in the municipality, which has a particular meaning for us: it is the main headquarters of our Network and it is the place where the Group to which we belong was born and expanded. This is why we start from here, building a sort of political glocalization, in which the territorial strengths, which could change the face of our city, will become the fulcrum of a plural debate, in which our journalists will be joined by sector experts to start from individual focuses to highlight the path that each political group will undertake to carry forward beyond demagogy and propaganda. VIBO VALENS will be a plural debate in which each coalition will intervene in concrete terms, presenting its vision and the actions it will undertake on the individual key issues. We will deepen our focus with reports, investigations, vox populi, historical summaries of the state of the art: we will do this with news reports and articles, in support of the four special episodes which will be hosted in our journalistic format Dentro La Notizia every Thursday, starting from today until the eve of the vote. Today the Constructive journalism is more political than politics, because it goes towards the re-construction of the community, the identification of its needs, dialogue and discussion to find the most appropriate solutions. This is our horizon. This is the meaning of good information for us, which we are building and will continue to build day after day, question after question.
READ ALSO: Elections in Calabria, the first episode of the Vibo Valens special in view of the vote
