“I have long wanted to learn the technical basics of making a podcast.” Or: “I think it’s important for us kids to be able to have our say on the city we live in and what we would like.” Different expectations and initial objectives for a single result: 30 episodes of the radio format “Studenti Reporter On Air” created by young high school students who, from today Monday 10th June, are all available online on the Studentreporter.it platform and, subsequently, from Monday 17th June, will be broadcast at 3.30pm on Radio Amore Dance (Fm 99.4). Thirty episodes, in fact, born from the commitment and passion of 75 students from the E. Boggio Lera and GB Vaccarini institutes in Catania as part of the second edition of the project “Student Reporters On Air – Workshops on active citizenship and radio and multimedia journalism” , promoted by the Catania Lab association and financed by the Sicilian Region and by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Department of Youth and National Civil Service from the “Youth Policies Fund” year 2019 – 2020 – Line of intervention n. 1 – Action “Inclusive participation of young people in the social life of the territories”. The results of the project, the involvement of young people and the many interviewees of these months of work (municipal councillors, representatives of civic associations, the world of sport, the police force, the healthcare world) were presented in the spaces of Boggio Lera Institute.
A representation of young reporters was present with some of the experts who conducted the workshops and some of the school tutors of the classes involved which were the III ASA of Vaccarini (tutor Pina Arena), the III DSA of Boggio Lera (tutor Alessandra Stanganelli), the III CSA of Boggio Lera (tutor Luisa Siena). The Student Reporter On Air project, launched in November 2023, started with the aim of increasing civic awareness and specific knowledge on topics of general and community interest and stimulating discussion and debate, promoting more conscious participation in the life of the community. community through the interaction between elements of active citizenship and notions of journalism. After having participated in moments of facilitation led by the active citizenship expert Mirko Viola, and having learned the first notions of research, investigation and journalistic editing with the journalist Melania Tanteri, the 75 young people from the three high school classes got to the heart of the creation of the podcast like real reporters. In particular, the various micro editorial offices have developed topics and investigations, complete with interviews with professionals, administrators or experts on the specific topic, ranging from tourist enjoyment and accessibility of cultural heritage to road safety and city mobility, passing through juvenile crime. and school dropout, urban decay, the environment and waste, femicide and gender disparities, the suburbs and the redevelopment of abandoned public spaces. And there are also original themes such as “the spirtizza of the Catania people” and of great sociological interest such as “young people and addictions”.
The Catania Lab association that promoted the project «was born in 2011 and has always worked to promote new platforms of communicative, free and critical language in the fields of art and culture», explains the president Salvo Messina. “The workshops, specifically, allowed the students to acquire skills relating to “doing” information, participation in community life, education on legality and gender equality, health education and the prevention of addictions (c there was also a focus on deviances organized together with the ASP of Catania) as well as on the various technical and journalistic professions necessary for the creation of a complete radio format (the students, in various phases, were supported by a team of technical specialists – Toni Russo and Sergio Gugliotti – who taught them some basic notions of radio recording and editing”.
