Manuela Mesco - journalist
You work as a journalist for ANSA - a press agency renowned for its ethical practices. However, many tabloids adopt Yellow techniques because it translates in highly profitable newspapers sales. How could the press ‘educate‘ the masses to appreciate more grounded information? What are, in your opinion, the controls to keep sensationalism in check.
Having worked as a journalist in Italy for some years, Manuela Mesco moved to the UK in 2005. She currently works as a London-based freelance journalist for Italian and British publications, including Ansa news agency, Finanza & Mercati, ICIS Heren and The Guardian.Manuela has also worked with organizations such as Unlock Democracy and Spinwatch on press freedom and civil rights issues - her articles have been published by Index on Censorship.
(Please refere to the bottom of the page for useful links related to the field of Journalism)
Accademia Apulia has asked Manuela Mesco the following questions:
The tabloid tradition in the UK is a very old one, and it targets a particular readership in the country. Yet, though tabloids are best-sellers among newspapers, the UK has also a very strong tradition of quality press. As long as there is a difference between tabloids and quality press, readers do not get confused and are led to buy one paper or the other, aware of what they are going to find in each of them. I think this is the best check on the press: by keeping alive the quality press, there's always an alternative to tabloids and the two worlds are kept separated. It would be far worst if the quality press got mixed with tabloids. This is definitely not happening in Britain.
The problem is different: the press is suffering financial problems worldwide, in Italy as well as in the UK and in many other countries. The Guardian is a perfect example: it is a quality newspaper and it's currently one of the main news outlet in the whole world (particularly its web site); yet its income is low and it risks to be not enough to pay for professionals who write for the paper.
The financial issue therefore is what currently risks to lower the quality of the written press in general. That's therefore what editors and proprietors are trying to solve by finding new templates for newspapers. If this is not sorted quickly, the overall quality of the press is endangered because it means that journalists cannot be paid to produce good reports and that papers cannot invest on investigations and in-depth reports, which is at the core of quality information.
Educating the masses to appreciate quality information depends on whether the information produced is actually qualitative. The recent success of a new Italian paper, Il Fatto Quotidiano, has shown that when quality information is actually produced, people do appreciate it. But it's essential to have resources to do that.
What are the qualities that a good journalist should have?
In my opinion, journalists should be first of all professionals in the information industry at the service of their public. They should have a good sense of news, understand and expose facts that are in the public interest. They need to be able to interpret documents, ask the right questions, find the right angle for a news-story. Of course, they need to be curious enough to investigate what's in the public interest, asking opinions and getting at the core of the truths they want to expose. More simply, they should be able to tell the world around them stories that can be understood and that are of interest to the general public.
How do you feel the field of journalism has evolved in the past 20 years?
Generally speaking, the biggest evolution lies in the Internet and the quantity and the speed of news produced by the web. People can now take a more active role in the creation and the gathering of news. Citizen journalism is now an interesting reality; blogs and social networks are new tools to gather information that 20 years ago were not even imaginable. This has changed totally the role of the traditional press, particularly the written one. Papers need now to find a new pattern for news-production in order to stay afloat and they get competition not only by competitor media outlets, but also by the web.
Nevertheless, it's important to stress the difference between citizen and professional journalism: as I said, journalists are professional with expertise, knowledge, contacts and experience. Citizens journalists are part of the civil society who decide to tell their opinions or share their own version of events. It's also important to bear in mind that the Internet is a non-controllable tool: because it's absolutely free, not everything written and published on blogs and social network websites is true and reliable and not everything is indeed information.
The other big problem that has worsened significantly in recent years is the concentration of media ownership, which is a serious issue everywhere in Europe and in the US. This endangered the quality of the press as it puts at risk a balanced and free, competitive media market.
Apart from this general changes, the media landscape is different in every country. In Italy, for instance, it seems to have deteriorated not only for the ongoing attacks to press freedom - or more correctly to the press independence - but far worst because of a continuous two faction-struggle in the media, where journalists attack their colleagues in an attempt to destroy their reputation and to defend their political party. These two factions seem in fact to be a punctual reflection of political parties, sometimes acting as their spokespersons. Journalists should not be so closely connected with political parties and should only represent readers and civil society, challenging and not backing the political elite.
The Italian press has always suffered interferences from the political world. Fifteen years ago, though, it looked like the press was generally more interested in telling what was happening around the country, whereas now few papers are actually willing to do that. All the others are stuck in conflict of interests and lack of impartiality.
Given that Belgium's lower house of parliament has voted for a law that bans women from wearing the full Islamic face veil in public, what is your interpretation of Freedom of Expression?
It's true that freedom of expression involves many things. Yet, I don't think there can be an 'interpretation' on it. It is one straight principle: the right for each individual to express their views, to believe in their own religion, to protest publicly if they wish, to write and say their opinions (as long as this doesn't affect other people). And it is definitely an unavoidable principle in global societies such as ours.
What are the items that according to you should not be highlighted by a Journalist?
A journalist should tell stories that are in the public interest. A story about the private life of an individual (even a public figure) which has not consequences on his public life should not be a priority.
What are the rewards of being a journalist? What are the disadvantages?
Being a journalist is the real reward in this job. It's being able to cover a story, expose facts, find out another bit of our world. The disadvantages are well known to every one who works in the industry: it is hard work, very competitive and it requires to work long hours and to be always available. All this often means little money. But every journalist can tell you that: you do this job mainly because you're passionate about it.
As an Italian living overseas, how do you see Italy? What would you say the British public thinks of the Italian political scene?
Unfortunately, I think that Britons do not have a clear picture of what's going on in Italy. Here people know about the Italian Prime minister, some of the scandals he was involved with, but they don't get to know the real issues that affect our democracy (such as corrupted members of parliament or the interferences of the business world in politics), as well as the most topical problems such as how serious is unemployment, the increasing lack of tolerance of Italians towards immigrants, the relevance of the Vatican on our domestic issues and many others. I think that the cause of this is that Italian society and politics is too complicated to be understood by casual foreign observers.
As for my opinion on Italy, I am in a privileged position in observing my country: being Italian and having lived there for most of my life, I know how Italian society and politics work, but I can observe it now from an external vantage point, getting a more general picture, not spoiled by an ongoing 'manipulation of news' that continuously occurs in Italy. My opinion is that what's wrong in our country now is not only the state of politics - that speaks for itself, without any need for me to go further - but the culture that has allowed it to raise to power. A culture of corruption, a lack of sense of state, a rule of law that is increasingly endangered by the attacks on judges and on the press. This is what should be addressed first of all, but we all know that this will take years, even after the end of the Berlusconi era, to be 'fixed'.
As you know, Accademia Apulia aims to provide youngsters with professional inspirations and a professional template. How easy/difficult is it to become a journalist in the UK? Is there a college and/or training available to aspiring journalists - what is your message to them?
Becoming a journalist is not easy. Neither in Italy nor in the UK. In Italy the problem is the lack of outlets offering jobs to young people who wish to step into this world. In Britain, on the other hand, the industry is highly competitive. Yet, in Britain there are many post-graduate courses that can help a lot and many more job opportunities. For Italians who wish to work as journalists here in the UK, it's important to bear in mind that it's not easy for foreigners to learn to write in English as good as an English speaker does and working as a journalist here means to understand how the press works here which is very different from Italy.
The first step after university and post-graduate courses, though, would be to get an internship with a paper or with a TV station, which are generally quite easy to find, and learn the job that way. It's important to be aware that this is not an easy and quick career: it requires sacrifice and hard work. My advice would be to think twice whether this is what you really want to do: whereas it can reward a lot in terms of personal achievement, it also requires a big commitment.
Accademia Apulia UK suggests the following links for a career in Journalism
You may wish to read other journalists' interviews: Michele Traversa
