Slow down to understand, read to participate. This is the meaning of the Silent Reading Party Tour, a traveling initiative of Il Sole 24 Ore which landed in Messina, at the headquarters of the Società Editrice Sud Gazzetta del Sud Giornale di Sicilia, in the presence of deputy editor Daniele Bellasio, for the fourth stage of the journey dedicated to the 160th anniversary of the economic newspaper. An experiment in “silent reading”, inspired by the American literary format, which in Italy, for the first time, is adopted by a newspaper. The protagonists of the meeting were the students of UniMe GDS Lab, a journalistic technique laboratory promoted by SES and the University of Messina, together with UniVersoMe, the multifaceted UniMe student newspaper.
Bellasio was welcomed by the president and editorial director of Ses Lino Morgante, who recalled the consolidated collaboration with Il Sole 24 Ore and the common defense of information pluralism, underlining the complexity of editorial work and the need to protect the press from digital distortions. Bellasio reflected on the role of journalism in the era of AI and social media, indicating that paper is a place capable of restoring hierarchy and meaning to news by aiming not at speed, but at the quality of processing. Director Nino Rizzo Nervo spoke on the educational dimension of reading and the complexity of editorial work in a newspaper with four different editions like the Gazzetta, while Natalia La Rosa, head of the GDS Academy and UniMe GDS Lab together with Professor Marialaura Giacobello, illustrated the experience of the laboratory as a model of integrated training between study and journalistic practice. Prof. also spoke. Marco Centorrino, deputy director of the Department of Ancient and Modern Civilizations of Unime, underlining the delicate balance in journalism between the professional dimension and the personal but public one, for example on social media.
The dialogue with students touched on many points, for example the use of AI in the editorial office. In this regard, Bellasio recalled how Il Sole 24 Ore was the first newspaper to adopt a code of ethics, which was later taken up by Fieg. Artificial intelligence, as he pointed out, is also profoundly revolutionizing the information sector, for example due to the fact that search engines offer summaries generated by AI which induce the reader to no longer click on the sites. On the other hand, technology can help save time and improve writing, he said, giving the example of Monday’s insert, “The expert responds”, created with the help of AI but verified by a “human” expert. In this regard, mention was also made, in the dialogue with President Morgante, of the importance of language, which must make the topics understandable. Bellasio then spoke about the journalist’s responsibility and gender issues in journalism, which sometimes adopts excessively unbalanced narratives on the “masculine”, especially for topics such as politics and sport. As deputy director responsible for digital and multimedia development, he insisted on the need to see journalism today as a “multitasking” profession. He described the relationships between the different roles, for example with the management, describing the typical day between meetings and evaluations of the news, in the synergies between paper and web which are not always digital first, explaining that some particular contents are reserved for the newspaper first.
After the lively discussion, the “magic” of the rotary press once again enchanted everyone with the salmon-colored pages of the Sole 24 Ore which were filled with content in just a few minutes. The protagonists of the meeting are also present in the Tuesday 28th edition, printed last Monday, with an article and a photo. A unique opportunity – or rather “an emotion”, as President Morgante defines it – to be able to observe all those mechanisms in action and see yourself in the freshly printed newspaper! The press center produces ten newspapers every day – distributed in Sicily and Calabria – including the two from the SES group and Il Sole 24 ore produced on the traditional KBA press. Another latest generation press is also operational – the Goss Newsprint – for 31×44 formats. All the participants were amazed at the sight of these giants who every night put in black and white the information that we find in our hands in the morning!