Study Guide with the Hope It Will Serve As a Vital Tool for You As Delegates, and Please Use It to Familiarize Yourself with the Committee’S Role in the Conference

Study Guide with the Hope It Will Serve As a Vital Tool for You As Delegates, and Please Use It to Familiarize Yourself with the Committee’S Role in the Conference

1 ST. GALLEN MODEL UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY OF ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND 12 – 15 NOVEMBER 2020 INTERNATIONAL PRESS CORPS ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ INTERNATIONAL PRESS CORPS (IPC) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ TOPIC: REPORTING, ON ALL FRONTS, AT ALL TIMES ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ WRITTEN BY DILLETTA MUCCILI, MANUELA BARROSO AND IRENA ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ SHALEVA ​ 2 WELCOMING LETTER ​ ​ ​ To our beloved SGMUN delegates, Welcome to SGMUN 2020! We would like to congratulate you on being chosen to participate in this Conference and we are looking forward to meeting you in the coming weeks. The Secretariat has planned a fantastic Conference in St. Gallen, which will truly stand out as an MUN conference to remember. Now it is our pleasure to officially welcome you to the International Press Corps. Journalism is not something every conference in the MUN world places emphasis on, but when it is done right it has a profound ability to bring delegates together and influence the atmosphere of the conference. We, as your chairs, are glad to present you this study guide with the hope it will serve as a vital tool for you as delegates, and please use it to familiarize yourself with the committee’s role in the conference. The Press Corps committee is special for many reasons. Firstly, because of the diversity in the delegate experience you will receive. Secondly, because you are getting to, potentially, interact with all the committees taking place at the conference. And thirdly, because you will be able to publish an influential piece of work every day. With your articles and press releases, you will have the ability to influence not only your fellow journalists, but entire committees and the conference as a whole. As such, for this committee to have the power and relevance it deserves we need bold, passionate, creative, intelligent, savvy and persistent delegates. We are familiar with this kind of committee, so we are sure that you will make your best efforts in bringing spicy news while having the time of your life at this Conference! We are super excited to meet you! Diletta, Irena and Manuela [Chair biographies and pictures] 3 TABLE OF CONTENT ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Welcoming Letter 2 About the committee 4 Importance of Journalism and Historical Background 4 Role as Journalist - Form vs Format 4 Functioning of the Committee 6 Chairs 6 Delegates 6 Committee schedule 6 Rotational matrix 7 Press conferences 7 Content and guidelines 8 News reports 8 Opinion pieces 8 Featured articles 8 Interviews 8 Press releases and breaking news 8 Website 9 Social media 9 The news agencies 10 Buzzfeed (U.S.) 10 Fox News (U.S.) 11 People’s Daily (China) 11 Reuters (International) 11 Sputnik News (Russia) 11 The Guardian (U.K.) 12 Berliner Tageblatt (Germany, Historical) 12 Le Petit Journal (France, Historical) 12 References 14 4 1. ABOUT THE COMMITTEE ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Importance of Journalism and Historical Background To investigate, tell stories, and to wisely report: those are all crucial aspects of journalism that have been shaping our communities since our principle and foundation. Since the 15th century, journalism has been responsible for the examination of events worldwide, broadcasting not only “the news” but also different opinions and data collected from the most different countries, cultures, and regions. Known as “the fourth pillar of democracy", its known history goes back to the Roman Empire, with Julius Cesar, and the creation of the Roman Acta - the first known newspaper produced in Western Civilizations. ​ Later, the press extended its importance through all of our most remarkable events and human achievements, finding itself, now, renewed and transformed by a new globalized age, led by internet, social media, and “fake news”1. The importance of journalism, and its immense power, can be easily demonstrated by a simple analysis on how newspapers and online platforms have been shaping mentalities throughout centuries. Those vehicles, by presenting different and well-written pieces, can make entire populations question themselves based exclusively on shocking headlines, and strong opinion pieces. To live in a world without journalism means to deny one of your main characteristics as humans: Communication. To have freedom of press and expression means to promote universal human rights, together with one of the biggest foundations of global democracies. It is a way to give power to the people, and, most importantly, to give a voice to those who want to express their ideas and thoughts. The ability to question and criticize such powerful thoughts and figures, however, has its own dangers. The prosecution and murder of journalists unfortunately is a huge problem faced internationally, making us question the human ability to deal with criticism and questioning. According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, in 2019, "a total of 49 journalists were killed, 389 were currently in prison and 57 were being held hostage"2. Those numbers bring us to question again the true meaning of journalism, together with its power to destabilize societies, traditions and values. Role as Journalist - Form vs Format A journalist, in order to obtain quality, must keep in mind the two main pillars of reporting. The first one, the form, relates to how the writer is going to approach the topic in question, using data and its knowledge to either support or criticize the situation in question. The form must be in accordance with the newspaper belief system and it must present the topic in the clearest way possible, avoiding ambiguity and misinformation. The second pillar, the format, must also be in accordance with the newspaper’s editorial standards, but differently from the form, it is not about the content but instead, about the visual presentation of the text 1 http://historyofjournalism.onmason.com/2016/02/23/roman-contributions-to-journalism-the-acta/ ​ 2 https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-yearly-round-historically-low-number-journalists-killed-2019 ​ 5 (if it is visually clean, printable, etc). In the IPC, the format of the texts may vary in different newspapers but all of them should follow the basis given in this Study Guide. 6 2. FUNCTIONING OF THE COMMITTEE ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Chairs The committee chairs, named editors, lead and coordinate the press team. Their role involves moderating the debates made within the committee, deciding which delegates cover which committee during the sessions and reviewing received press articles before publishing them. Delegates The delegates are expected to represent a single news agency throughout the conference. As such, they must represent the policies, ideologies and written/spoken style of their newspaper when debating during committee sessions, interacting with delegates within and outside of the press corps committee (i.e. during interviews) and when writing articles. They are expected to produce articles based on or commenting on the events taking place in their allocated committee and send their pieces to the press corps chairs. In order to familiarise with your role in advance, you are asked to submit a Position Paper before the conference starts. Your Position Paper should include: 1. The history of the newspaper (when was it founded, what were the circumstances, etc.); 2. The ideology of the newspaper (what is its main focus, what kind of political ideology is involved, does it claim allegiance to a particular cause, etc.); 3. Your general expectations for the conference (how do you plan to act during the conference, what is your strategy going to be to get assigned to a specific committee, any specific ideas in mind, etc.). Remember to start your Position Paper with the following: Committee: News Agency: Name of Delegate: Your Position Paper should be written in Times New Roman (12 pt.). Justify the text of your paragraphs so that both sides have straight edges. Please do not exceed one page. Only delegates who will have submitted their position paper on time will be considered eligible for awards. Committee schedule The first session of the conference will involve a Press workshop, where delegates can get to know each other and ask questions to the chairs. Later on, they will introduce their news agencies 7 for the first time via the general speaker’s list so that every member of the Press Corps knows what to expect from their peers Every day, there will be two mini-sessions during which delegates are absolutely expected to be in ​ the Press committee room. These are: 1. The morning session: at the beginning of each day delegates need to open the debate, set the agenda and advocate for their desired committee. 2. The closing of the day session: 15 minutes before committees close for the day, there will be a debrief session to see how the press delegates are doing. This will be your main chance to step out of character and share. Rotational matrix In the press corps, the daily agenda concerns who will be allocated where and why. As each news agency has different political affiliations and beliefs, there will be much to debate and negotiate in order to get the best outcome. Every day, the press delegates should be informed on the topics that are being discussed in the different committees, allowing them to choose their allocation for the rest of the day. Delegates should decide each day to which committee they want to be allocated to. ​ ​ After knowing the agenda of the other committees, delegates will make an opening speech outlining where they would like to be allocated, what they plan to report on and why they are the best option for that specific committee. This will be regulated by normal ROPs to debate on allocations and negotiate alliances between press delegates themselves. When the chairs of the Press committee believe the debate was sufficient, allocations for the day will be decided. Please bear in mind that the decision of the chairs is final and cannot be contested.

View Full Text

Details

  • File Type
    pdf
  • Upload Time
    -
  • Content Languages
    English
  • Upload User
    Anonymous/Not logged-in
  • File Pages
    15 Page
  • File Size
    -

Download

Channel Download Status
Express Download Enable

Copyright

We respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of all users. All uploaded documents are either original works of the uploader or authorized works of the rightful owners.

  • Not to be reproduced or distributed without explicit permission.
  • Not used for commercial purposes outside of approved use cases.
  • Not used to infringe on the rights of the original creators.
  • If you believe any content infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately.

Support

For help with questions, suggestions, or problems, please contact us