It seems odd to mourn about an old-fashioned job. We all suffer from Nostalgia, in many ways. Journals used to rule the world, and there was only writing. Reportages.Some photographs on the background, but mainly words: articles, opinions, coverages. I wanted to be that kind of writer: the fourth state type. Travelling around, seeking for adventure. Once there were only newspapers to keep you updated. Them and radio, but they were good friends. No war between them. Good friends. TVs changed it all. Video killed the words, as the song sung. Internet finished us. I mean, them. I wasn’t even born. I’m young, as I mentioned before; but you know I suffer nostalgia, as you reading probably do. If there will be a new war in middle-east, You Tube will be the main source. Along with Sky News or CNN or BCC. Journals will be running behind: no more: ‘Writing from Baghdad, as you can guess the atmosphere is tense and vibrating…’ Videos, instead of words. Tweets and Instagram. It’s okay, don’t get me wrong. Alternatives have been made from back there, and after all I’m satisfied with my plans. But still… Okay, images speak easier than words, and faster. I enjoy filming and staying behind the camera. I’m a good narcissist, and very adaptable and an hard worker. I’ll be fine. Really. Look at Lorenzo Tugnoli. Who? He’s italian. Born in Lugo, Ravenna. Photographer and journalist, he moved to Kabul after University. Then, Beirut. He focuses on humanitarian consequences of war. This year he won the Pulitzer for Feature Photography.

This was his reportage. Taif Fares, born with a heart disorder in Aden, Yemen. She died a few days after this photo was taken. Perhaps, without having a single idea on why what she called home was facing a ten years civil war. Or why Saudi Arabia and Iran were on different sides, or which was the right one, or the least wrong. Tugnoli said: ‘It can be a challenge, it’s difficult to find the balance between an image that just wants to shock, and one that can tell the story in a more delicate way, but I try to be respectful – to tell the story and communicate the urgency and the tragedy, and at the same time to show the people in a respectful manner. For example, I took a photograph of a sick child in Aden, it was part of a story about a hospital in Aden, where there is a shortage of medicine and oxygen, and it is important to show that the hospital lacks basic amenities. But that particular image is interesting because it’s not excessive.’

Fair enough. He’s a model to me. He works for the Washington Post. He collaborates with New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and L’Espresso. Partnering with huge american journals is a sort of an obsession to me. Work with the best, to be read worldwide. Plus, your national newspaper. L’Espresso, Corriere della Sera, Il Foglio, Il Giornale. There, you have a special connection with the audience. It’s home, it’s good to feel home. Specially if you’re travelling that much. Money-wise, it’s good investment. I graduated in Houston, but I remain Italian, and European. U.S. readers want my European point of view, Italians want my international life-bag of experience. Demand-offer principle: easy. Freelance work. We’re journalists, we tend to have multiple lovers. They’re not jealous. Later on, being hired on a full time contract would be great. Being loyal to one journal, becoming editor. That’s long distance future: for there, my plans are just writing hard. Novels, articles, opinions, and maybe starting my own journal. Finically talking, that can be a good move. Having an editorial role requires a massive amount of experience, authority and popularity. It’s illogical demanding that kind of position for a beginner: the sooner you get a name in the industry, the faster you’ll get to that kind of job. As I previously written, the first part of my career is gonna be devoted to working hard and getting a name in the market. Partnering with huge american journals and national newspapers is going to be my resume. In those years after University, I will be travelling a lot, taking photographs, producing video, and writing reportages. Generalist journalism: I’ll write about everything. Hopefully, this would take me to becoming an editor. My degree in Business will do the rest. I am what Matt Thompson call a provocateur. I take a different angle, look for the different, distinctive view. I’m good at posing questions and going against conventional wisdom, or starting argument and debate. Revealing the many complex facets of the world is what I do. As Lorenzo Tugnoli.

I already have a business degree, and I’m about to get a bachelor in Journalism; meanwhile, my media diet will be unique and specific. It’s going to be made by mainly books defined as classics: narrative wise, I want to explore Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, Nikolaj Vasil’evic Gogol’. On the lyrical side, Charles Baudelaire, Guillaume Apollinaire, Leonard Cohen (Hey, don’t start arguing on this last one. Bob Dylan won the nobel prize, and he deserved it. Same for Cohen.) Plus, I want to explore economical publications. I feel like they are more accurate than blogs. Nobody reads blogs anymore. (Even though I’m writing one right now!) Instead, I want to explore philosophic and historian related authors: Tacitus, Martin Heidegger, Epicurus. I just crated a twitter account: I found out that cool users are Sudarsan Raghavan; Reuters; Gene Park; Max Bearak. I Cleary enjoy The Washington Post, ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’. My daily meals are New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Mirror, The Sun, The Times; plus L’Espresso, Corriere della Sera, Il Foglio, Il Giornale. I scroll around them online or read through them at the library. On the way home at night, I usually watch BBC, Sky News or CNN, or Fox News while I walk around the house, watch my phone or lay on the couch. Even while I’m studying or working on something on my desk or at the social space in my apartment, I like to have the TV turned on those channels. I give the TV a look once in a while. It’s okay. Otherwise, I spend much of my day in University. That’s my real home for now. I don’t own a car, then I don’t listen to radio. Along with this, I’m taking some private classes of French this year. I want to continue this healthy habit by continuing with arab next year (my father’s Syrian, so I’m starting on a solid base) and Spanish on my third and last year. Plus, a photographic course I’ll be taking every year. I’m very excited for the Pitch, Produce, Publish module, I’ll be having on year 2. It will give me a deep insight on how creating modern magazines. My choices for that year are going to be Specialist Journalism 1, under the literary and long form of journalism pathway and Multimedia Storytelling and Productions (Online.) I can’t wait for the Final Journalism Project. On the last year, I’ll pick the 800 words long dissertation, and with that the Specialist Journalism 2: Music Journalism, Film and TV Journalism and Performing Arts Journalism. After all, I’ll be done.

So that’s the plane. I wrote it all in the previous lines. Plans are made under a future tense, but usually they get subverted by the causality of what is named present. What then is time? Purposes tends to be futile. Still, writing this down gave me a good place to start. I cleared up couple of things. Will it be useful? God knows. The question was: ‘What Type of Journalist Do I Want To Be?’ Let’s go with a good one. Hopefully successful. Talented writer. Though time may change it all, those three will remain equal. So let’s go back to work. ‘Old road is rapidly agin’, as Dylan sung in ‘Times They Are A-Changin’. Have you ever listened to that? If you haven’t, then please do. That’s what I feel when I write, and it fells great. Will it be like this forever? I ask this to myself every once in a while. Reality is that I don’t know. I wrote so much on how to be successful regarding this job but I forgot the main question. Why did I pick this poor and uneasy employment? Why did I start writing? Why did I start this career? God knows. That’s the mystery, ah!