By Patricia Francesch.
Getafe, Madrid.
Journalism has been changing through the years, adapting to what the society of each moment expects. It has had an obvious evolution: from paper to digital newsroom.
The main social change has been technologies, digital outlets that have made newspapers digital departments indispensable. Young people are the main users of these media outlets and are the key to understand new generations.
This way, many companies, such as ‘ABC Newspaper’ have opened their doors and given young people the space learn and adapt to these new digital-social life.
Pablo Amigo, a journalist of only 22 years old, has made his way through the opportunities that have been crossing his path and at his young age he is already one of the editors of the digital section of ABC.
Q1 - How did you get to the decision of studying journalism?
Well, I've always liked politics and writing, and I have always been told I would be good doing journalism, especially by my mum and my teachers and so on, and I just ended up listening to them. However, I have to say I was also very attracted to it just by myself. Since I was very young, I always read the newspaper and I found the world of journalism and communication very interesting. Deep down I have always been quite clear about it. Although other things also caught my attention, journalism was 'what had always been there'.
Q2 - Before the ABC newspaper, have you worked in any other media? Was it also in the digital section?
I worked at El Confidencial in the summer of last year and I was in a Communications Agency during my degree as an intern. And yes, they are only digital media so basically that was it.
Q3 - How was the opportunity of working in ABC yield?
Well, in November last year I applied for a scholarship the Community of Madrid offers called: First Job Scholarship. This is a program proposed by the Madrid Press Association, which offers five scholarships to five young journalists to work in different media. It consists of several phases, which are based on a selective criteria and filtering people: a general culture test, a writing test and finally a personal interview. And I was lucky enough to be selected.
Once I was chosen, I asked if I could choose a print media, which was what most called my attention. It could be ABC or El Mundo, that were both options provided. In the end, I was chosen to work in ABC, and this way I joined the editorial staff in January.
Q4 - Do you think it’s important to give such opportunities to young people who strive to achieve their goals?
Yes of course, I think so because the problem we young people have in journalism is that it is a challenge to find a good job or a good well-paid position. It becomes normal to stay until your thirties chaining internships, which in fact should not be ‘internships’ if you have finished your course since you already have a university degree. Nowadays you stay as an intern until you're 28, chaining job every 6 months with contracts of less than 700 euros... it's very unfortunate, very precarious.
They take advantage of us because the labour force, so to speak, of the young journalists is very cheap. Many newsrooms are based of very, very young people and it looks like something innovative and juvenile but in fact it's the opposite, it's just because 'we are cheap'. So, I consider this scholarship that I have been able to receive as the first opportunity to have a decent salary, and not having to wait until I’m thirty to get more than 1000 euros.
Q5 - The fact that ABC gives that boost to young people who try to make their way in journalism is something very positive. Do you think it is a way to encourage our participation in society?
What I truly think is that having a decent salary and a decent job is our first step to being treated as adults. In order to participate in society we need a salary that allows us paying the rent, electricity, food or also have money to enjoy our life.
Many times we are told ‘you have no interest in culturizing, you never go to the theatre’, or comments as ‘people nowadays don't get married or don't have children until they're in their thirties’. The problem is that we don't have the opportunity to do it, nobody is going to have children if they can't pay for their own life. So, I think these are good opportunities to get into the wheel of the labour market, and not to be treated as perpetual students.
Q6 - Do you think that digital journalism is a way of approaching young people?
Well, yes, because in the end young people are not going to buy a physical newspaper. They will download the app of the newspaper, or they will look at the web or follow it on social networks. It is nonsense and suicidal for a newspaper not wanting to have an online presence.
I think no one would give that up. Not only for young people, but in general, because middle-aged people also have that approach. Paper has never been profitable and even less in today’s world.
"People read from their cell phones, and I think it is fine, it is not ‘less journalism’ for being on a screen. Of course, I think it is good, it is the best way of approaching to young people."
Q7 - What do you think online journalism has that print journalism does not?
Firstly, immediacy. You have what you need at a moment's notice. Second, an infinite space. In printed journalism there is the burden of having a certain space to talk about a topic. On the Internet it is infinite, you can write as many articles as you want. And also, it’s facility to send an article to someone, to publish your article in social networks, basically the possibility of communication. The good thing about the internet I think is the communication between the journalist and the reader.
Q8- What do you think young people can contribute to journalism?
I think we provide a fresh vision. In opinion it is positive to combine a working place between adults, I mean veterans of journalism, and people that have just left college. There will be issues that maybe an adult does not know how to deal because some topics might be closer to young people. And the other way around.
Another thing is vital experience, because of our generation and what we have lived through, we brings a different point of view. Although we do not have the experience of journalists of many years, we do have a life experience that contributes a lot to the profession.
Q9 - Are you and your co-workers, more or less, the same age?
In my department, the editorial department, many of us are young, also because of what I mentioned before that we are cheap, but we contribute by being young.
The head positions are usually held by older people. In the case of my section, the digital desk, the coordinators are younger. The positions of director or deputy director of ABC are not usual to be taken by young people, which I also understand. But the peers, with similar positions, are young people, most of them under thirty years old.
Q10- Focusing on your work, what is the most positive thing you take out of your experience as editor of ABC in the digital section?
Well, I have the opportunity to write about a wide variety of different topics. The work is not monotonous at all, they let me suggest topics it has a lot to do with current affairs. I perceive it as pure journalism, being all the time following the latest news, what is happening, getting ahead other media. It is very intense, very entertaining, I really enjoy it, it's a job that I like a lot.
Q11- What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at ABC?
I couldn't tell you a particular one, to be honest. I can think of one time the director asked to do an article, and they told me to do it. I mean that many times they trust you even if you have just arrived or if you are very young. You don't keep the simplest, or more boring tasks, they trust you and give you a lot of opportunities.
Q12- Do you think important the development of the digital part of journalism?
It's not that I think it's important, I think it's fundamental, there is no alternative right now. I mean, journalism right now is digital, and it is inherently linked to current affairs. To propose otherwise and to pretend to be purist, meaning to maintain the paper exclusively, is a waste of time, a waste of money and a waste of readers.
Q13 - Does ABC give digital journalism the chance to develop?
Hundred percent. On the one hand, ABC respects the paper edition, which I like very much, it is the one that has always been there and continues to sell. But it is good that it also maintains the digital part, which is particularly given a lot of strength, and the editorial teams are also very motivated. The truth is that we are not digital natives, it is obvious, but I think we have adapted very well to these new times of journalism.
Q14 - What does ABC expect from digital journalism?
To grow, to grow and to know how to position itself and how to compete with those who are digital natives. Obviously, they have an advantage, but we do not have to accept the resignation, we have to bet on digital because, as I said, it is the future.
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