The Generation

Treball Final de Grau en Periodisme. Codi: PE0932. Curs acadèmic: 2020/2021PRESENTATION OF THE PRODUCT The Generation is a digital media specialised in social projects devised by young people with the aim of changing, giving visibility to, vindicating or improving some aspect of today's society. In this way, it has been set up with the aim of bringing this subject matter closer to the public, and also to become a platform that demonstrates the involvement of young people in social change. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE NAME OF THE PUBLICATION The name of this project has been designed to convey positive values associated with young people seeking to improve the world in which they live. As can be seen, it consists of two parts, title and subtitle: The Generation - The milieu of young people fighting for social change. The choice of English responds to the aim of universalising this project, because it deals with a subject, social change, which cannot be limited to specific geographical areas, and which must be covered at a global level. JUSTIFICATION OF THE PRODUCT'S INTEREST This is a medium specialising in social journalism, which stands out for its mobilising character (Barranquero, 2018), and which not only seeks to analyse problems, but also to explore solutions and generate critical awareness. All the articles follow these characteristics, dealing with relevant issues in the current panorama: climate change, the fight against racism, the problem of homelessness or the inclusion of minority groups, among other examples. Over the last few years, this type of journalism has benefited from the digitalisation of the press, a process that has facilitated access to this information, now available on the internet, a resource with global reach at low cost, decentralised and with hardly any direct censorship (Rendueles, 2019). Thanks to this, many social issues have managed to make their way onto the media agenda, reaching a countless number of people and thus achieving a greater impact. 18 OBJECTIVES TO BE ACHIEVED AND TARGET AUDIENCE In order to fulfil the main purpose of the medium, these are the most specific objectives that have been established to be taken into account in the development of all the work: 1. To create a dynamic, interactive and accessible website where readers can be informed and learn about social issues through the different projects and initiatives. 2. To highlight the role of young people in the path towards social change through direct testimonies from specialised and experienced sources in this sector. 3. To offer varied and original journalistic content that manages to generate debate and reflection among the users who visit the website, always following the premise of current affairs. DESIGN For the website has been created an intuitive space, capable of generating a quick visual impact. The aim was for the user to be able to browse the website without difficulty thanks to the content bar at the top, which organises the different sections of the medium. In addition, we have tried to reinforce this impact by giving great importance to multimedia content. SECTIONS About us This is one of the most important pages, because it helps the reader to get an idea of the type of content he/she will be able to consult on this website. This category explains the initial purpose of The Generation, the motivation for its creation and its social interest. Therefore, it can be said that it is a quick read that defines the editorial line and the type of journalism that this particular cybermedium proposes to its public. 19 News Since the main premise that any media outlet must follow is current affairs itself, The Generation considered the idea of creating a category for this purpose. Young creators This category was devised to support one of the main objectives of the medium, namely, to demonstrate that youth is in charge of leading the movement for social change. As the name suggests, the protagonists in this section are young people. Innovative projects Another of the main aspects of all this work is the social projects undertaken by young people themselves, which is why it was decided to create a section in which these would be the fundamental basis. SOCIAL MEDIA The first of the networks selected to begin the propagation of content was Instagram. This tool offers possibilities that coincide with the values of The Generation, which give great importance to visual elements. When the website was created and before uploading any news, a promotional video was published on Instagram through which the values to be transmitted by the medium were made known in advance. Later, other profiles were created on other networks, namely Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. CONTENT AND SOURCES For the production of the pieces, The Generation has created its contents taking into account all the themes that are understood within social change, regardless of their impact on a small or large scale. A total of 18 news items have been produced, of which 6 are news items, 6 are interviews with contextualisation and the other 6 are reports. All the contents are characterised by being long articles. The focus of these pieces has not only been on giving a voice to the protagonist of the project or the feat, but also on the search for a social background, which is why contributions from other people 20 involved, documentary sources and even expert sources on the subject have been used. In this way, we have tried to cover all possible realities, to highlight the most important messages of the medium, so that the public can be inspired by the different pieces. The Generation has had the collaboration of a total of 24 personal sources for the creation of the uploaded content. The age range of these sources goes from people that are 17 years old to approximately 30 years old, placing each one within their own personal context. FINAL ASSESSMENT In spite of having a significant number of pieces, I would have liked to have been able to produce a greater number of contents. However, the subject matter of the medium is not governed by immediate current affairs, but rather by the search and investigation of interesting projects, which involves much more work than the creation of quick news in other media. Nevertheless, the newspaper is characterised by extensive and in-depth pieces, always offering an approach that invites social reflection. Priority has been given to obtaining content of high informative quality. CONCLUSIONS Creating the digital media The Generation as my Final Degree Project has been a totally enriching experience both on a personal and professional level. The development of this project has been a path of effort and a great learning process in the field of communication. Undoubtedly, the most beneficial contribution has been the process of learning the many different journalistic routines to acquire in order to be able to run a media outlet professionally. 21 With this work I have been able to improve the processes of pre-production of information. At the beginning, selecting the topics to be covered in the cybermedia was a really complicated task, since I didn't have the references and knowledge of sources and pages obtained through the production of all the pieces. Now I have some basic knowledge to follow in this sense when writing articles in the field of social journalism. There has also been an evolution in the production of information. In the beginning, the approach to the interviews was not the right one, and some sources had to be contacted again, changing the type of questions in order to obtain the required information. This task was speeded up as the interviews progressed, by improving the management of the questions and direct communication with the sources. Problem solving is another skill that has been developed through this work. The fact of having to adapt the content of the medium to its website and its different social networks has improved the adaptation of information in each format. In addition, the constant search for new possible topics for the cybermedia has enriched the efficiency of the work, managing to link current affairs with projects of great social interest. Achievements can be highlighted in the post-production tasks, always guided by great self-criticism and motivation for the quality of the work carried out. In this sense, for example, the recognition and correction of errors has been achieved in one of the most complicated tasks on a personal level, the correct titling, on which, nevertheless, work still needs to continue. In short, the development of all this learning has allowed me to elaborate a journalistic project with an investigation behind it, and which also has an internal coherence despite the variety of themes. The final product that is presented responds to a professional, critical and even didactic treatment. On a personal level, along the way, I have been able to establish relationships with hard-working people who have turned out to be, above all, great professionals. For me, it has been a real luxury to be able to inform myself about different social issues thanks to them, their critical vision and their wor