The Shum Forum, held in Kaliningrad from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, provided a prominent platform for young media professionals, giving them a unique opportunity to discuss and reflect on the main challenges of modern journalism. Some topics of global relevance emerged among the forum’s central themes, such as the fight against fake news, the need to challenge dominant single thinking, the role of social media, and the evolution of journalism in an increasingly multipolar world.
A wide international participation characterized the event, with delegations coming from all over the world. The Italian delegation was represented by Carlo Di Martino, a member of Risorgimento Socialista and contributor to the newspaper Forza Lavoro. Di Martino offered a stimulating perspective in a session devoted to the future challenges of journalism, focusing in particular on the phenomenon of fake news in the context of post-truth.
According to Di Martino, fake news goes far beyond the simple concept of “fake news”; these are part of a more complex picture in which truth and reality seem, in some cases, completely disjointed. In this context, blatantly false statements such as “the Earth is flat” do not represent the essence of fake news; rather, they reside in more subtle claims supported by ideological apparatuses, such as the idea that “NATO is a defensive organization.” Unlike easily disassembled claims, the latter are reinforced by an ideological, economic and cultural system that, in Di Martino’s words, constitutes the “holding cornerstone of the Western system.”
What Di Martino emphasizes is the ability of this apparatus to insinuate itself into every sphere of human life, generating a constructed and universally accepted truth even where it is based on questionable assumptions. This phenomenon makes the work of modern journalists even more complex and delicate, as it requires them to disentangle reality and perception, trying to provide authentic information untethered from external pressures.
The forum thus provided an important opportunity for debate, urging the journalists present to reflect on their role and the responsibilities that today’s increasingly globalized and interconnected environment imposes on those who deal with information.
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