Bongiorno everyone!
Today was extremely fascinating in that I have always wondered about the inner workings of the Vatican media.
We started with a presentation from Radio Vaticana, as well as some other reps from the Vatican News. The Coordinator of International Affairs, Roberto Romolo, spoke about the broadcast/TV side of things and how everything that they push through their media needs translated into over 40 different languages.
The next speaker was Alessandro, who spoke about how important it is to relay the Catholic messages of the Vatican to young people and to make sure they are getting feedback to increase their reach within the Catholic faith.
My favorite speaker from the Vatican News visit was Charlotta, who runs both the Franciscus and VaticanNews Instagram accounts. The most fascinating thing that I learned was that the Pope doesn’t have a say in the content of posts, but he has to approve all tweets and other posts put out through social, so the social media managers have to literally wait hours just to get the okay to post something. If he doesn’t approve of a post, they have to go through ANOTHER 5-hour long process of getting the revised version approved again.
After we left the media visit, we went into the actual Vatican to see all of the museums. Catia made her reappearance to guide us through the storm-filled tour, but luckily we were inside.
It was my second time through the Vatican museums, but there’s so much I saw this time that I missed before. That’s easy to do though – Catia told us that if a person were to stand and admire every individual piece of art in the Vatican for just a few seconds a piece, it would take them 9 MONTHS to get through it all.
We also saw the Sistine Chapel again. I was disappointed this time though, not because of the breathtaking frescoes, but because the crowd was being so loud. There is a no talking rule in the Sistine Chapel so that everyone can properly enjoy and appreciate the art, but there were so many disrespectful people there unfortunately.
After grabbing a few momentos, the broadcast students went to a special dinner with Seth Doane, Sylvia Poggioli, and Jordan (his last name is escaping me at the moment…). Sylvia and Jordan were talking a lot about politics and their personal experiences, but being a broadcast major, I talked more with Seth. He was SO interesting and gave so much advice about being in the major.
My favorite thing about him was that he was so in love with his job. You hear from so many well-respected people in the industry that us students are going into journalism at a bad time or all about the “good old days.” It was so refreshing to hear from someone who has been traveling the world and being recognized for his excellence in journalism that still loves what he’s doing and encourages others to do the same.
After some bruschetta, a buffalo mozzarella pizza, and some white wine and tiramisu, we headed back to the hotel and now I am going to sleep.
Ciao, grazie!