Journalism
Information, sources, verification and editorial responsibility.
Journalism and storytelling
Facts first. Then the story.
A project, a person, a piece of data or a result becomes interesting once we manage to understand its meaning. VIVALDI18 STUDIO combines journalistic method and narrative skill to build content that is credible, accessible and able to hold attention without distorting reality.
ANTONIO AI is VIVALDI18 STUDIO's AI orientation assistant: it helps frame the request, it does not carry out journalistic research and does not replace verification.
In summary
When it's useful
A project, a result or a set of data exists but there is no narrative thread able to make it understandable and credible.
What you get
- Verified sources and checked facts
- A clear narrative structure
- Content in the most suitable format
First step
A conversation to understand what materials already exist and what is still missing.
First we need to understand what really happened.
- We need to tell the story of a project.
- We have data and results, but we don't know how to make them understandable.
- We want to interview some people.
- We need to tell the story of an initiative's impact.
- We have a technical topic that is difficult to explain.
- We need to communicate a funded project.
- We have a lot of information, but no narrative thread.
- We don't know which format to use.
The story begins once we know what we really have to say.
From materials to the story
The story is not the starting point: it is what remains once different materials have been verified, understood and put in order.
Starting materials
- Facts
- Sources
- Data
- People
- Context
Uneven fragments: documents, numbers, voices, notes, references.
Editorial work
- VerificationWhat we can really claim, and with which elements.
- InterpretationWhat the elements gathered mean, distinguishing what we know from what we are explaining.
- StructureIn which order the story becomes understandable for whoever reads or listens.
Result
Story
Understandable, attributable content that can be sustained with the elements gathered: every claim can be traced back to what supports it.
The VIVALDI18 model
We listen
Goal, audience, context, people and materials already available.
We search
Facts, documents, data, sources, testimonies and context.
We verify
Reliability, provenance, attribution, consistency and contradictions.
We interpret
We distinguish what we know from what we are explaining, assessing or forecasting.
We build
Structure, title, opening, development, voice, language and format.
We review
Accuracy, comprehensibility, attributions, tone, accessibility and sensitive topics.
Fact, interpretation, opinion and forecast
They are four different things. Keeping them distinct is what makes content verifiable for the reader.
- Fact
- Verifiable information.
- Interpretation
- A reading based on the available elements.
- Opinion
- An assessment or position.
- Forecast
- A statement about the future.
An opinion does not become a fact because it is well written.
A forecast does not become a result because we wish it would happen.
Verifying also means understanding what the source really says.
- A source can be authoritative and still not support the claim it is attributed to.
- A source can be superseded by more recent documents or data.
- A sentence can be correct in the original document and misleading outside its context.
- A source can be read or summarised imprecisely.
- AI-generated content is not a source.
A testimony belongs, first of all, to the person telling it.
Whoever agrees to speak makes part of their own experience available. The story must render it within its context, without forcing its meaning.
- We don't do thisInventing testimonies.
- We don't do thisEditing a statement until its meaning changes.
- We don't do thisTurning a sentence into an endorsement no one gave.
- We don't do thisAttributing emotions the person did not express.
- We don't do thisUsing fragility or disability only to increase emotional impact.
The person comes before the narrative effect.
Dignity, context and correct use of information matter for everyone, with particular care when minors or people in vulnerable conditions are involved.
Journalism, communication and promotion are not the same thing
They are three legitimate forms, with different rules and purposes. The problem is not choosing one, but confusing them.
Institutional or corporate communication
Content produced from the organisation's declared point of view.
Promotion
Content with an explicit commercial purpose.
The reader must be able to understand what kind of content they are reading.
AI as support. People as responsibility.
Where it can help, when appropriate
- Transcription
- Organising materials
- Classification
- Preliminary summary
- Structural variants
- Revision
What it does not replace
- Verification
- Sources
- Editorial judgement
- Responsibility
- Human oversight
An AI output is not a source.
AI must not invent what is missing from the story.
Data needs context.
A number, on its own, does not tell a story. Before using it in a piece of content, we ask ourselves some questions.
- Compared to what?
- Over which period?
- On which population?
- According to which source?
- With which method?
- What can we really conclude?
Two phenomena that move together are not necessarily one the cause of the other: correlation and causation stay distinct even when the story would be more effective by blurring them.
Simplifying does not mean distorting
Technical, scientific, health, environmental, regulatory or otherwise complex topics can be explained simply without losing accuracy. The difficulty, often, is not in the content: it is in how it is organised.
We work on language, structure, hierarchy of information and examples, checking that the text remains readable and understandable even for those unfamiliar with the topic. When the topic touches comprehensibility and usability barriers, the work connects with the Digital, cognitive and physical accessibility expertise.
Content comes first. Then we decide whether it will become an article, a video or a podcast.
The choice of format follows from what we have to tell, the audience, the goal, the materials available, the channel and the depth needed. Starting from the format often means adapting reality to the container.
- Article
- In-depth feature
- Interview
- Reportage
- Newsletter
- Podcast
- Video and script
- Dossier
- Web content
- Narrative presentation
Projects, sustainability and impact: evidence comes first
When telling the story of funded projects, sustainability initiatives or results, four levels must be kept separate.
What was planned
Planned
What the project set out to do.
What was done
Done
Which activities were actually carried out.
What was produced
Produced
Which concrete outputs resulted from them.
What changed
Changed
What actually changed, and for whom.
Evidence first. Then the story.
A project goal is not a result achieved, and is not presented as such.
Illustrative scenarios
Typical situations built for explanatory purposes: they are neither real cases nor results achieved.
Illustrative example · Funded project
An organisation needs to report activities and results to stakeholders and the public, keeping goals, activities carried out and observable effects distinct.
Illustrative example · Foundation
It has data, testimonies and initiatives, but lacks a narrative able to connect them into an understandable path.
Illustrative example · Company
It needs to explain a complex technical topic to a non-specialist audience, without simplifications that alter its meaning.
Illustrative example · Non-profit
It wants to tell the story of its work's impact without reducing beneficiaries to mere emotional stories.
Frequently asked questions
What's really worth telling?
It could be a project, a person, a result, a territory or a complex topic. We can start from the materials that already exist and understand together what we know, what's missing and which form can make the story understandable without betraying it.
Every engagement is built and followed together with the client, with shared goals, activities and progress.