Last week, Jordan Foresi came to talk about the differences in covering politics as a television journalist in the US and Italy.

He graduated from AUR in 1998 and then went on to do an MA and did a series of internships with different broadcasters. He took his journalist exam with hundreds of others in a huge room where all were using Olivetti Lettera 22s… granted one of the best typewriters ever made, but in the 21st century, that made a good story. For his oral exam, the toughest questions came from a veteran Communist Party journalist who looked at his file and said “American, eh?” and laid into him as if the Cold War hadn’t ended.

One of his first assignments was covering the 2001 G8 at Genoa, literally a baptism of fire with violent protests and even more violent reactions by the police. It was a sharp lesson on how to cover a story, identify with the human beings involved but not be taken over by the events.

A month later 9/11 threw him into the newsroom in an even more dramatic way albeit at a physical distance.

There was no physical distance on the first big story that he had to cover in the US – the Virginia Tech killings where he had to tread carefully between the need to cover the story and the sensibilities of the friends and relations of the victims many of whom resented the media presence very strongly.

Politically, of course, the biggest story was the Obama-Clinton primaries and then the election itself. At first, he had to push his editors to convince them that the first woman running against the first Afro-American candidate was a huge story, but they soon got the message.

Back in Italy, working for a News Corps company, he was free of the implicit pressure that RAI and Mediaset companies have covering the Berlusconi government, a very concrete example of what freedom of the press means.

His talk ended with a screening of his 21 minute documentary on Guantanamo in 2008. He described the difficulties of getting permission to go there which almost a year and then the severe restrictions while he was there. At all times there was a military or a CIA person with him and his footage was inspected every evening. Apart from a couple of spokesmen, no guards’ faces could be filmed – boots or backs was the closest the camera got. And no contacts with lawyers “I was able to talk to a defence lawyer on the plane back to the US, but it was a private plane where army rules no longer applied. On base, they made the rules and I had to go by them.” Not surprising in the circumstances but good to have it from the man who was there.

Thanks, Jordan, and come back soon to tell us about the changes in Italy.

Alessandra’s novel is the story of Holland Froer, an exuberant and lively 16 years old girl whose tranquil life is shaken by the encounter with an old man whom she believes may be the reincarnation of her lost father, who had died when she was only three. It is a novel on the importance of love, in all its expressions.

This is Alessandra’s second novel. The first, Dal Punto di Vista di Giulia (From Giulia’s Point of View) was published in January this year by De Ferrari publishing. Alessandra is now looking for a publisher for her new book.

“My desire to become an entrepreneur sprung from a class I had with Professor Fitzimmons at AUR, whereby we discussed Amazon. I remember being fascinated by the drive and creativity required to launch a new venture, and became inspired to do the same. And AUR’s career services office helped me snag a job at Venere – at the time an internet startup in Italy – a foundational experience that set me on my present course in the industry

I was studying my MBA at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology when I decided to do my last semester at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Besides the academic punch that NYU packs, I wanted to live in New York so that I could work on a business idea that my brother Yago had come up with during the summer. One day, it hit him:

“Wouldn’t it be awesome to freeze this moment in time, in this place, so that when someone else passes by this same spot they can find it and experience it themselves?”

That question is what drove the idea of Wyst forward. Wyst is like a new message in a bottle, an iPhone app that allows users to share experiences by tagging photos or text notes to their location. Through Wyst people would be able to share their thoughts, their feelings, their ideas and their experiences – as they happened, where they happened. It would also enable them to capture a moment in a note or a photo, and leave it behind for others to find in that same exact place.

So Yago and I got to work. He would be the Chairman and I would be the CEO. Balance of power and balance of decision. We raised a seed round from friends and family to finance the product development and the incorporation of the company. Through one of my best friends from the MBA we engaged the services of a proven Brooklyn-based digital development firm called HappyFunCorp, which prepared the initial designs and would build the product based on our specifications.

Iker (right) and his brother and business partner Yago (left).

5 months later, and Wyst is a reality. With the product available for free from Apple’s App Store, we have reached downloads from over 30 countries and are slowly but surely gaining traction in this industry. There have been 3 versions of Wyst in the App Store already, based on user feedback, that have prompted us to develop new features and continuous improvement. In order to fuel Wyst’s growth, we have just begun an angel round of financing that will enable us to kickstart development for an Android version and finance other
marketing efforts.

We don’t know where Wyst will take us, but the only way to find out is by doing. If worse comes to worse and we fall, we can always pick ourselves up again”.

For more information, please look us up here:

• Website:         www.wyst.it
• Facebook:      facebook.com/wystit
• Twitter:           @Wystit”

• Watch the interview

“Dal Punto di Vista di Giulia” is a diary novel which Alessandra drafted at the age of 12 and which was published last year. It is the story of an adolescent growing up and discovering life at a time of great change in her life.

Alessandra Potenza is about to leave Rome for New York, where she will attend a Master of Science program in Journalism at Columbia University.