Conference Program

The educator operates as a conscious political actor, rejecting neutrality to become a promoter of a more just and democratic society (Milani, 1965). His task is to adopt a critical pedagogy that deconstructs prejudice, interrogates power structures, and amplifies marginalized voices through dialogue and the co-construction of meaning. Within this framework, education assumes the role of an ethical and civic commitment aimed at autonomy and emancipation, transforming pedagogical practice into a tool for social justice and active participation (Fabbri & Soriani, 2021).

This contribution illustrates the evolution and pedagogical objectives of the “Newspaper Reading and Writing Workshop”, integrated into the Digital Citizenship Education course within the Degree in Educational Sciences at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples. The project builds upon the “Newspaper in the University” Workshop - active for over a decade within the same department - adapting its theoretical and methodological framework to the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the fragmentation of the contemporary information ecosystem (Panciroli & Rivoltella, 2023).

Why incorporate the “daily” newspaper into a professional training path for educators? Reading the news in a university setting does not merely address an informational need, but rather a formative urgency: to transform the “news consumer” into an “interpreter of the present”. In an academic context, the newspaper serves as a training ground for critical thinking and a device connecting theoretical knowledge with social complexity (Rivoltella, 2020). The ambivalence of the Italian term “quotidiano” - which simultaneously denotes the “everyday” emergent reality and the “daily” medium (newspaper) that traditionally gathers diverse perspectives to shape public opinion - underscores the necessity of placing this concept at the heart of professional training. For the future educator, the “quotidiano” (understood both as everyday experience and as the daily newspaper) represents his “daily bread”, the primary tool for inhabiting the public sphere with awareness and overcoming disciplinary isolation (Rivoltella & Rossi, 2019).

This challenge, however, must inevitably confront the transformation of journalism in the “age of fragmentation” (Roncaglia, 2018) and AI (Agrusti, 2023). The laboratory analyzes the transition toward algorithmic information characterized by content fragmentation, where artificial intelligence acts as an ambiguous agent capable of fuelling echo chambers through personalization (Bentivegna & Boccia Artieri, 2021) and introducing critical issues regarding synthetic content (Talia, 2024). By deconstructing news production mechanisms, the course highlights how automation influences news hierarchy and the perception of truth itself (Mosca & Ruoto, 2024), defining the educator’s profile as an intellectual mediator capable of promoting digital citizenship based on the defense of judgmental autonomy (Ferrari & Pasta, 2023). By guiding users through an information-saturated world, the educator facilitates the transition from functional literacy to “digital wisdom” (Floridi, 2022). This involves not merely the technical use of AI, but learning how to “educate for AI” (Bellisomo, 2025) through the critical reading and rewriting of the news as a necessary civic rite for safeguarding critical thought.