Diurna.: a Católica student newspaper that values plurality in the service of knowledge
The audacity of writing. This is the signature that accompanies Diurna. The academic newspaper that was born in the Porto Regional Center, but is now a national project that covers the Porto and Lisbon campi, reaching Braga and Viseu of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) in March, fulfilling its national vocation.
"Plural" and "ambitious", Diurna. is already two years old, resulting in nine editions, ten people dedicated to the project, countless guest authors, thousands of hours at the computer and a few hundred coffees. It is a full project that is here to stay and that strives to contribute to the dialogue and sharing of knowledge. The event that Diurna. will promote on March 3rd at the Porto campus of the Católica Universidade is also a good example of this dedication to the service of knowledge. The Diurna. Conferences will be a set of conversations that will include the presence of speakers who were or will be Authors and Personalities that integrate the various editions of the newspaper. Themes discussed will be "the Future we all want to live" and registration is open.
It was also with the Future in mind that Nuno Brochado de Agarez, the newspaper's founder and current national director, and a dual degree student in Law and Management, took up the challenge of building a university newspaper, motivated by "the idea of creating something from scratch, for the enormous possibilities that it constitutes.
Plurality as the key to success
They had no doubt that the mark of plurality would be basilar in this project. It can be read in the Special Issue of May 2021:
"Based in a University whose morphology is unique in Portugal because it is divided between four campuses arranged by such different areas of the country: Lisbon, Porto, Braga and Viseu - we knew that the multiplicity of knowledge and ideas that made themselves noticed in our corridors was symptomatic of this diversity.
"Moreover, the academic cause is, specifically - our starting point - on the Porto campus, of immense wealth: we bring together different Schools, from the exact sciences to the humanities, via the health sciences or the arts, in the same space overlooking the sea."
Diurna. was thus marked, right from the start, by the diversity of knowledge, perspectives and opinions. The goal? "To promote interconnection among those who spend their days at the Universidade Católica, fostering transversal conversations and discussions."
"I still find it hard to believe that this project was erected in such a short time and that the end result is of such high quality."
From provocation to the paper
It was from a teacher's provocation and a small team's impetus of will, courage and enthusiasm that Diurna newspaper was born.
It all started on September 30, 2020, at the end of the Argumentation and Rhetoric class, when the teacher Ana Andrade confessed that it had been a few years since there had been a newspaper made by students at Porto Regional Centre. The challenge was set. Nuno Brochado de Agarez didn't rest until he put the idea down on paper and set up the founding team that would kick-start the project: Daniel Fonseca, João Paulo Coutinho, and Catarina Ferreira were the ones chosen.
For Daniel Fonseca, one of the founders of Diurna and a Management student at the Católica Porto Business School, "this project, which had never been programmed and which is now taking on a more mature phase of reaffirmation, not only of its quality but also of its multiplicity, is the realization of a vision, of a conversation at the end of a class that, with strength and motivation, managed to arise. Diurna. is for me the proof that something is only impossible until it ceases to be.
Besides teacher Ana Andrade, teacher António Agostinho Guedes also sponsored the project. In the Special Issue of May 2021, Agostinho Guedes confesses that "I still find it hard to believe that this project was erected in such a short time and that the final result has such quality." The lecturer also adds that the students have a newspaper "of which they can be proud, a newspaper made by students from the various faculties, which achieves an interesting balance between various themes."
Manuel Fontaine, director of the Faculty of Law's Porto School, has also supported the newspaper since its foundation and stated, in an opinion article, that it was with "enthusiasm and expectation" that he welcomed the initiative and that Diurna. is testimony to "competence and proactivity".
The audacity of writing
As simple as that: the translation of the word Newspaper in Latin becomes "Diurna." That's how it was named. From defining the name, the image and the sections to the launch of the first edition, there were many hours of work and immersion. In the middle of 2020, the team surrendered to Zoom, as it couldn't be otherwise, given the pandemic context, and thought, from the beginning, of an entirely digital newspaper.
Driven by the audacity of writing, the bi-monthly newspaper would come to adopt this mission as its signature. Nuno Brochado de Agarez confesses that "it's a tribute to the way and manner in which we always wanted to carry this project forward."
For the construction of each edition, the team takes into account current issues and is also concerned with ensuring diversity, since they want the different areas of knowledge of the Catholic University to be represented. The boldness of writing is related to this mission of contributing to the cause of knowledge, helping in the formation and construction of critical thinking and initiative, for the benefit of development in society.
"We are a project that starts in Porto and expands to Lisbon. Which wants to represent all schools."
From Porto to a national project
The idea of extending Diurna to the national scope "was always there," "always moved by that idea of boldness."
Nuno Brochado de Agarez, in September 2021, did a one-semester exchange program at the Catholic University in Lisbon and it was during this experience that he "did not miss the opportunity to captivate authors for that year's publications" and that he kept dreaming about the possibility of a UCP newspaper. It is in the summer of 2022 that the rectory of the University receives the challenge of creating a national newspaper.
Currently, the newspaper is organized in two editorial teams - one from Porto and another from Lisbon - coordinated by the national director. Catarina Andrade, a law student, and Maria Luís Gaspar, also a law student, are currently the Editor in Chief in Lisbon and Porto, respectively, and are part of the National Board that builds bridges to a single alignment.
"We are a project that starts in Porto and expands to Lisbon. That wants to represent all schools. That doesn't close itself off from the University or to the University. That recognizes that the campuses are different, but that both have a lot to add," says Diurna's national director.
"I saw an added value in Diurna. because it would be much more than an academic newspaper - it would be the opportunity to make Lisbon reach Porto and Porto reach Lisbon," explains Catarina Andrade. "Since I studied at both Catholic campuses and both are so dear to me, the idea of being part of a national project proved irrefutable," she adds.
The Featured Personality, the Favorites, Featured Art, among many other items.
How do you build an edition of Diurna?
First, each of the Porto and Lisbon teams builds their lineup. Once prepared, they are presented and discussed as a team. It is in these meetings that coinciding ideas and synergies are realized. Then there is all the work that has to be done which includes the choice of people, the search for contacts, the formulation of the invitations, the definition of the themes. From here on the process is one of writing, creativity, search for answers, and always a challenge.
"No initial alignment is the same as the one that appears in the paper. Some change a lot, others change completely," they confess.
The newspaper includes different sections that aim to provide the reader with views and guidelines on a wide range of topics: the interviews with the Highlighted Personalities, the Favorites, and Highlighted Art, among others, are some examples of the content that make up the academic newspaper.
Nuno Brochado de Agarez says that what readers refer to that most distinguishes the newspaper are the guests, the content and the graphics: "there is a strong aesthetic component in what we do. A brand image perfectly established and harmonized, but never static. Then, as for the content, which is only made more appetizing by the "beautiful," we owe a lot to how outstanding our authors are."
For the future of Diurna. the wishes are to maintain quality standards, ensure succession in the project, and keep the newspaper's own matrix clear. "I hope that the character that is so unique to Diurna will never be lost. May it never be absorbed by other interests or other dynamics than those that founded it."
The next issue of Diurna. will be available on March 31, 2023, but not before presenting The Diurna Conferences on March 3 of the same month. Eyes on Diurna., because its mission is great!