Eduardo González
The Instituto Cervantes and the EFE Agency have signed a collaboration agreement to carry out cultural activities within the framework of the agency’s 85th anniversary, which include, as a main point, the presentation and dissemination of the Nuevo Libro del Estilo Urgente (New Urgent Style Book), prepared by the journalist Javier Lascuráin and that they are going to co-edit the two parts.
The agreement was signed on December 21 in Madrid by the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis Manuel García Montero, and by the director of Managing Consulting and the managing director of the EFE Agency, María José Sánchez-Andrade and Eduardo Riesco Almarza, respectively. , and was published past week by the Official State Gazette (BOE). The agreement is based on the general protocol of action signed by the two parties on July 16, 2021 to join forces and collaborate in areas of common interest.
Among the initiatives and joint actions that will be developed within the framework of the agency’s 85th anniversary, the presentation and dissemination at the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes of EFE’s New Urgent Style Book, prepared by EFE journalist Javier Lascuráin and which range to co-edit the two parts. Likewise, the EFE Agency will deposit its legacy in the Instituto’s Caja de las Letras in Madrid and both parties agree to hold conferences on language and journalism in Spanish.
On a more concrete level, the two parties undertake to present the New Urgent Style Book and to deposit the legacy in the Caja de las Letras in the first quarter of 2024. Likewise, they will present the aforementioned work at the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes abroad that are determined through a commission to monitor the agreement. These presentations will feature the participation of the author of the work and a local journalist in the corresponding country or city.
To this end, the Instituto Cervantes will make spaces available to EFE at the headquarters and centers of the Instituto Cervantes, in Spain and abroad, for carrying out the activity, including the use of audiovisual media and the rest of the material and human resources of available for the development of the provisions of this agreement.
Additionally, by 2024, the Instituto Cervantes and the EFE Agency will contribute a maximum of 20,000 euros, each and from their budgets, for the expenses derived from the commitments they assume in this agreement. For the following years in which the agreement is in force, the contribution of these resources will be subject, in any case, to the budgetary availability of each of the parties, although the forecast is estimated to be similar to that of 2024.
The first Urgent Style Book was published in September 2011 with the purpose of becoming the first journalistic manual with a multimedia horizon. The work contained instructions and advice not only to write better texts but also to take care of the photos, make the videos with adequate visual language and coherent speech, and define the audios. In addition, it offered the necessary guidelines to gather the contents of these four media into a single news item for direct publication on the Internet and to learn to separate reliable information from rumors and hoaxes. The text also contained an appendix on linguistic recommendations: spelling, acronyms, symbols, place names, demonyms and transliterations.
