If you’ve been to a Model United Nations (MUN) conference before, and it was large, you would’ve noticed some delegates at the back with their nose in a laptop or walking around with a camera. You’d have figured they aren’t the conference’s media team, because they had a delegate’s lanyard.
Later, you’d have gotten to know that these delegates were part of a committee called the International Press, and they have a press conference, articles to write and photos to take. At first, it doesn’t seem like a big job; how hard must it really be to write articles and take pictures? But as a two-time chairperson of IP at K’sirs MUN, I can tell you firsthand that there is more to these powerful delegates than meets the eye.
Firstly, why does it exist?
Because when you think of an MUN, blogs and pictures don’t exactly come to mind. MUN is a platform to debate ideas and simulate major government congregations….. Where does Fox News or the New York Times fit in this picture?
To understand this, we have to understand something fundamental about the press, something we overlook. Think about it: a person forms opinions based on their gathering of knowledge. Several factors play a role, such as when they receive it, how they receive it, their impression of the source, and their personal relation to the information, among others.
And for most people, guess what the source is? News agencies. Articles play a huge role in influencing people’s opinions, primarily by being a trusted source. People’s opinions happen to play a huge role, too; they kinda decide the fate of your region and your community. Press sources can easily exaggerate or twist information and affect public figures heavily; a country can be destroyed in minutes, and it doesn’t even need fake news.
That’s why it is of paramount importance that news coverage is unbiased, transparent, informative and truthful, while also being entertaining for people to read. Like my blogs!
The UN is one such place where we rely on the press as the only source of information besides politicians who nap through conferences and walk with one hand swinging like mad and the other glued to their side. At an MUN, IP delegates are tested for their ability to deliver quick, comprehensive and accurate information about a simulation of what they may face at an actual conference. They are also judged for their creativity and artistic talent.
Okay, so what do you guys do? What sort of work do you have?
IP is such a versatile committee, this answer changes for every single conference. Take Delhi MUN, for example. There are 3 delegate types: Photographers, Journalists, and Caricaturists. Photographers photograph; journalists write articles of various types; and caricaturists
draw political comedy with ultra large heads like you see in Tamil papers. As a large MUN, it has many, many IP delegates participating, a large EB, and quite a few assignments complete with shifts, strict deadlines and quite the haul. (Speaking from Internet Research)
Contrast to a much smaller MUN by scale, such as KMUN 2026. It would be insensible to have that level of work in a 160-delegate MUN; that’s why we ran it with 6 photographers and 12 journalists, one of whom was absent. The tasks were fairly simple, and the workload was much more dilute, so it can be handled by the delegates and the 2-person EB consisting of me and a vice chair (shoutout to Arjun Alwar from GD School). Smaller conference, smaller workload, absolutely no compromise on quality and performance.
I have some other things to share, read it if you’re interested:
- You can always search up “IP background guide” to find out more about IP and how different conferences run it.
- IP Photography (IPP) pictures are actually a much-sought-after collection at every MUN: the better the photographers, the more eager delegates from other committees are to see what they’ve taken. I still haven’t shared it as of 30 June, and I’m being asked everyday….
- Sometimes, IP can be a blend of photography and journalism; KMUN 2025 (which I didn’t chair, it was done by a person called Mithali who’s finished 12th grade now) and the Youthalic Madurai MUN 2025 are examples of these. This format replaces large articles and picture submissions with shorter assignments which feature both photography and journalism, with specializations that require some delegates to focus more on their pictures than their articles and vice versa. If you’re into the software field, you should understand it if I say that the difference is like frontend, backend and full stack programmers. More on that for another blog.
- The IP press conference is an event where the journalists take the stage; they ask their committee’s delegate questions related to conference proceedings and report on it as well.
That’s a comprehensive guide on IP. Google’s always there for the more curious, and MUNs happen almost every two weeks in major cities, so if this article piqued your interest in IP, you’re free to explore. Until next time.
