The Interference of the Mass media in the Intercultural Dialogue during the Emergency Landings in the Mediterranean: Between Reality and Representation

The aim of the paper is to highlight the difficulties that characterise the intercultural dialogue in specific contexts and situations of emergency. The paper focuses on the interference of the mass media and their representations in the dynamics of intercultural dialogue among emergency operators and migrants at the borders. These aspects will be examined by relating the results of prior researches carried out on mass media representations of the landings to those obtained by the participating observation in the island of Lampedusa during the landings and the migrants’ protests. The results show how the frames of the mass media representation in its alarmist/pietistic approach may be reiterated in models of intercultural dialogue between operators and migrants

Immaginario del male e stereotipi di genere negli anime dalla fine degli anni '70 ad oggi

Gender-oriented imagery of evil in anime from late 70's to present day. This paper examines the specific traits that evil developed within Japanese anime that became very popular in Italy from late 70's to present day. The aim of the study is to focus on the representation of evil that may take an evident or concealed gender-oriented stereotyped characterisation which is different in anime developed for boys or for girls. A content and frame analysis has been carried out on 16 case-studies in order to explore the features which define an imagery of evil differentiated by male or female audience. Some examples of this occurrence are: physical and psychological evil traits; rhetoric; metaphors; gender stereotypes; punitive actions against evil; the reasons why evil develops etc. Our results showed that gender stereotyping persists in the latest anime and is portrayed through the way the main and secondary evil characters are described. Furthermore, latent patterns of gender-oriented imagery of evil emerge through evil characters’ ability to neutralize the empowerment conquered by female leads during conflicts

Effect of the Lights4Violence intervention on the sexism of adolescents in European countries

Background: Sexism results in a number of attitudes and behaviors that contribute to gender inequalities in social structure and interpersonal relationships. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Lights4Violence, an intervention program based on promoting health assets to reduce sexist attitudes in young European people. Methods: We carried out a quasi-experimental study in a non-probabilistic population of 1146 students, aged 12–17 years. The dependent variables were the difference in the wave 1 and wave 2 values in the subscales of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: benevolent sexism (BS) and hostile sexism (HS). The effect of the intervention was evaluated through linear regression analyses stratified by sex. The models were adjusted by baseline subscales scores, socio-demographic and psychological variables. Results: In girls, we observed a decrease in BS in the intervention group compared to the control group (β = − 0.101; p = 0.006). In the wave2,, BS decreased more in the intervention group compared to the control group in girls with mothers with a low level of education (β = − 0.338; p = 0.001), with a high level of social support (β = − 0.251; p < 0.001), with greater capacity for conflict resolution (β = − 0.201; p < 0.001) and lower levels of aggressiveness (β = − 0.232, p < 0.001). In boys, the mean levels of HS and BH decreased in wave 2 in both the control and intervention groups. The changes observed after the wave 2 were the same in the control group and in the intervention group. No significant differences were identified between both groups. Conclusions: The implementation of the Lights4Violence was associated with a significant reduction in BS in girls, which highlights the potential of interventions aimed at supporting the personal competencies and social support. It is necessary to reinforce the inclusion of educational contents that promote reflection among boys about the role of gender and the meaning of the attributes of masculinity. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov : NCT03411564. Unique Protocol ID: 776905. Date registered: 26-01-2018.The project “Lights, Camera and Action against Dating Violence” (Ligts4Violence) was funded by the European Commission Directorate-General Justice and Consumers Rights, Equality and Citizen Violence Against Women Program 2016 for the period 2017–2019 to promote healthy dating relationship assets among secondary school students from different European countries, under grant agreement No. 776905. It was also co-supported by the CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health of Spain for its aid to the Gender-based Violence and Youth Research Program

I discorsi d’odio online nelle narrazioni dei teenager romani

Il capitolo esplora i processi di elaborazione e sense-giving attivati di fronte ai linguaggi d’odio online e le pratiche di negoziazione messe in campo, individualmente o nel gruppo dei pari, con gli stessi. Abbiamo, cioè, cercato di considerare i giovani non solo come vittime passive, ma come audience attive, in grado di elaborare significati, prendere le distanze e/o abbracciare selettivamente alcune forme espressive legate all’odio, contestualizzandole. Ciò non significa, ovviamente, voler sminuire la gravità di alcuni fenomeni. Significa, piuttosto, tentare di coglierne il significato, la portata (e dunque, potenzialmente, le ricadute individuali e collettive), dal punto di vista dei pubblici coinvolti. Siamo convinte infatti che, più che nelle forme espressive in sé, la valenza socio-culturale dei discorsi d’odio vada rintracciata nelle forme di attribuzione di senso elaborate dagli utenti. In questo capitolo, dunque, rendiamo conto di una ricerca esplorativa volta a dare voce agli adolescenti e a indagare i processi di sense-giving legati ai discorsi d’odio online

Oltre gli stereotipi di genere? Processi di self-presentation nel dating online: il caso AdottaUnRagazzo

Il dating online rappresenta un’interessante arena per osservare le pratiche identitarie e i processi relazionali abilitati dalle piattaforme digitali, con particolare riferimento alle strategie di self-presentation e impression management messe in campo dall’utente (si vedano, per esempio, Ellison, Hancock, Toma 2012; Ellison, Heino, Gibbs 2006). In questo capitolo ci soffermiamo su AdottaUnRagazzo, una piattaforma di dating online che costruisce discorsivamente un ambiente connotato in termini di «girl power» e in cui la metafora prevalente è quella del negozio nel quale le donne possono «fare shopping» (ricorrono termini come «carrello », «prodotti», «negozio», «offerte», ecc.)

“The bearable lightness of hatred”: exploring young users’ perception of hate speech on Instagram

co-authors: Francesca Comunello, Francesca Ieracitano, Francesca Belott

I giovani e la famiglia tra precarietà professionale e sviluppo identitario

Il capitolo descrive l’evoluzione della famiglia nella società contemporanea illustrando i profondi cambiamenti che l'hanno attraversata. In virtù dei mutamenti demografici e culturali che hanno investito l’Europa, approfondisce le peculiari traiettorie di vita dei giovani,mettendo in luce la de-standardizzazione degli step che tradizionalmente costituivano riti consequenziali di transizione all’età adulta e l'inadeguatezza dei modelli teorici classici dello sviluppo familiare. Esso, inoltre, affronta il tema dei nuovi rischi sociali nella cosiddetta società liquida in connessione alla costruzione del progetto famiglia nel contesto italiano, mettendo in evidenza peculiarità e vincoli del nostro Paese. Illustra, infine, gli aspetti metodologici che hanno guidato la ricerca empirica, progettata in considerazione del frame teorico delineato

Negotiating gender scripts in mobile dating apps: between affordances, usage norms and practices

The paper explores the perception and negotiation of gender representations and scripts among Italian dating app users. Adopting a gender perspective and a socio-technical framework, it describes how dating app affordances support the performance of gender scripts and explores how users negotiate gender scripts. We conducted 8 focus groups involving 39 dating app users from a variety of gender and sexual orientations. The results show how shared usage norms and practices disclose dominant gender scripts at play, and illustrate how some users try to subvert them. Participants are aware of a number of traditional and stereotypical gender scripts and broadly adhere to them; nevertheless, such scripts are partially reframed in the context of dating apps. Dating apps are mainly understood in terms of affordances, when participants highlight the ways in which they or their mates reduce the incidence of traditional scripts. On the other hand, dating apps’ constraints emerge when some users try to detach themselves from common scripts, or when they struggle to perform traditional scripts in a context they perceive as inadequate. Results highlight how dating app users negotiate gender scripts: affordances and constraints of dating apps shape user practices and influence the performance and ‘de-inscription’ of gender scripts, without directly fostering the adoption of alternative scripts

Ieracitano F. Vigneri F., In 'their' words and in 'our' words: a comparison between European policies, media narratives and migrants’ testimonies of landings in the Mediterranean. Language, Discourse & Society 6 (1) ISSN: 2239-4192. Pp.62-82.

The aim of the paper is to highlight convergences and divergences in the narrative patterns used by the Italian press and the migrants, through a comparison between the representations the main national newspapers made of the landings in Lampedusa in 2011, with testimonies and stories directly told by the survivors of the sea crossings in 2014. At the same time, we will use this confrontation as a key to interpret and analyse the recent EU migration policies, in order to understand whether and to what extent their narratives are closer to the media discourse on the migration phenomenon or to the narratives of its protagonists, the migrants. We used a methodological triangulation based on the content and frame analysis of the headlines and their reference to 311 articles about the landings in Lampedusa between February 15th and April 15th 2011. We gathered and analysed the narratives of direct testimonies of migrants landed in Sicily between the summer and autumn 2014. Lastly, we compared the results with the key principles in the European Agenda on Migration, approved in 2015. The results of this comparative analysis allowed us to notice how the European migration policies tend to shift towards the same directives used by the media in displaying the migration phenomenon, distancing themselves from the direct perception its protagonists – the migrants – have of their own experience, despite being the real recipients of such policie

I giovani e lo spazio politico europeo

Il saggio analizza il rapporto tra i giovani e lo spazio politico europeo con il quale essi sono sempre più spesso chiamati a confrontarsi per ragioni di studio e di lavoro. Nella prima parte, l'analisi dei dati dell'Eurobarometro (n. 88/2017) evidenzia uno scarto nella fiducia nell’attaccamento allo spazio europeo tra i giovani e le generazioni precedenti. Tuttavia, nel caso dei giovani italiani, lo scarto generazionale a volte si riduce, restituendo l’immagine di una realtà sociale meno definitiva dai cleavages generazionali. Nella seconda parte, comparando i dati secondari emersi dalla letteratura con quelli di 3 focus group, si è indagato se ed in che termini gli studenti in mobilità costituiscano una "risorsa civica" per l'Ue. I risultati evidenziano un cambiamento di prospettiva nei confronti dei contesti di appartenenza che, in alcuni casi, si traduce in una maggiore apertura verso la sfera pubblica rispetto alla quale sembra esserci scarsa consapevolezza. Il rischio che ne deriva è il mancato utilizzo delle "risorse civiche" maturate durante il soggiorno all'estero