Italy (Chapter 10)

In 2014, more than 200,000 refugees and migrants fled for safety across the Mediterranean Sea. Crammed into overcrowded, unsafe boats, thousands drowned, prompting the Pope to warn that the sea was becoming a mass graveyard. The early months of 2015 saw no respite. In April alone more than 1,300 people drowned. This led to a large public outcry to increase rescue operations. Throughout this period, UNHCR and other humanitarian organisations, engaged in a series of largescale media advocacy exercises, aiming at convincing European countries to do more to help. It was crucial work, setting the tone for the dramatic rise in attention to the refugee crisis that followed in the second half of 2015. But the media was far from united in its response. While some outlets joined the call for more assistance, others were unsympathetic, arguing against increasing rescue operations. To learn why, UNHCR commissioned a report by the Cardiff School of Journalism to explore what was driving media coverage in five different European countries: Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK and Sweden. Researchers combed through thousands of articles written in 2014 and early 2015, revealing a number of important findings for future media advocacy campaigns. Most importantly, they found major differences between countries, in terms of the sources journalists used (domestic politicians, foreign politicians, citizens, or NGOs), the language they employed, the reasons they gave for the rise in refugee flows, and the solutions they suggested. Germany and Sweden, for example, overwhelmingly used the terms ‘refugee’ or ‘asylum seeker’, while Italy and the UK press preferred the word ‘migrant’. In Spain, the dominant term was ‘immigrant’. These terms had an important impact on the tenor of each country’s debate. Media also differed widely in terms of the predominant themes to their coverage. For instance, humanitarian themes were more common in Italian coverage than in British, German or Spanish press. Threat themes (such as to the welfare system, or cultural threats) were the most prevalent in Italy, Spain and Britain. Overall, the Swedish press was the most positive towards refugees and migrants, while coverage in the United Kingdom was the most negative, and the most polarised. Amongst those countries surveyed, Britain’s right-wing media was uniquely aggressively in its campaigns against refugees and migrants. This report provides important insights into each country’s press culture during a crucial period of agenda-setting for today’s refugee and migrant crisis. It also offers invaluable insights into historical trends. What emerges is a clear message that for media work on refugees, one size does not fit all. Effective media advocacy in different European nations requires targeted, tailored campaigns, which takes into account their unique cultures and political context

A bit more human?: trends in TV news coverage of BAME people during the pandemic

TV bulletins have reported on the extra dangers ethnic minority health workers have faced during the pandemic, but are less interested in how the hostile environment affects BAME and migrant workers. Analysis by Marina Morani and Lizzy Willmington (Cardiff University) also finds that BAME people are almost entirely absent from human interest stories

The 'hospectacle' of reporting from ICUs: what does the public want to see?

TV news bulletins have used footage from inside hospitals that are treating patients afflicted by coronavirus. Marina Morani, Maria Kyriakidou, Nikki Soo and Stephen Cushion (University of Cardiff) look at the ethical issues raised by these reports, and what the public thinks of them

Making the 'New Citizen': (self-)representation narratives of Italians of immigrant background on intercultural digital media platforms

The study critically examines the personal stories of Italians of immigrant background – or ‘new citizens’ – published on intercultural digital media platforms. It explores how and to what extent these individual narratives broaden, challenge, or subvert the dominant regime of representation of ‘immigration’ in Italy. Drawing on a conceptual framework informed by cultural studies and critical discourse analysis, the paper finds that the strategic, organising idea of the ‘new citizen’ articulated through a set of recurring discourses, while on the one hand seeks to challenge hegemonic portrayals of ‘the immigrant subject’, on the other hand strategically draws on neoliberal aspirations and essentialist interpretations of formal citizenship to legitimise a collective project of socio-political inclusion. The analysis informs final reflections on the potential, limitations and ongoing transformations of collective inter-cultural tactics of (self-)representation towards more inclusive and diverse discourses about cultural identity, citizenship and belonging

'New Italians' and digital media: an examination of intercultural media platforms

This thesis presents a critical investigation of ‘intercultural digital media’ in Italy from 2000 to 2016. In this, it focuses on the diverse digital media platforms (largely web-portals and collective blogs) that have offered alternatives to mainstream media discourses of immigration and cultural diversity in Italy, and which have involved people of immigrant background as media producers. Through a focused, in-depth study of website content mainly published in 2014, including mission statements, thematic structures and discursive strategies, as well as the contextual and organisational structures, processes and roles of content producers and editors, the thesis offers a critical insight into the discourse of intercultural digital media in practice. Combining Critical Discourse and Multimodal Analysis approaches with Cultural Studies and digital citizenship theories of identity, representation and belonging, the research aims to explore the possibilities for constructing alternative, ‘intercultural’ discourse through these platforms. In investigating how intercultural discourse can be variously articulated within different modes such as journalism, self-representation and citizenship advocacy, the analysis engages closely with the strategic, organising idea of the ‘new Italians’, and raises broader questions about the cultural politics of under-represented groups seeking inclusion and recognition as ‘citizens’ in increasingly diverse societies

Research suggests UK public can spot fake news about COVID-19, but don't realise the UK's death toll is far higher than in many other countries

How much does the British public know about the pandemic? Stephen Cushion, Nikki Soo, Maria Kyriakidou and Marina Morani (Cardiff University) sampled 200 people and found that while there is widespread rejection of the 5G conspiracy theory, many people do not realise the UK death rate is far higher than in other countries