Italy’s “Five Stars” Movement and the role of a leader, or, How charismatic power can resurface through the Web

By focusing on the case of Italian political movement “Five Stars”, founded in 2009 by former comedian Beppe Grillo, this article will analyse the resurfacing of a particular kind of power – the charismatic authority – through a platform such as the Web 2.0 that was expected to promote more rational consensus strategies. Although the political action of the Five Stars movement pretends to be inspired by a participative culture, it is in fact directly ruled by the founder via his blog, with a little space allowed for discussions. In this sense, the rise of Grillo as a political leader seems to both retrieve and renew an old form of authority grounded in a very traditional legitimacy - the charismatic and undisputed leadership of the boss – while at the same time able to spread through the network. This article will offer an overview of the events and also provide a theoretical interpretation

The "Green Pass" Controversy in the Italian Twittersphere: a Digital Methods Mapping

In this paper we developed a digital methods mapping of the controversy arises from the adoption of the so-called "Green Pass" in Italy Adopting an "agnostic" approach to our object of study, we used a well-established research design: namely, to collect all the tweets that contain words related to conversations about the green pass in Italy (e.g.: green pass, #greenpass). In this way, the sample collected amounts to 4.307.487 tweets, published between June 15, 2021, and December 15, 2021. To bring out the "voices" of the different actors involved in the controversy we adopted a quali-quantitative approach: on the one hand, by means of computational techniques, we reconstructed the structural relations in which the actors are involved and its evolution over time; on the other hand, by means of content analysis we enriched our map with an interpretation of the discourse surrounding the controversy. Finally, these cartographic results are discussed considering the Italian media system functioning, in order to understand how its conformation may have influenced the public debate concerning the green pass

On the concept of medium: An empirical study

The media are a fundamental object of communication studies, but do we agree on the definition of this term? Since the 1990s, technological convergence has modified the mediascape and complicated the distinction between technical device and communication channel. Today, people can read the newspaper on a smartphone and watch television on a computer screen—a situation that makes it compelling to reflect on what a medium actually is. To discover whether agreement on this matter exists in academia, we consulted members of the editorial boards of some of the leading journals in the communication field. Based on the results of a two-step survey, the article reflects on the theoretical status of media studies and some features of the field

A partire da Grillo: un potere carismatico per il Web?

The article will analyze the resurfacing of charismatic power through the Web 2.0, by paying attention to the rise of Beppe Grillo as a political leader. By focusing on both the historical side – the evolution of Italian public opinion and the spread of cyclical cascades – and the structural one – namely, the power law organization of the blogosphere, likely to promote a huge concentration of authority – the article will discuss the extent to which the case of Grillo can tell us something about the future evolution of the Web and its power configurations

From Europeanisation to EU-ization: The Media Case

It is widely argued that the success of the European Union has delivered more than half a century of peace, stability, and prosperity in Europe, and that this is the outcome of the Europeanization process. In this paper we support the idea that although Europeanization is a fashionable concept, it is also a contested one. We consider, among others, that the main achievement of the European Union as harmonization of the regulatory frameworks among its 27 member states, is the outcome of an EU-ization process that has gradually developed in the 30 years at least. We use the case of media regulation initiated by the European Union to show that the case of EU-ization, at least in the communications landscape, seems to be the driver of the incremental engagement of the EU in the sector

Framing pandemic news. Empirical research on Covid-19 representation in the Italian TV news

The article contributes to the vast literature on the media representation of Covid-19, by exposing the results of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of Covid-19 media coverage in Italy, run on the full archive of prime-time TV news – Tg1, Tg2, Tg3, Tg4, Tg5, Studio Aperto, Tg La7 – between February 28, 2020, and February 27, 2021. All verbal contents of TV news have been analyzed, based on a sample of 2,555 news shows and 14,304 news stories related to the epidemic, for a total of 1.6 million words. By applying the media framing models, we realized a two-step work: a mapping of TV coverage across one year; and an in-depth investigation on the most relevant keywords, gathering and variant. The main results show how the different Italian television news broadcast the pandemic "waves", paying attention to issues considered as emergencies. Through a cluster analysis, we found some recurring and absent narratives of the media representation on Covid19. Along with the reflection on the framing of the pandemic, we will come out with some insights into the blaming strategies put in motion by the TV news

The "Green Pass" Controversy in the Italian Twittersphere: a Digital Methods Mapping

In this paper we developed a digital methods mapping of the controversy arises from the adoption of the so-called "Green Pass" in Italy Adopting an "agnostic" approach to our object of study, we used a well-established research design: namely, to collect all the tweets that contain words related to conversations about the green pass in Italy (e.g.: green pass, #greenpass). In this way, the sample collected amounts to 4.307.487 tweets, published between June 15, 2021, and December 15, 2021. To bring out the "voices" of the different actors involved in the controversy we adopted a quali-quantitative approach: on the one hand, by means of computational techniques, we reconstructed the structural relations in which the actors are involved and its evolution over time; on the other hand, by means of content analysis we enriched our map with an interpretation of the discourse surrounding the controversy. Finally, these cartographic results are discussed considering the Italian media system functioning, in order to understand how its conformation may have influenced the public debate concerning the green pass

Born to learn: The inspiration, progress, and future of evolved plastic artificial neural networks

Biological plastic neural networks are systems of extraordinary computational capabilities shaped by evolution, development, and lifetime learning. The interplay of these elements leads to the emergence of adaptive behavior and intelligence. Inspired by such intricate natural phenomena, Evolved Plastic Artificial Neural Networks (EPANNs) use simulated evolution in-silico to breed plastic neural networks with a large variety of dynamics, architectures, and plasticity rules: these artificial systems are composed of inputs, outputs, and plastic components that change in response to experiences in an environment. These systems may autonomously discover novel adaptive algorithms, and lead to hypotheses on the emergence of biological adaptation. EPANNs have seen considerable progress over the last two decades. Current scientific and technological advances in artificial neural networks are now setting the conditions for radically new approaches and results. In particular, the limitations of hand-designed networks could be overcome by more flexible and innovative solutions. This paper brings together a variety of inspiring ideas that define the field of EPANNs. The main methods and results are reviewed. Finally, new opportunities and developments are presented

Bollettino Sismico Italiano gennaio – aprile 2019

Nel periodo che va dal 1 gennaio al 30 aprile 2019, gli analisti del BSI hanno revisionato tutti gli eventi di magnitudo M≥1.5, mentre i parametri dei terremoti di magnitudo inferiore a tale soglia di revisione sono stati calcolati in tempo reale, nella sala di sorveglianza sismica di Roma.Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Dipartimento di Protezione CivilePublished4IT. Banche dat