Andrea Cerase | Università degli Studi "La Sapienza" di Roma (original) (raw)

Papers by Andrea Cerase

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2019

International journal of disaster risk reduction, Feb 1, 2022

Frontiers in Earth Science

Large-scale coastal urban sprawl, development of tourist accommodations and industrial maritime p... more Large-scale coastal urban sprawl, development of tourist accommodations and industrial maritime poles have highly increased the tsunami risk to people living and/or traveling along the coasts of our planet. The disastrous tsunamis in the Indian Ocean (2004) and in the Pacific Ocean (2011), as well as a suite of other damaging events worldwide, have encouraged International Institutions, first of all UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, National Governments and Local Communities to implement Tsunami Warning Systems (TWS), to raise awareness on tsunami risk, and to create a multilevel risk governance. In this framework, research on tsunami risk perception plays a key role. The results of these studies should be taken into account in designing risk mitigation programs and tools (such as drills, activities with local communities, emergency plans, etc.). This paper presents a review of such studies, carried out in several countries worldwide through many thousands of interv...

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2017

L’eterna emergenza che caratterizza la professione giornalistica in termini di mission e soprattu... more L’eterna emergenza che caratterizza la professione giornalistica in termini di mission e soprattutto di reputazione costringe a dichiarare lo stato di crisi. È una prova di sensibilità la circostanza che studiosi e giornalisti siano impegnati in una riflessione anche autocritica. L’informazione ha perso credibilità ma soprattutto declina vistosamente, in quanto agenzia di mediazione, ed è difficile non annotare che ciò avviene a fronte di un mix sempre più sciatto tra giornalismo e spazi dell’intrattenimento e del talk show, senza aver mai davvero valutato l’interazione tra giornalismo e linguaggio televisivo e, dunque, in una condizione in cui l’arrivo prepotente di Internet finisce per sottolineare le difficoltà di una vera integrazione tra narrazione giornalistica e nuovi media. Occorre studiare tutte le vie d’uscita dalla crisi. Le promesse della Rete e il rinnovamento connesso alla formazione sono chance per un giornalismo che troppo spesso fa di tutto per legittimare l’etichetta della «casta». Sullo sfondo, il passaggio al futuro del giornalismo partecipativo, la riscoperta dell’inchiesta e la possibilità che dietro la crisi si realizzi un’identità nuova: il Neogiornalismo

"Risk as a cultural frame for incertaity Why risk is a so important issue to understand cont... more "Risk as a cultural frame for incertaity Why risk is a so important issue to understand contemporary societies? Any reflection about risk society and its possible overcoming must first face the relevance of this concept, literally dominating the cultural horizon and public debate agenda in Western societies. It had become relevant element of the contemporary social context, which increasingly affects a number of individual and collective choices. Thus, it is inevitable that any attempt to provide an explanation should start by a paradoxical contradiction: despite the fact that in all industrialized societies data show an increase in life expectancy , a general improvement in health conditions, a reduction of social conflict and crime, we feel increasingly besieged by fear to be exposed to new sources of risk. This results in a multiplicity of individual and collective strategies designed to protect us from risk, and therefore in a significant increase in demand for security. In other words, to better understand the centrality of risk is necessary to go beyond the alleged objectivity of threats to look out on the social scene to grasp the deep roots of this anxiety, which has become a hallmark of late modernity cultures. This results in a multiplicity of individual and collective strategies designed to protect us from risk, and therefore in a significant increase in demand for security. In other words, to better understand the centrality of risk is necessary to go beyond the alleged objectivity of threats to look out on the social scene to grasp the deep roots of this anxiety, which has become a hallmark of late modernity cultures. Recognizing of the relevance of these issues has led to the risk society definition, a formula that not only metaphorically ties the emergence of the risk to unintended consequences of the process of modernization, focusing on the dark side of well - being.""""

Crime news have not innocent eyes. In contemporary societies, concern for security and fear for c... more Crime news have not innocent eyes. In contemporary societies, concern for security and fear for crime feed a real obsession that forces people to live in a state of perpetual alarm. Media have enormous responsibilities in creation of this inexhaustible need for security. Definitions of crime causes and consent on criminal policies are largely influenced by media, according to the different frames used in the public debate on criminal justice. But these narrative are not neutral: media enact symbolic solutions to social insecurity and threats which often leads in identifying somebody as &amp;amp;quot;guilty for election&amp;amp;quot;, scapegoats which pays for every trouble in the community. From several years even in Italy was observed a strong ethnicization of crime news. The media tend to explicitly associate crimes and / or deviant behavior to national or ethnic group of aggressor or victim. The repeated association between certain patterns of criminal behavior and nationality, ethnicity and irregularity produces models of typization based on &amp;amp;quot;immutable&amp;amp;quot; features of the Stranger Other, providing cognitive (and moral) legitimation to xenophobia and racism. The research here presented considers language of six main italian newspaper and seven television news to better understand the strength of ethnicization and the strong overlapping of immigration discourse and securitarian discourse, which appear to be inextricably bounded together as suggests the use of almost same words.

A Social Network Analysis study about the "invisible college" (Crane, 1969) of communic... more A Social Network Analysis study about the "invisible college" (Crane, 1969) of communication scholars gathering around a leading mass comunication sociologist as Elihu Katz. The study uses bibliometric data extracted from references in 9 manuals in communication studies to draw the structure and to investigate structural properties of scholar groups in which Katz has directly contributed or which have been indirectly influenced by his work, highlighting the strong influence of Bureau of Applied Social Research and the several scholars groups which have been influenced by Elihu Katz work.

""This chapter proposes a theoretical reflection on infotainment conundrum, with partic... more ""This chapter proposes a theoretical reflection on infotainment conundrum, with particular reference to what happens in Italian media. Starting from the analysis of some borderline cases affecting Italian newsmedia, this paper questions the repositioning of the concept of "public interest" in journalism. Literature insist on the concept of blurrying, softening the borders that surrounding traditional journalism: not only information vs entertainment, but also relevant vs attractive; news vs products; politics vs popular culture; citizen vs consumer; public vs private behavior; public service vs commercial media. But infotainment has ancient historical roots: the tendency to sensational, spectacular and popular appears as a "trait" of information, which has started already in the early chronicles of the fifteenth century. Infotainment compromises the distinction between "sacred" and "profane" media consumption, challenging the idea of media as a place of production of the public sphere. Normative conception of the media as promoters of debate and engines of the public sphere requires first of all separate scenes for information and entertainment, which infotainment tends to eliminate. Infotainment aims to capture the attention of an inattentive and distracted audience, not particularly interested in the journalistic product itself. But is likely to undermine confidence of fidelized audience which will not recognize itself in "his" newspaper, beginning to abandon it: the attempt to broaden the audience can create a negative balance in the number of viewers or readers. And nobody could take for grant that this "replacement" could be still interesting for advertisers. ""

Il Bacino del Mediterraneo ha una ricca storia di terremoti ed eruzioni vulcaniche, che si può ri... more Il Bacino del Mediterraneo ha una ricca storia di terremoti ed eruzioni vulcaniche, che si può ritenere nota a tutti: non credo ci sia qualcuno in Italia, in Grecia o in Turchia che non sia consapevole della elevata sismicità della regione dove vive. Lo stesso discorso vale probabilmente per le eruzioni vulcaniche. Chi in Italia non ha sentito parlare dell’eruzione di Pompei del 79 d.C., o di quelle che avvengono frequentemente a Stromboli oall’Etna? Il discorso è ben diverso invece per gli tsunami (detti anche maremoti). Si può ipotizzare che la maggior parte degli italiani non conosca i precedenti storici in Italia e negli altri Paesi del Mediterraneo e per questo motivo non consideri il fenomeno come un rischio concreto. Probabilmente, ciò è dovuto soprattutto al fatto che gli tsunami si verificano meno frequentemente dei terremoti. In Italia l’ultimo grande maremoto, con danni considerevoli e molte vittime, risale a oltre un secolo fa, in seguito al terremoto di Messinae Reggio Calabria del 1908. Quando non c’èla memoria diretta, è molto diffi cile tramandarela consapevolezza di un rischio. In casicome quello del 1908, poi, l’evento terremototende per la sua tragicità a oscurare l’eventotsunami.Tuttavia, basta guardare una carta cheriporta il catalogo dei maremoti del Mediterraneoper capire come la sensazione di basso rischio sia fallace. Si notano infatti decine ditsunami che sono avvenuti in molte zone del Mare Nostrum, da Gibilterra al Medio Oriente(Fig. 1, Maramai et al., 2014). I terremoti costituiscono la principale causa di tsunami,sia a livello globale che nel Mediterraneo, con una percentuale intorno all’80% del totale dei maremoti. Meno frequenti quelli indotti da frane ed eruzioni vulcaniche, eccezionali quelli da impatto di meteoriti. In particolare, sono i grandi terremoti di subduzione quelli che hanno il maggiore potenziale tsunamigenico

Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines, 2023

The 'Refugee crisis' has been accompanied by a radical shift of public attitudes toward NGOs oper... more The 'Refugee crisis' has been accompanied by a radical shift of public attitudes toward NGOs operating in the southern Mediterranean, whose image has quickly turned from 'saviors of the sea' to 'sea taxis' by practices of re-contextualization of migration discourses. Less attention has been directed towards the ways such criminalization of solidarity affected migrant representation and identities in turn, especially on social media. This study aims to cast a new light on the discursive practices of criminalizing NGOs and their role in shaping the dichotomy 'Us vs Them'. The case study focuses on Twitter as a privileged arena, where different categories of users are involved in the criminalization of NGOs, fostering the normalization of anti-immigration rhetoric, thus creating room for populist and sovereigntist ideologies. Based on a corpus composed of more than 800.000 tweets posted between 2017 and 2020, this study adopts a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods including corpus linguistics and discursive strategies. Findings show that the NGO criminalization is part of the broader process of normalization of anti-immigration rhetoric, legitimizing restrictive migration policies, fostering the building of a sovereigntist political identity and neglecting immigrants' and refugees' own identities and rights. Specifically, results highlight a new articulation of the Us vs Them dichotomy where 'Us' is represented by the in-group, a new 'Them' is represented by the NGO and 'Those' is represented by migrants. The research output as a whole seems to consolidate a present and future trajectory regarding the political discourse on migration that is based on a progressive redefinition of the attributes of illegality/crime that shifts from migrants to rescuers.

Sustainability, 2023

Mediterranean coasts are prone to tsunamis due to high seismicity in some well-known areas near p... more Mediterranean coasts are prone to tsunamis due to high seismicity in some well-known areas near plate margins. However, tsunamis have a low frequency of occurrence despite having highly destructive potential. The low frequency of occurrence and historicity of the most destructive events lead to minimizing or neglecting this risk. Past research identified socio-demographic and spatial factors that may affect tsunami risk perception. This research is based on CATI survey (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) to a sample of 5842 respondents designed to investigate whether and how risk perception and risk knowledge were affected by a major event such as the 1908 Reggio Calabria Messina tsunami, by making a comparison between areas hit by that event and unaffected areas, also providing some explanatory hypotheses. Despite differences between Calabria and Sicily, data show higher levels of tsunami risk perception in the area affected by the 1908 event, along with a major role of interpersonal sources, playing a relevant role in information gathering and understanding. Research also suggests the need to better integrate different sources of knowledge to improve people’s understanding so as to effectively cope with tsunami risk.

Nel palcoscenico dei media, dopo trent’anni, il fenomeno migratorio è ancora una fotografia nero ... more Nel palcoscenico dei media, dopo trent’anni, il fenomeno migratorio è ancora una fotografia nero su bianco dominata dai toni cupi dell’emergenza, della paura e del dolore. Sembra che i colori, quindi la varietà e la ricchezza del fenomeno, non riescano a trovare spazio sull’informazione a mezzo stampa e su quella televisiva, nonostante siano oramai sedimentate numerose esperienze di integrazione e sia rilevante l’apporto sociale ed economico che i migranti offrono al Paese.Nella carta stampata, e similmente nella televisione, le notizie che riguardano l’immigrazione sono frequentemente racchiuse all’interno del tema più generale della sicurezza, presentato a sua volta come allarme o problema. A riprova di ciò è emblematico sottolineare il risultato del monitoraggio del primo semestre del 2008: solo 25 servizi di tg su oltre 5000 andati in onda non affrontavano il tema immigrazione o con protagonisti migranti senza – allo stesso tempo – porre l’accento sulla questione sicurezza o leg...

PRISMA Economia - Società - Lavoro, 2018

Il processo di accentuazione – proprio della nostra epoca – della “crisi-discontinuità” nella “tr... more Il processo di accentuazione – proprio della nostra epoca – della “crisi-discontinuità” nella “trama delle relazioni complesse che i sistemi storici hanno instaurato con i sistemi naturali” (Beato, 1993) ha determinato rilevanti modifica-zioni nella natura stessa dei rischi che, combinandosi con i processi di differenzia-zione sociale e individuale degli stessi rischi, hanno profondamente modificato il rapporto tra individui, sistemi sociali e ambiente, ridefinendo radicalmente le condizioni sociali attraverso cui i rischi sono percepiti, riconosciuti, compresi e gestiti. In un simile contesto, la “visione tradizionale” (e strumentale) della comunicazione del rischio rischia di opacizzare anziché chiarire la posta in gioco delle sfide ambientali e dei processi di costruzione discorsiva del rischio, che riguardano, in ultima analisi, il confronto e il conflitto tra particolari visioni del futuro. L’articolazione di questi conflitti appare sempre più irriducibile ai classici modelli di mediazione della società di massa e al ruolo egemone dei tradizionali media broadcast: in un’arena sempre più ampia e meno circoscrivibile, gli attori e le forme che assumono questi processi di mediazione si moltiplicano, richiedendo una visione più ampia della comunicazione del rischio e dei conflitti politici e culturali ad essa sottesi

Comunicando. Osservatorio sull’Informazione nel Sud, 2003

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2019

International journal of disaster risk reduction, Feb 1, 2022

Frontiers in Earth Science

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2017

Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines, 2023

Sustainability, 2023

PRISMA Economia - Società - Lavoro, 2018

Comunicando. Osservatorio sull’Informazione nel Sud, 2003

H-ermes, 2022

We", "them" and "those": the recontextualisation of people, NGOs and refugees in sovereignst disc... more We", "them" and "those": the recontextualisation of people, NGOs and refugees in sovereignst discourse.

The paper is aimed at understanding whether and how the criminalisation of NGOs has affected the discursive construction of identity and representations of migrants, Italians and NGOs themselves, assessing which aspects have consolidated and which have changed. The study considers Twitter as a privileged arena to understand public debate: the paper is focused on "common users", by analysing their linguistic, paratextual and discursive strategies. The research is based on a corpus of over 800,000 tweets published between 2017 and 2020, adopting a combination of digital corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis methods. The combination of these analyses has shown that the emergence of criminalising rhetoric towards NGOs entails the following outputs: on the one hand, it sheds light on the relations between identity and otherness by re-articulating the relationship between 'us' and 'them' within media representations of migratory phenomena; on the other hand, it allows us to understand the development of the sovereignist political imagery, as an evolution of nationalism and right-wing populism. Research outputs highlight a strong de-humanisation of migrants through passivisation, impersonalisation and objectification. Through the study of the criminalisation of NGOs, this work contributes to shed new light on the static and dynamic elements of the media representation of migration in Italy and migrants' identities.

Bollettino di Geofisica Teorica ed Applicata, 2019

The Italian Tsunami Warning Centre (Centro Allerta Tsunami, CAT) of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisi... more The Italian Tsunami Warning Centre (Centro Allerta Tsunami, CAT) of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) operates to issue tsunami alert messages both to the Italian Civil Protection system and to several countries of the Mediterranean. CAT-INGV started its activities as a candidate tsunami service provider in the framework of the ICG/NEAMTWS of IOC-UNESCO in 2013, to become operational in 2016. At national level, it operates since 2017 following the “SiAM” Prime Minister Directive, under the coordination of the Italian Civil Protection Department and together with ISPRA. In this paper we discuss the responsibilities of the CAT-INGV operators in the light of the Italian legal system, describing which are the critical aspects of the surveillance and issuance of the alerting messages, and trying to delineate the tools useful to limit legal problems for the operators in case of damaging events or false alarms.

In the aftermath of a large earthquake, media system plays a crucial role, fulfilling different s... more In the aftermath of a large earthquake, media system plays a crucial role, fulfilling different social and psychological functions, which, both exposed communities and society at large, need to cope with disasters. The urge to make sense of the event results in a genuine appetite for scientific knowledge (Wein et al. 2010), stressing the role of journalistic mediation in science communication, and its ability to provide steady and authoritative point of references to the public. The comparative analysis of news media coverage of Emilia (2012) and Central Italy’s (2016) earthquakes investigates the relationship between physical events and media representation of expert knowledge, highlighting key trends and some significant signs of change in the frames used to assess and communicate seismic risk.

Keywords: media, earthquakes, science communication, risk framing, social amplification of risk, media hypes

Problemi dell'informazione, Jan 1, 2008

Da sempre, i momenti in cui l&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;attenzione giornalistica si con-centra... more Da sempre, i momenti in cui l&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;attenzione giornalistica si con-centra su determinati eventi, quali crisi, emergenze, scandali, conflitti hanno costituito motivi di particolare attenzione per i media studies e per gli studiosi di opinione pubblica. Per via del loro «stato d&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;eccezione»(Agamben, 2003) questi eventi sono solo apparentemente inconciliabili con le consuetudini quotidiane nella gestione delle notizie, mentre la routinizzazione dell&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;imprevisto costituisce una specificità caratterizzante del lavoro giornalistico (Tuchman, 1973). Gli scandali ...

Farabollini P., Lugeri F. R., Mugnano, S. (eds.) EARTHQUAKE RISK PERCEPTION, COMMUNICATION AND MITIGATION STRATEGIES ACROSS EUROPEPublisher: Il Sileno, Rende, 2019

In the aftermath of an earthquake, broadcast and traditional media play a crucial role, fulfillin... more In the aftermath of an earthquake, broadcast and traditional media play a crucial role, fulfilling complex social and psychological functions. Geoscientists are sought by the media to provide scientific assessments of seismic phenomena as to explain both what is happened and what is yet to come, also suggesting ways to mitigate risk at individual and societal level.The visibility of scientist and their ability to spread their voice across the media is a very important aspect of disaster narratives, as it provides an opportunity to disseminate and receive relevant messages about hazard, risk mitigation and resilience. The genuine appetite for scientific knowledge (Wein et al., 2010) stresses the role of journalistic mediation along the whole risk / science communication process, as it improves news media credibility along with public’s understanding of both seismic phenomena and related risks.The here presented research considered the media coverage of scientific issues during the Emilia 2012 and Amatrice 2016 seismic crisis by the four most circulating Italian national newspapers within the 31 days following the first earthquake shock. The comparative analysis of the two seismic crises considered 288 news stories, being analysed through content analysis, an empirical methodology that allows analysing media messages as well as other types of communicative texts, in order to formulate statistical inferences ontheir explicit meaning (Neuendorf, 2002).The analysis made emerge two relevant points. First, media coverage of geo-science follows the ‘typical’ life cycle of news. Most of the articles are indeed concentrated in the very first days, rapidly decreasing in the following days till to disappear at the end of the month. Second, the daily amount of news story is significantly defined by three variables: the maximum magnitude of aftershocks in the previous day, the number of days after the ‘zero event’ and the degree of controversy / conflict that arises from scientific evaluation of the ongoing phenomena.

Amato, A., Flora, G. Valbonesi, C. (a cura di), 2019

Lo scopo di questo lavoro non è quello di stabilire cosa siano e in cosa consistano la “buona sci... more Lo scopo di questo lavoro non è quello di stabilire cosa siano e in cosa consistano la “buona scienza” e la “cattiva scienza”, né tantomeno di ricapitolare il dibattito epistemologico che da oltre centotrenta anni vede confrontarsi le scienze della natura e le scienze dello spirito, quanto di aprire una discussione sui criteri che consentano di valutare l’ammissibilità dei prodotti e dei contributi delle scienze sociali nel contesto del processo penale, e segnatamente, nei procedimenti che abbiano per oggetto l’impatto sociale, culturale e psicologico delle attività di valutazione, gestione e comunicazione del rischio. Il lavoro muove da una premessa di natura pragmatica, cioè la necessità di allineare la valutazione del giurista non già a un’idea normativa su cosa debbano essere le scienze sociali, ma al modo in cui queste sono effettivamente praticate nel contesto della ricerca teorica ed applicata. Quest’operazione è impossibile se non si considera la riconosciuta pluralità di paradigmi, orientamenti teorici e strumenti che ne caratterizzano l’operare insieme alla forte caratterizzazione inter, multi e transdisciplinare che contraddistingue il campo della risk research.

The scope of the chapter is to provide an interpretive hypothesis on the different functions of d... more The scope of the chapter is to provide an interpretive hypothesis on the
different functions of different media in the aftermath of a disaster, drawing upon theoretical and empirical literature and case-studies in the light of Uses and Gratification perspective. Moving from the way people engage with media and interpersonal source, the chapter addresses disaster communication in the light of both collective needs and its related social functions, considering how people actually interact with communication to cope with disasters. A better understanding of the ways situational constraint, individual motivations, consumption patterns and communication cycles are arranged may improve our understanding of the whole disaster communication process, thus being very helpful to ground effective communication strategies, and to better understand the possible consequences of poor message shaping or use of wrong choices of channels.
The paper will also discuss complementary roles of broadcast media,
interactive digital environments and interpersonal channels to inform public discourse on disaster, improving preparedness measures, giving voice to exposed communities and informing both individual and collective decision, as well as mobilizing human and collective resources to foster return to normalcy.

Keywords: Disaster communication, Media functions in disaster, Uses
and gratification, Communication theory.

From Media Hype to Twitter Storm News Explosions and Their Impact on Issues, Crises, and Public Opinion Edited by Peter Vasterman, 2018

Racial hoaxes are becoming a popular discursive strategy to disguise racism, as well as a powerfu... more Racial hoaxes are becoming a popular discursive strategy to disguise racism, as well as a powerful means for triggering waves of fake news and outraged comments both on mainstream and social media. Built on grounds of plausibility and consistency with existing narratives, racial hoaxes may remain latent for a long time, and periodically emerge when negative stereotypes can be framed as actual news stories. Racial hoaxes have relevant political and social implications: spread across multiple channels, they can foster exclusionary discourse on immigration, migrants , refugees, and other minorities, with concrete consequences on people and policies. In particular, far-right movements embrace hoaxes as a great opportunity to advocate their claims and legitimate their calls for violent action. Theoretical background Racial hoaxes are becoming a popular discursive strategy to disguise racism. This concept has mainly been used in US legal and criminological fĳields, aimed at exploring the connection between racial stereotypes and related practices in policing, and shifting criminal responsibility from a white offfender to a fĳictional black predator (Russell, 1998). Nonetheless, this concept could be scrutinized from wider social and communicational perspectives, looking at how racial hoaxes are created and circulated, and how they afffect ethnic relations. The concept also provides powerful insights into study how prejudices and stereotypes are objectivized, and how hostility tales turn into social action. Moreover, racial hoaxes should be a relevant matter for communication studies, since they involve both mainstream and digital media, and have relevant consequences on public.

This is the English version of the frontispice and index of the volume Andrea Cerase (2017) Risch... more This is the English version of the frontispice and index of the volume Andrea Cerase (2017) Rischio e comunicazione. Teorie, Modelli, Problemi. Milan: Egea (p. 288).

This is the English version of Alberto Alemanno foreword to the Italian volume authored by Andrea... more This is the English version of Alberto Alemanno foreword to the Italian volume authored by Andrea Cerase and published by Egea, Milan.

The author would like to thank Professor Alemanno for such an excellent way to introduce the book.

Suggested citation:

Alemanno, Alberto (2017) «Prefazione: per una comprensione pluralistica del rischio», in Andrea Cerase, Rischio e Comunicazione. Teorie, Modelli, Problemi, Milan: Egea, pp. 11 -15.

This chapter comes from the book Processo alla Scienza (Science on Trial) edited by Riccardo Bors... more This chapter comes from the book Processo alla Scienza (Science on Trial) edited by Riccardo Borsari - proceeding of the Conference "Processo alla Scienza", held in Padua University, Padua (Italy) on May, 28th, 2015. The paper deals with the different sources of uncertainty (ontological, epistemological, social and communicative) in a concrete risk scenario as L’Aquila city in the days immediately preceding and following the big earthquake of April 6th 2009. The presented case analyses the L’Aquila trial along the three stages, after its conclusion in late 2015, rejecting and criticizing deterministic interpretations of social behaviours. Such analysis rests on legal documents (verdicts) to assess both scientific and social issues and their role in addressing responsibilities in a criminal trial. In its conclusion, the author considers the role of social science both in risk assessment and criminal law as well as the need for codified knowledge as to illuminate risk communication practices.

Summary: 1) There’s no risk without uncertainty – 2. The moral and political meaning of risk: toward the zero-risk society. – 3) Risk and the chain effects triggered by decisions. – 4) Uncertainty and Communication in the L’Aquila Trial. – 5) After the earthquake: risk and responsibility. – 6) Reducing uncertainty: the potential contribution of social sciences

The considerable amount of hereby presented data may give rise to a number of interpretations and... more The considerable amount of hereby presented data may give rise to a number of interpretations and “simplistic” explanations (and to some extent reassuring) of the underlying causes of the described phenomena. In general terms, one might be tempted by the idea that the “fault” would be found in media’s racism attitudes, or rather into a conditioning of the media on behalf of the politics and government. Another simplistic explanation argues that styles of representation would simply correspond to an attempt of the media to give the public what the public wants. Such commonsensical readings that seem to be unable to effectively tackle the irreducible complexity of data: in hindsight, search results seems always to offer some element of contradiction which inexorably goes to “sabotage” the interpretive monism which is embedded in such a type of explanations. However it is certain is that the media do not reflect any ontologically given reality: hence, it is absolutely impossible to match the increased attention of the media toward crimes as a result of an alleged rise of crime rates. The radical differences emerging in the representations offered by different media in different times allow one to drop any possibility to establish a perfunctory correspondence between media content and an alleged “ontological reality” that is claimed to exist outside of the interpretation of the social actors involved in the process of construction of reality. This argument, as it is to be placed in the context of reflection theories (Griswold 2004), has been challenged for a long time, even in Italian academic debate (Jacobelli 1993) and it still occurs as a self-defense of journalists when targeted by criticisms about biases (Sorrentino 2002).

In queste pagine pubblichiamo il rapporto completo della Ricerca Nazionale su immigrazione e asil... more In queste pagine pubblichiamo il rapporto completo della Ricerca Nazionale su immigrazione e asilo nei media italiani realizzato dall’équipe di ricerca del Dipartimento di Comunicazione e Ricerca Sociale della Sapienza Università di Roma. L’indagine, condotta sulle principali testate di informazione italiane nei primi sei mesi del 2008, è stata finanziata dall’allora Ministero della solidarietà sociale. La sintesi di questi risultati (ricompresa nel presente volume nell’Apertura) è stata presentata il 18 dicembre 2009 presso la sala del Mappamondo della Camera dei Deputati e diffusa con il titolo “Ricerca Nazionale su immigrazione e asilo nei media italiani - Sintesi del rapporto di ricerca”. Questa attività di ricerca si inserisce nel più ampio interesse del Dipartimento sulle tematiche del rapporto tra minoranze e rappresentazioni nel sistema mediale1 e tra le iniziative di monitoraggio e riflessione scientifica che ruotano intorno alla Carta di Roma, il Protocollo deontologico concernente richiedenti asilo, rifugiati, vittime della tratta e migranti. Abbiamo ritenuto utile pubblicare l’intero rapporto di ricerca al fine di contribuire al dibattito scientifico e al più ampio confronto con le ricerche sul tema, mettendo a disposizione un quadro più completo dei dati raccolti. Nei prossimi mesi verrà pubblicata un’articolata analisi di queste evidenze e degli ulteriori percorsi di ricerca sviluppati negli anni, con l’intenzione di fornire riflessioni e quadri interpretativi sul rapporto tra il giornalismo, il discorso pubblico e i mutamenti della società italiana.

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L'eterna emergenza che caratterizza la professione giornalistica in termini di mission e soprattu... more L'eterna emergenza che caratterizza la professione giornalistica in termini di mission e soprattutto di reputazione costringe a dichiarare lo stato di crisi. È una prova di sensibilità la circostanza che studiosi e giornalisti siano impegnati in una riflessione anche autocritica. L'informazione ha perso credibilità ma soprattutto declina vistosamente, in quanto agenzia di mediazione, ed è difficile non annotare che ciò avviene a fronte di un mix sempre più sciatto tra giornalismo e spazi dell'intrattenimento e del talk show, senza aver mai davvero valutato l'interazione tra giornalismo e linguaggio televisivo e, dunque, in una condizione in cui l'arrivo prepotente di Internet finisce per sottolineare le difficoltà di una vera integrazione tra narrazione giornalistica e nuovi media. Occorre studiare tutte le vie d'uscita dalla crisi. Le promesse della Rete e il rinnovamento connesso alla formazione sono chance per un giornalismo che troppo spesso fa di tutto per legittimare l'etichetta della "casta". Sullo sfondo, il passaggio al futuro del giornalismo partecipativo, la riscoperta dell'inchiesta e la possibilità che dietro la crisi si realizzi un'identità nuova: il Neogiornalismo.

La gigantografia è un processo fotografico, l’alterazione delle forme e delle dimensioni di una s... more La gigantografia è un processo fotografico, l’alterazione delle forme e delle dimensioni di una stessa rappresentazione per evidenziarla, per enfatizzarne un aspetto. È quanto avviene all’immagine dell’immigrazione: è un fenomeno in perenne movimento, eppure è per larga parte rappresentato da una fotografia, un fotogramma immobile ormai da trent’anni. I media sembrano accontentarsi di questa immagine statica e apparentemente immutabile scegliendo un particolare, un aspetto da ingrandire e esaltare. È l’aspetto nero, tenebroso, presente in ogni fenomeno umano, quello problematico, legato spesso al linguaggio del delitto, alle emozioni del dolore, alle paure dell’invasione e del degrado. Una gigantografia, quella dell’immigrazione e della presenza straniera in Italia, appiattita sulla dimensione dell’emergenza, della sicurezza e di una visione “naturalmente” problematica del fenomeno.

Questa in estrema sintesi è una delle maggiori evidenze emerse dalla “Ricerca nazionale su immigrazione e asilo nei media italiani” qui pubblicata nella sua versione integrale (insieme ad una sua sintesi già diffusa nel dicembre del 2009). Si è ritenuto utile pubblicare l’intero rapporto di ricerca al fine di contribuire al dibattito scientifico e al più ampio confronto con le ricerche sul tema, mettendo così a disposizione un quadro più completo dei dati raccolti nell’ambito di ricerche sviluppate sulle tematiche del rapporto tra minoranze e sistema mediale dal Dipartimento di Comunicazione e Ricerca Sociale della Sapienza Università di Roma. Un interesse che continua dal 2004, anno di pubblicazione del primo sistematico lavoro su questi temi in FuoriLuogo L’immigrazione nei media italiani, fino alle attuali attività di monitoraggio e riflessione scientifica che ruotano intorno alle iniziative per la “Carta di Roma”, il Protocollo deontologico concernente richiedenti asilo, rifugiati, vittime della tratta e migranti.

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, zoonotic diseases, vaccines, climate change, nuclear energy and ... more Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, zoonotic diseases, vaccines, climate change, nuclear energy and terrorism are very different phenomena, but all have in common the capability to threaten the ordinary life of communities. Although the nature of the threat and the instruments for mitigation it change, the range of problems that these different risks lead to can be comparable. In fact, all these risks generate social, political, economic and legal issues related to the mitigation of their (possible) impact on the relevant communities. The global reach of (some of) these phenomena also affects the effectiveness of the response. Risk studies aim to investigate these different dimensions of risk and offer a holistic approach to the different phases of risk mitigation; that is, risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. Cerase ’ s volume reconnects to this strand of research in risk studies and points out that the notion of risk is not a prerogative of scientists and experts disconnected from the rest of society. The author thus highlights how this holistic approach to risk shall entail a structural “ paradigm shift ” (p 27) in the mitigation policies and, particularly, in risk communication.

ntervista ad Andrea Cerase, autore della monografia “Rischio e comunicazione. Teorie, modelli e p... more ntervista ad Andrea Cerase, autore della monografia “Rischio e comunicazione. Teorie, modelli e problemi”
Comunicare il rischio

Su Arpatnews abbiamo pubblicato una serie di interviste ad esponenti di associazioni ambientaliste, giornalisti, professionisti della comunicazione, esperti delle tematiche della trasparenza, per approfondire temi quali la comunicazione, l'informazione ambientale e processi partecipativi.

Rivolgiamo qui qualche domanda ad Andrea Cerase, dottore di ricerca in Scienze delle Comunicazioni, ricercatore all’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia e cultore della materia all’Università la Sapienza di Roma. Oltre agli studi sulla comunicazione e gli impatti sociali del rischio, si è occupato di giornalismo e del rapporto tra media tradizionali e digitali e fenomeni di discriminazione ed esclusione sociale. Tra le sue numerose pubblicazioni sui temi del rischio si segnalano la recente monografia “Rischio e comunicazione. Teorie, modelli e problemi” (Egea, Milano, 2017).

According to a deep-rooted conviction, the occurrence of a tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea would... more According to a deep-rooted conviction, the occurrence of a tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea would be
very rare. Unfortunately, this belief is definitely false: at least 2,000 of the 80,000 victims of the great earthquake
in Messina (1908) were due to the tsunami that followed earthquake (Boschi et al. 1995). In 1956, a 7.7 magnitude
earthquake close to the Cycladic island of Amorgos (Greece) triggered large waves that also hit coasts of Amorgos,
Astypalaia and Folegandros, with run-up values of 30, 20, and 10 mt(Okal et al., 2009).
More recently, in 2003 a relatively small tsunami caused by a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Boumerdes (Algeria)
hit the Western Mediterranean coast causing damage properties in at least eight harbours in Balearic Islands (Vela
et al. 2011) and two little tsunamis occurred in Dodecanese respectively in 2016 and 2017.
Such events, that are just a little part of the over 290 historically known events occurred in the Mediterranean
(Maramai, Brizuela & Graziani, 2014) should remind geoscientists that 1) tsunami hazard is everything but
impossible and 2) tsunami come in all shapes and colours, and even a small event can result in serious damages
and loss of lifes. In such a scenario, risk communication about Mediterranean Tsunami is a challenging enterprise.
According to Astarte project, which investigated people’s knowledge, preparedness and attitudes to cope with
Tsunami within six test sites across different nations, people have little knowledge about tsunamis, are likely to
underestimate both probability and consequences of such events, and their understanding is significantly affected
by media coverage (and social imagery) of big events such as the 2004 Sumatra Tsunami and the 2011 Tohoku
Tsunami (Astarte, 2014).
In such a scenario, where low probability and high uncertainty match with poor knowledge and familiarity
with tsunami hazard, risk communicators should avoid undue assumptions about public’s supposed attitudes
and preparedness, that may results in serious consequences for the exposed population, geoscientists, and civil
protection officers. Hence, scientists must carefully shape their messages and rely on well-researched principled
practices rather on good intuition (Bostrom, & Löfstedt, 2003).
For these reasons, the Centro Allerta Tsunami of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, to ground an
effective science communication strategy, promoted a survey to investigate tsunami’s risk perception in two pilot
regions of southern Italy, as to represent about 3.2mln people living in 183 coastal municipalities.
The research is based on a sample of > 1000 people, organized into six main sections: socio-demographic data
and information on respondents’ territory; knowledge and sources of information on tsunami risk; contextual
perception of risk posed by tsunamis; social representations of tsunami; role of cultural attitudes and worldviews;
messages and channels to be used for tsunami early warning.
Interviews will be administered within the end of February 2018, first data will be presented and discussed in this
session.

After a large earthquake, broadcast and traditional media play a crucial role, fulfilling complex... more After a large earthquake, broadcast and traditional media play a crucial role, fulfilling complex social and psychological functions, which can alternatively foster or hinder the return to normality of both exposed communities and society at large.
Media are a relevant resource for citizens to cope with disasters. Especially in the first days after the first big shake, scientists are asked by the media to provide scientific assessments of seismic phenomena, to explain both what is happened and what is purported to happen in a next future. As a consequence, geo-scientists visibility and voice across the media is doomed to rise till to become central in media narratives of disasters, providing an unprecedented window of opportunity to disseminate relevant messages about hazard, risk mitigation and resilience.
The urge to make sense of the event thus results in a genuine appetite for scientific knowledge (Wein et al. 2010), stressing the role of journalistic mediation along the whole risk / science communication process, as well as the ability of the media to provide public with steady and authoritative point of references to anchor their understanding of seismic phenomena.
The here presented research considered the media coverage of scientific issues during the Emilia 2012 and Amatrice 2016 seismic crisis, to the extent they were covered by the four most circulating Italian national newspapers within the 31 days following the first earthquake shock.
The research considered 248 editions of the mentioned newspapers, and collected and processed data by using content analysis, an empirical methodology that allows analysing media messages as well as other types of communicative texts, in order to formulate statistical inferences on their explicit meaning (Neuendorf 2002).
The comparative analysis of news media coverage of Emilia (2012) and Central Italy's earthquakes (2016) highlights the relationship between physical events and media representation of expert knowledge, highlighting key trends and some significant signs of change in the news frames used to assess and communicate seismic risk.
The newsworthiness of scientific advice is everything but taken for grant: in fact, analysis made emerge two relevant points. First, media coverage of geo-science follows a ‘typical’ life cycle, broadly compatible with hype media theory (Vasterman, 2005). Most of the articles are indeed concentrated in the very first days, rapidly decreasing in the following days till to disappear at the end of the month. Second, the daily amount of news story is significantly defined by three variables: the maximum magnitude of aftershocks in the previous day, the number of days after the ‘zero event’ and the degree of controversy / conflict that arises from scientific evaluation of the ongoing phenomena.
The research has been partially published by the Italian journal “Problemi dell’Informazione” (Cerase, 2017), but will be deepened still further in new articles, in order to give geo-scientists and risk managers a more comprehensive description of data and of their related implications on their own work.

In order to better address tsunami risk perception and understanding by people living in coastal ... more In order to better address tsunami risk perception and understanding by people living in coastal areas, the CAT – INGV; the Tsunami Alert Centre of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, promoted and carried out a pilot survey on a stratified sample of >1000 residents in coastal municipalities across two regions of southern Italy, historically threatened by seismogenic tsunami risk: Calabria and Apulia. The aforementioned general objective of this pilot study may be splitted into four strategic goals: 1) to get data on citizens knowledge and characterization of tsunamis; 2) to assess how they perceive the risk posed by tsunami both in the Mediterranean and in their areas; 3) to identify the most appropriate channels and techniques to effectively spread alert messages; 4) to improve the strategic planning of scientific communication, risk communication and mitigation strategies of CAT-INGV, as well provide helpful insight to develop a dedicated website.