Televisione e società italiana, 1975-2000 (original) (raw)

CS 1/2015 - Sixty years of Italian TV. The Medium’s Past and Future

2015

The RAI, Radiotelevisione italiana, turned sixty in 2014, having officially started broadcasting on 3 January 1954. That day, TV arrived in Italy. Sixty years of history is a great deal, a very great deal in technological timescales. In just under a decade, digital media and the Internet have changed TV radically. The articles in this issue discuss Italian television’s sixty-year history from a cultural-history perspective, illuminating several questions that have become crucially important in directing the rapid process of institutionalizing the small screen in Italy and then some of its main subsequent changes. * La RAI, Radiotelevisione italiana, ha compiuto nel 2014 sessant’anni, avendo inaugurato ufficialmente le trasmissioni il 3 gennaio 1954. Un compleanno che coincide con quello dell’arrivo della tv in Italia. Sessant’anni di storia sono molti, moltissimi se rapportati al calendario della tecnologia. In poco meno di un decennio, grazie ai media digitali, a Internet, la tv ha subito un cambiamento radicale: il passaggio dal tradizionale segnale analogico a quello digitale, per esempio, ha generato nuove dinamiche di fruizione e l’emersione di nuovi immaginari sospesi, come sempre accade, tra l’euforia della scoperta «magica» e il terrore di possibili effetti negativi. Ma per oltre mezzo secolo, la tv è stata il medium egemone del ‘900 e ha svolto un preciso ruolo sociale, alimentando un’esperienza tanto diffusa quanto condivisa per gli spettatori, riassumibile nella semplice espressione: «guardare la tv». Per molto tempo, dunque, guardare la tv è stato come guardare un nuovo mondo, una scoperta di inestimabile valore. Se si vuole provare capire cosa rappresentino sessant’anni di tv, è necessario affrontare la storia del medium abbandonando un filtro che a lungo ha accompagnato il dibattito storiografico sul piccolo schermo: quello della nostalgia. A lungo, l’età del monopolio RAI è stata interpretata come una sorta di età dell’oro, includendo nel suo “canone storico” solo alcuni generi e prodotti dominanti: lo sceneggiato, i programmi educativi e culturali, i grandi varietà di studio. L’archeologia della tv deve però solo farci capire le caratteristiche essenziali della storia del medium in Italia senza mai piegarsi a un filtro interpretativo nostalgico. I saggi contenuti in questo numero dialogano con i sessant’anni di vita della televisione italiana illuminando in una prospettiva di storia culturale alcune questioni che hanno assunto una rilevanza cruciale nel direzionare il rapido percorso di istituzionalizzazione del piccolo schermo in Italia e poi alcune delle sue principali successive trasformazioni, tenendo in considerazione i diversi livelli intrecciati che, in ognuna delle sue fasi storiche, definiscono il medium (per esempio la programmazione, le visioni ideali della dirigenza, il rapporto con il pubblico televisivo, il sistema economico.

TV – Politics in Italy: Analysis of an involved system

Seven Editora, 2023

Writing about such a delicate issue on the eve of an election that 'could' change the fate of Italy for the next few years is a profession in which it would be better not to venture. Too many variables and many question marks that today do not find the answer that. All citizens have been waiting far too long. On the other hand, being a member of the research group 'Grupo de Investigación en Estructura, Historia y Contenidos de la Comunicación (GREHCCO)' for almost six years now, as well as the great admiration and academic recognition for one of my great teachers, Dr. Ramon Reig, was the impetus to write a reflection on the current situation of the TV-politics relationship in Italy, analyzing their 'gears' from a critical (and not political) point of view, on the eve of the election of 2018 March 4th.

DIGITAL TELEVISION IN ITALY- FROM DUOPOLY TO DUALITY

This paper analyses the impact of the digital transition on the television industry and market in Italy. A major concern for those interested in issues related to social cohesion and the impact of the digital transition on democratic practices is the fact that digital television platforms continue to produce a polarised market. Indeed, in Italy we are witnessing a shift from "duopoly, " a condition that has characterised the analogue television market, to "duality, " where quality TV content is migrating to pay-TV, leaving programming of lower quality on free-to-air channels. Given the fundamental function that television has played in shaping Italian democracy, the question is how this mutation from "duopoly" to "duality" will inform the evolution of democratic practices in the country. The study includes an investigation of media legislation, an analysis of the digital television market, and an exploration of the public broadcaster's struggle to maintain a relevant role in the digital environment. It concludes that the determination of the legislature to break down the duopoly is important, but that more government intervention will be necessary in order to ensure that quality free-to-air television becomes universally available.

Tv Goes Social. Italian Broadcasting Strategies and the Challenges of Convergence

VIEW - Journal of European Television History and Culture, 2014

In recent years, the Italian television scenario has become fully convergent, and social TV is an activity – and a hip buzzword – indicating both a rich set of possibilities for the audience to engage with TV shows, and an important asset developed by the television industry to provide such engagement, with promotional and economic goals. Mainly adopting the perspective of the production cultures of Italian broadcasters, the essay will explore the “Italian way to social television”, highlighting the strategies adopted by networks and production companies to encourage online television discourse and to exploit it as a content, a marketing device or a source of supplementary income. Keywords: convergence, social TV, second screen, social media, television industry, Italian television

Italian Television in the Multichannel Age: Change and Continuity in Industry Structure, Programming and Consumption

Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 2010

It is only in the last few years that multichannel television has really made inroads in Italy. This article assesses the nature and extent of change that has taken place in Italian television in the move from a handful of terrestrial channels to hundreds of digital channels. It considers emerging trends in terms of ownership, revenue models, programming and consumption. It is argued that Italian television has undergone substantial change in recent years, the rise of News Corporation’s Sky Italia and the growing centrality of pay-TV to the economics of the industry being the main novelties. However, there are also important elements of continuity. Mediaset and RAI’s established terrestrial channels remain the only truly mass-audience media in Italy. Judging from current viewing patterns and in light of regulatory conditions and economic considerations, they are likely to remain so even in the all-digital scenario of the near future. In the longer term, however, fundamental change may also occur at this level, the analysis pointing in particular to the risk for public broadcaster RAI to become increasingly marginal in future, given the political and economic constraints it currently faces.

Television as a Project. The Relation between Public Service Broadcastig and Italian Historical Cultures (1954 - 1994)

Comunicazioni Sociali, 2015

In his recent book, Jerome Bourdon has clearly showed that the ideal type of the “public service” is underlain by different conceptions, perspectives and visions. To understand how this concept, and more generally the “idea of television”, manifests itself in Italy, it is essential to start from the cultures that have a vision of “public service”, and of television itself, and that seek to turn this vision into something concrete. Looking at the first four decades of Italian television history, we can identify two driving forces, that also offer two ways to interpret and relate to the television medium. I refer to them as “control” and “project”. “Control” (control over television) is a continuous attitude that permeates the historical cultures in their approach to television. By “project”, I mean the development of a vision that is broader and richer than the simple concern for “control” but that shares with it the need to “channel” the explosive power of TV to reflect ideal or “ideological” needs, in line with the cultures that these projects have articulated. The essay looks at the period from the 1950s (with the advent of television) to the late 80s and early 90s, pointing out how the different historical cultures have tried both to exert influence and control and to develop specific projects on television.

RAI narrates Italy: Current affairs, television information and changing times

Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, 2015

Television news broadcasts and in-depth information programmes have been among the most valued and typical characteristics of Italian Public Radio-Television (RAI), the Italian Public Broadcasting Service, since its early years. This article focuses on the television identity of programme hosts, the evolution of media language, and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of RAI's strategy in dealing with in-depth information programmes. This article also offers an informed assessment of the future of the Italian Public Broadcasting Service by discussing both the past and in-depth information programmes. Only an RAI that focuses on cultural and technological upgrading will be able to celebrate its 60th anniversary and to continue as 'mother' of the Italians and of all those who appreciate reliable and professional television reporting of current affairs. introduction This article explores the role that the Italian Public Radio-Television (RAI) plays in the Italian sociocultural scenario. At a time when RAI is celebrating its 60th year of existence, and television personalities and managers are more