The American Media System versus il Sistema dei Media Italiano: A Comparison between the U.S. and Italy

A map of Italy and its surrounding countries.
Source: https://www.infoplease.com/atlas/italy

Italy is a European country often known for its television and art, and thus has a strong media influence. The country’s population is 96% Italian, and 93% of the population speaks Italian as a native language; however, bordering countries including Switzerland, France, Slovenia and Austria have influenced its culture. Family is a very important value for most Italians, and this influences their cultural practices.1 Economically, Italy has a “diversified industrial economy.” While the North is developed and mostly consists of private companies, the South is moreso agricultural and welfare-dependent. Many companies are small or medium-sized, and family owned.2 Many enterprise owners support close political friends. Politically, Italy is classified as a republic, and Italy’s partisanship has decreased throughout history. Political parallelism still exists within media, however, and it is often described that there is “osmosis between politics and journalism,” where politicians become journalists and vice versa.3 Based on the theories discussed in Pavlik & McIntosh, the media systems followed by both Italy and the United States most closely align with social responsibility theory, as the media is mostly free without governmental regulations.4 While the two countries have many similarities, there are also quite a few differences between the media systems in Italy and the U.S.

Elisabetta Gardini, a TV presenter and screen actress, shown
on the Italian weekly magazine Epoca (1987).
Source: https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/the-cover
-of-the-italian-weekly-magazine-epoca-showing-the-news-photo/141553884

In Italy, one notable feature is that press circulation remains low. In fact, according to Media Landscapes, “mass circulation has never been a feature of the Italian print press.” Instead, print media largely is geared towards an elite readership.3 This differs from the United States system, where historically the objective of the penny press was to make print media accessible to everyone, and the tradition of accessibility still remains today with these materials.4 Weeklies are generally devoted to discussing TV programs in Italy; while the U.S. does have print media that discusses similar topics, there is much more variety and this seems to highlight the huge importance that TV has for Italy. Also, newspapers are not profitable in Italy.3 Although the U.S. has experienced a similar pattern of decline in physical readership of newspapers, the Internet forms of these materials are much more widely consumed in the U.S.4 Additionally, radio is the second most frequently used media form in Italy. Private radio networks have the highest audience counts; one public broadcaster, RAI, is funded through license fees. As the TV industry dominates news coverage, radio has started to cover more “light entertainment content” instead of news stories.3 A similar pattern exists in the U.S.; most Americans utilize TV as their source of news, and many sectors of the radio industry, such as podcasts, have a wider array of content for audiences.4

The television industry is one of the largest influencers within Italy’s media system. Notably, TV serves as an agenda setter within the public sphere for Italy, which allows societal issues to be discussed. For example, a survey showed that 96% of the population had watched TV within a particular week. Italian TV brings in a lot of revenue due to advertising (which print and online media often cannot compete with). 90% of the revenue is attributed to 3 large groups/networks, including Murdoch's Sky group, the Berlusconi family's Mediaset group, and RAI.3 This industry is thus pretty comparable to the U.S., where the Telecommunications Act of 1996 caused a large amount of consolidation within the cable industry. Additionally, ad revenues also play a huge role in the U.S. TV industry, which is why collecting ratings in the U.S. is so important.4 The cinema industry also plays a role in Italian culture. In fact, it is usual for each large town to have several theaters, and Italians are often described as “keen filmgoers.”6 Italy’s film industry used to be constricted by censorship under the Fascist government, so many of the films in the late 1930s were propaganda; however, the industry is no longer censored and films are used as expressions of art.5 Films in the United States also are not censored by the government. Foreign language films seem to play less of a role in the U.S. cinema industry; in Italy, most foreign language films are dubbed in Italian and are showcased in cinemas.6

The Mediaset network is owned by the powerful Berlusconi family, and holds 28.4% of TV revenues in Italy. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediaset

Lastly, there are surprisingly many less Internet users in Italy than in the U.S. As of 2017, Internet penetration in Italy was 61.3%, whereas it was 76.2% in the U.S.7 Internet infrastructures are much less developed in Italy as compared to many other countries.3 There is a digital divide in Italy, whereby there is a gap between regions’ access to technology4; there are large differences in Internet use between the north and south regions of Italy.7 There is a Europe 2020 Initiative, however, which is a strategy for technology growth throughout Europe with the aim of closing these gaps.8 While Internet usage is more ubiquitous in the U.S., Internet freedom is fairly similar between the two countries. Italy’s score is 25/100, and the U.S. is slightly “freer” with a score of 21/100.7 This is due to a slight increase in obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights as compared to the U.S. In both countries, political and social content, social media, and bloggers are not blocked. In Italy, online writers are more likely to face legal intimidation, as defamation is a criminal offense in Italy. Like the U.S., there is also a problem in Italy revolving around “fake news” spreading easily on the Internet.7

Concluding Thoughts

There are both pros and cons to consider for the media systems employed in Italy and the U.S. One positive aspect of Italy’s system is that there is not an established tabloid press. While some forms of yellow journalism can play positive influential roles in the U.S., as seen in the film Around the World in 72 Days, the tabloid press often uses sensationalized stories to gather attention for “unimportant” topics, like celebrity news, that is often biased or not true. Thus, avoiding the tabloid press altogether could increase reader trust for print media in Italy, although tabloid press does bring in revenue for many companies in the U.S. However, a con of Italy’s print system compared to that in the U.S. is the elite readership, as this decreases the accessibility of information and the variety of material shown within the print media.

The cover of Millecinquencento Lettori, which translates to "One thousand five hundred readers," written in 1959 by Enzo Forcella. 1,500 was used to represent the number of readers a political journalist could count on due to elite readership.
Source: https://www.donzelli.it/libro/9788879898669

An important positive characteristic of both countries is the overall lack of censorship in the media, as both systems have been commercialized and are largely not run by the government. This is important, because Pavlik & McIntosh mention that “excessive government regulation often impedes the creation of telecommunication infrastructure that could better reach all citizens within a country” (page 415).4 Comparatively, the government in Italy does have somewhat more control: both the press and Internet systems are ranked “less free” than the U.S. One positive aspect of this control is this allows for regulation in Italy against certain material deemed dangerous, such a terrorist websites, and thus could be used to serve the common good for Italian citizens.7 However, this also means that less diverse opinions and materials could potentially be shown, so free speech isn’t truly, 100% free. A negative aspect for the U.S. and Italy is that many of their media industries are run by large media conglomerates, particularly in the TV industry, which means that there are less diverse perspectives shown to audiences. Fortunately, both countries have regulations in place to prevent excessive consolidation. For example, in Italy, no broadcaster is allowed to control greater than 20% of TV and radio stations.7 In the U.S., similar regulations are imposed by the FCC, where ownership of stations is limited based on the size of the market.9 These are positive regulations which prevent any entity from having too much control over the media system at large. Lastly, a negative aspect of Italy’s system is that there is less Internet freedom and usage throughout the country. The U.S. has a much higher level of digitization, which makes content more accessible to the general public. Overall, both systems are very similar, as they have limited amounts of governmental regulations and prioritize free speech; however, the media system in U.S. likely showcases a greater variety of voices in media than Italy. This is important as there is greater freedom of expression and citizens are able to consume media in a more accessible manner.

Sources

1. https://www.livescience.com/44376-italian-culture.html
2. https://internationalliving.com/countries/italy/the-economy-in-italy/
3. https://medialandscapes.org/country/italy
4. Pavlik, John V., and Shawn McIntosh. Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Italy
6. https://www.justlanded.com/english/Italy/Articles/Culture/Cinema-in-Italy
7. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2017/
8. https://www.internetworldstats.com/links10.htm
9. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/fccs-review-broadcast-ownership-rules