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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2016
The Italian imaginary has been populated in recent years by a swarm of objects with high technological content, from mobile phones to palmtop organizers, from satellite dishes to sophisticated digital audio and video equipment. The computer, by contrast, has remained in the shadows. Although it has been central to the discourse of specialists, it has entered everyday life only very gradually over the last two years. This paradox accounts for the fact that online journalism still lags substantially behind in Italy, despite the fact that the first Internet newspapers appeared several years ago. The first part of this article is descriptive: it analyses the Italian situation in the light of the massive investments made in the online sector. The second part reviews the peculiarities of Italian online journalism, both more innovative than its paper counterpart and at the same time potentially more constrained by advertising. The article concludes with an analysis of the most recent tendencies in the Italian information system. From integration to convergence, technologies and the products of the communications system are producing a new context of use for consumers and may be introducing new social scenarios.
Negli ultimi anni, lè immaginario italiano è stato popolato da una serie di oggetti ad alto contenuto tecnologico, dai telefonini alle agende elettroniche, dalle antenne satellitari allè audiovisivo digitale. Per contro, il computer è rimasto in ombra: anche se ha avuto un ruolo centrale nel discorso specialistico, è entrato a far parte della vita quotidiana solo gradualmente, soprattuto nel corso dellé ultimo biennio. Questo paradosso spiega perchè il giornalismo online italiano sia ancora alquanto arretrato, nonostante che i primi giornali in rete siano apparsi alcuni anni fa. La prima parte dellè articolo è descrittiva: analizza la situazione italiana alla luce dei massicci investimenti compiuti nel settore dei media online. La seconda esamina le caratteristiche del giornalismo online italiano da un lato più innovativo della sua versione stampata, dall, altro potenzialmente ancora più vincolato dalla pubblicità. La conclusione è unà analisi delle più recenti tendenze del sistema informativo italiano: dallà integrazione alla convergenza, le tecnologie e i prodotti del sistema delle comunicazioni stanno determinando un nuovo contesto d'uso per i consumatori, e forse anche i presupposti per nuove dinamiche socioculturali.
∗Translated by Forgacs, David.Google Scholar
1. Neural networks are artificial structures composed of nodes (neuroids) interconnected by a flexible architecture. Traditional computers handle information in the form of a numerical code whereas neural networks organize connections between neuroids in a way not unlike that of the human brain. Another peculiarity of neural networks is their ability to ‘learn’, i.e. to interpret interconnections between neuroids. In practice neural networks (particularly those based on analogue chips) operate on the basis of context and contextualization of data while the architecture of traditional information systems breaks up data to produce results that can be operationalized.Google Scholar
2. There is also a cultural consideration. The digitization of verbal and visual messages constitutes a rupture with the traditional functions of writing and, above all, of journalistic writing. In online journalism this trend is more accentuated. The new function of journalistic writing is a political question, like all questions about language and its ‘usability’.Google Scholar
3. The reti civiche are networks promoted and/or run by local administrations and associations. They are open to the most disparate activities in a given area and offer concrete services aimed at enabling users to exercise their rights of citizenship to the full.Google Scholar
4. See Pedemonte, Enrico, Personal Media, Bollati Boringhieri, Turin, 1998.Google Scholar
5. Roidi, Vittorio and Piersanti, Andrea, Giornalisti nella rete, Ente dello Spettacolo, Rome, 1998, p. 12.Google Scholar
6. The reform of entry qualifications also requires new journalists to have done a practical placement of at least 18 months’ duration organized jointly by the Istituti di formazion e del giornalismo (IFG—the training colleges of the Ordine dei Giornalisti), newspaper companies and universities. This reform is part of the wider reform of the Italian university system which, starting in the academic year 2001–02, is now based on three-year first degree programmes followed by two-year specialized degrees at postgraduate level, with a complete reorganization of teaching and courses.Google Scholar
7. Even if one limits one's analysis of this trend to the information sector proper, the global data are not encouraging. The American financial information site TheStreet.com <http://www.thestreet.com>, which made $1.37 billion between 1996 and 1997, had a $9 million deficit by 2000. Microsoft's online newspaper, Slate, never managed to take off. Among the newspapers which require payment of a subscription (we have already mentioned the failure of USA Today) only The Wall Street Journal <http://www.wsj.com> is in profit. In Italy, where the still limited number of experiments in electronic information are free to the user, only Il Sole-24 Ore has a paid element (with unsatisfactory results to date).,+which+made+$1.37+billion+between+1996+and+1997,+had+a+$9+million+deficit+by+2000.+Microsoft's+online+newspaper,+Slate,+never+managed+to+take+off.+Among+the+newspapers+which+require+payment+of+a+subscription+(we+have+already+mentioned+the+failure+of+USA+Today)+only+The+Wall+Street+Journal+
8. Valentini, Giovanni, Media Village, Donzelli, Rome, 2000, p. 34.Google Scholar
9. Giaccardi, Chiara, et al., Il paese catodico. Televisione e identità nazionale, Franco Angeli, Milan, 1998.Google Scholar
10. Some researchers claim that technological systems (and online newspapers are based on complex technological systems) have a diversifying impact on identity formation, in contrast to cultural systems. The former present themselves as means of survival and reproduction in which ‘the signal component, the calculated univocality of the message, is prevalent’; cultural systems, on the other hand, have a strong symbolic component, namely ‘the ability to enclose in one sign a stratified variety of meanings’ (see Gallino, Davide, Il libro delle telecomunicazioni : le nuove regole del gioco. Rischi e opportunità del mercato aperto, Adnkronos, Milan, 1998. However, one can also claim that personality and environment are interconnected and complementary, like keys and locks. Personality, in this metaphor, is a key looking for the right lock, while environment (including other people) is a lock waiting to have a chance to be used. The theories of Vera, A.H. and Simon, H.A. (‘Situated action: a symbolic interpretation’) and of Greeno, J.G. and Moore, J.L. (‘Situativity and symbols: response to Vera and Simon’, both articles are in Cognitive Sciences, 17, 1993), together with the psycho-social concept of affordance, can be used to analyse the social meaningfulness of online newspapers and more generally of the information system distributed over the Internet.Google Scholar
11. Newspapers, radio and television increasingly cite information from online sources or ‘official’ company or institutional websites, thereby establishing them as primary sources.Google Scholar
12. Sorice, Michele, L'industria culturale in Italia, Riuniti, Rome, 1998, and Colombo, Fausto, La cultura sottile, Bompiani, Milan, 1998. Colombo provides a lucid map of the Italian cultural industry, setting out the salient features of the ‘four phases’ of the production of the imaginary in Italy. Online newspapers, clearly, are ‘instruments of product distribution’ whose success depends on the ‘response of the real public as a means of validating the product’. For the relation between information, culture and technological development, see the ‘butterfly model’ proposed by Colombo in his article in this issue of Modern Italy.Google Scholar