In this last weekend of March Italians are voting in 13 out of 20 regions for the future governors. The battle is between the two major parties: center-right Popolo delle Liberta’ (People of Freedom) and the center-left Partito Democratico (Democratic Party).
Eventually, each party will be supported by third parties such as Lega Nord (North League) in coalition with PdL, Italia dei Valori (Italy of Values) together with PD, and Unione del Centro (Union of the Centre) which is supporting both major parties in different regions.
During the preceding 30 days of the election, Italian broadcast media follows the par condicio rules – similar to the American equal time – in which TV channels must guarantee each political party a certain amount of time.
Even if, par condicio is meant to guarantee equal political publicity in the Italian popular media, usually there are personalities that appear more often than others. Would you imagine who is the one who appears most during electoral campaigns? … I bet you know the answer!
In the last day of the campaign – 26th March, Silvio Berlusconi was interviewed by the following TV news:
18,30 Studio Aperto (4’32’’) Italia 1
19 Tg4 (5’35’’) Rete 4
20 Tg5 (4’56’’) Canale 5
20 Tg1 (2’46’’) RAI 1
20,30 Tg2 (1’46’’) RAI 2
In addition, he appeared also in the news of Radio 1 – the Italian radio station operated by public broadcasting company RAI, and in an hour-interview on pay-tv Sky Tg24. It must be kept in mind that there are 7 free national TV channels in Italy: 3 state-owned by RAI, 3 from the private company Mediaset, and 1 owned by the telephone company Telecom Italia.
Without any surprises, the next day all newspapers were filled with the same articles regarding the Italian Prime Minister’s thoughts about his strong leadership, the opposition, the magistrates, and his tireless irony.
Whenever you listen Mr Berlusconi talking on TV, you know what to expect. It’s the same story repeated time after time since he first came in politics in 1994.
- He always shows questionable statistics on his popularity among Italians – the message is: “Italians love me and I’m right in everything I do”.
- He then, harshly criticizes and blames the weak centre-left opposition for everything that is bad in Italy – he especially refers to them as “communists” or “soviets” who are the biggest threat for the freedom of Italians.
Berlusconi laughs while reading the news of the death of Stalin on the left-wing newspaper L'Unità from 1953
- After that, it is the time to attack the “red” magistrates who in reality are politicians of the opposition masked as judges. The message is: because politicians can’t beat me with the votes of civilians, they try to stop me with the help of partisan magistrates. The underlined message is: I’m innocent; I’m a victim of law persecution.
- Finally, he can’t resist to his Italian irony. It’s like a beast inside of him that is more and more excited when there are a lot of people to listen. He is at the center of the attention and he always does it. He particularly prefers double barreled jokes. The one of last Friday was about his “right” to have the ius primae noctis with all the young female candidates of his party.
If you know the Italian broadcast system it wouldn’t be too difficult to understand why the Prime Minister has the power to be in 5 out of 7 national TV channels the evening before the elections. First of all, Mediaset is a company founded by Berlusconi and it’s now ‘owned’ by his son Paolo. Thus, being broadcasted in any of the three Mediaset channels is not a problem.
Things are slightly different with the state-owned broadcast RAI. Hallin and Mancini (2006) describe the Italian public service broadcast as a Parliamentary/Proportional representation model – the control over public broadcasting is divided among the political parties by proportional representation.
For example, in the 80’s RAI was lottizzata as follow:
- RAI 1 linked with the major Italian party of the Christian Democrats
- RAI 2 had political affiliation with the Italian Socialist Party
- RAI 3 was ‘controlled’ by the Italian Communist Party
Today, RAI still has a proportional representation and the first two channels are in the ‘hands’ of Partito delle Liberta’, Silvio Berlusconi’s party. The only critics to the government come from RAI 3 – still centre-left oriented – and from a TV show called Anno Zero hosted by the journalist Michele Santoro on RAI 2. Even in this case, it’s easy to reach RAI 1 and RAI 2 at any time; and even if Berlusconi is not able to speak directly on TV cameras, TV news directors seem to have a ‘crush’ on him and his causes.
That’s how he managed to be on TV. He has the power to do it. There are no conflict of interest’s regulations and everything is pretty normal in Italy. Moreover, he is a professional communicator. He is an extrovert and confident in front of cameras, and he always takes care about his image – remember the bandanna to cover the hair transplant during the visit of Tony and Cherie Blair at Villa Certosa, Sardinia in 2004.
Cherie & Tony Blair together with the 'pirate' Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi likes to appear on public, he is good in showing his human side and most of all he is an entertainer. Many people who surround him are fans not simple voters. He enjoys to talk and to tell stories but he doesn’t like to be interrupted and questioned. That’s why he never appears on TV shows hosted by critical journalists – I still remember when in 2006, he left an interview on RAI 3 because he wasn’t allowed to talk as much as he wanted and about the issues he favored. He fears the loss of control on public debates, that’s why he prefers to participate in ‘friendly’ TV environments.
Berlusconi has always used TV to persuade Italians. He knows that TV is the most consumed media in Italy and, therefore the best way to convey his messages. National newspapers have always been the media for the elite of the Bel Paese, “mainly urban, well-educated, and politically active” (Hallin & Mancini). The press in Italy is not a channel where to reach the masses, as it is in other European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, or Scandinavia. On the other hand, Italy is at the top of the list of the European countries regarding the consumption of TV.
One of the biggest threats in the political communication of Silvio Berlusconi may come from the Internet. The characteristics of equality and democracy of new media clash with the Prime Minister’s idea of communication – strictly vertical and propagandistic. The Internet is also the media most used by younger generations and a free place where many diverse political views are exchanged everyday – which they couldn’t be expressed otherwise in any other media. I see a vigorous Internet ‘movement’ that is the result of the need of a part of the population to actively participate into the political debate.
Maybe the most effective attacks to Berlusconi will come directly from the Internet as it happened in 2009 when a secret group of people started to stick fake billboards of Berlusconi depicted as Al Capone in the “Untouchable” movie in different cities around the world: New York, Milan, Paris, and London. All the images of the billboards started to go online generating a ‘buzz’ that ended up in all the major national newspapers. The media is changing, the rules of communication too. Berlusconi won’t be able to be part of this change.
References:
Comparing Media Systems – Three models of media and politics by Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
The Joker effect: how participatory culturemay disrupt politics by Antonella Napolitano (Personal Democracy Forum).
The Prime Minister and the Press – The Berlusconi family’s impressive media holdings by PBS.
The Thrift Shop of Ideas 