Investigating media-generated political engagement in Italy's system of democracy

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Abstract and Introduction

Terms: Media, Politics, Democracy

The Political Situation in Italy: Background

Image Construction in Politics: The Case of Silvio Berlusconi

The ‘Panorama’ Cover:

Method, Introduction, Analysis and Survey Results

Notes on Survey: Limitations

Discussion

Conclusion

Appendix

Bibliography

Figures:

Fig.1 The ‘Panorama’ Magazine Cover of Silvio Berlusconi

Fig. 2 The ‘Times’ Magazine Cover of Donald Trump

Fig.3 Other examples of Silvio Berlusconi’s use of the ‘carte blanche’(white paper)

[The figures 1 & 2 have been removed by the editors for copyright reasons.]

ABSTRACT

This study addresses the issues of media influence on voters in Italy by examining the nature of the relationship between the production of a news magazine cover, showing the image of a political leader, and its consequences for readers. Democracy and political participation in Italy are the broader issues with which this study engages.

INTRODUCTION

This dissertation examines the cover of the Italian news magazine ‘Panorama’ (Fig.1), which shows a photograph of the political leader Silvio Berlusconi and the words: ‘‘ Are you disappointed with politics ? – So am I, let’s change it !’’ It questions the truth in the assumption that Italians feel disappointed and alienated by politics and does this through a historic contextual perspective. It also questions if, by contradiction, Italians are engaged and participative in the political events and concerns of their country and if media content such as the ‘Panorama’ cover reflects and encourages this. The relationship between politics and the media in Central and Eastern Europe, with a focus on the quality and functions of democracy , has been the subject of prominent research (MDCEE:2009-2013) The objective of this dissertation is to enquire into this same relationship, but on a far smaller scope, by way of analysing one specific media product and its consequences for voters and, by relationship, the democratic process in Italy.

Drawing on structuralist semiotics, a qualitative analysis was conducted of the structures and practices involved in the production of this one item of media generated information to try to identify how the message encoded in the visual media image could relate to any decoded information received by its audience.

In order to guage a reader response to this magazine cover, and explore any correlations with political engagement, a quantative study by way of a questionnaire was conducted on a small sample of 40 Italian citizens.

This was to see whether the participants accepted the assumptions that are explicit or implicit in the image, or if there were factors which resulted in a resistant reading. The questions were designed to identify different levels of interpretation and to relate these to the modes of construction of the political content of the cover.

In this way it responds to the challenge set out by Corner (1998) for media studies in its attempt at an enquiry into the ‘consequences’ of a single media product on its audience of readers and on the democratic citizenship of one country, at one particular moment in its very recent political history (i.e. March 2018). Its value also lies in its focus, which is of national specificity. This, Corner also states ,is a necessity in media studies in that it avoids ‘transnational generalisation’ which occurs in many examples of studies on the US used on the European landscape. It was important to include a review of the political landscape together with that of recent and less recent research on issues of democracy and the media in Italy. Silvio Berlusconi’s image is the subject of the magazine cover and his political and media entrepreneurship has been the focus of much discussion relating to the above issues in Italy and abroad.

Media , politics and democracy are the relevant themes here, but all aspects and relating issues are beyond the subject and the scope of this study. The definitions which were most useful in encouraging a focused approach are summarised below.

TERMS : MEDIA, POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY

MEDIA

For the term ‘media’ this dissertation draws on definitions referring not only to communication channels but also to products of power systems. These are outlined by Sullivan (2007) and Street (2011)

‘’ the channels of communication in modern societies that can reach large numbers of people, sometimes instantaneously ‘’

‘’ the conditions of communication which are not only governed by technology… but are the systems of communication produced and determined as products of politics, economics and law.’’

The magazine cover, the subject of this study, is essentially a political construct which is disseminated through a media system to a large audience.

POLITICS

‘Politics’ as a term embodies concepts such as ‘democracy ‘and ‘freedom’ which have no intrinsic meaning but are, as Gallie(1955-56) states ‘’essentially contested’’. Here, the most useful definition is of politics as a process in the national rather than the international aspects of power structuring. This study focuses on the national government of Italy and its electoral system and reviews also why sociological issues of political culture are relevant. This definition relies on Leftwich’s approach (1984) and is helpful in understanding how far politics in Italy is both part of social culture as well as an institutional system of government .

DEMOCRACY

For any enquiry into how the media with its relationship to politics has consequences for democracy and democractic systems, it is important to state what is meant by the concept of democracy. For a useful definition I have relied on the first 2 of the 4 provided by Diamond (2014) which sets out four main elements of its constitution as a government system. They are as follows: 1) A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections: 2) The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life.

For the purposes of this dissertation these two tenets of a democratic government system are of particular importance in establishing a criteria for government formation and electoral effectiveness. To what extent the Italian electoral system and the ability of its citizens to use this system meets these elementary criteria is a problematic topic of enquiry and one on which effective political engagement relies.

This is attempted in this work through a summary of the recent political landscape which contextualises the analysis of the ‘Panorama’ cover. An example of a specific media product, the ‘Panorama’ cover is then examined through a structuralist perspective which is followed by a report of the responses to each of the survey st atements . The responses form the sample should, hopefully, contribute towards an answer and further discussion on how far political engagement in Italy is encouraged by media content.

THE POLITICAL SITUATION - BACKGROUND

The historical moment which informs this cover of ‘Panorama’, object under analysis, is the last general election in Italy on March 4th, 2018. The political situation to which it refers by Silvio Berlusconi’s question ‘ ’Are you disappointed with politics ?’’ is that which Italy was experiencing at that date but which should not be seen in isolation from its past. The question assumes a shared experience of Italy’s political culture. It is therefore fundamental to consider what this experience is and how it developed .

An authoratative account of the history of Italy is Montanelli’s (2004) which outlines the period which forms the context of modern Italian politics starting in 1946 - a fundamental year for Italy . The Italian Republic was formed to replace the monarchy and break with its Fascist past under Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship. The Italian Constitution was drawn up and meant a new multi-party government structure according to a proportional formula which was the basis for the new democratic Italy. The elections which followed in 1948, were directed by USA incentives and warnings by the Catholic church to vote in favour of the Christian Democratic party in order to prevent a Communist party majority.

92% of the population of Italy voted and the Christian Democrats won nearly double the seats of the Communist party in the government . Montanelli cites the satirical magazine ‘Candido’ as decisive in directing public sentiment at the time which supported the CD party’s success.

From this time and up to 1992 the electoral system remained one of proportional representation which resulted in governments that short-lived their 5 year term by ,on average, about 4 years.

The design of this particular system of government grew out of the anti-facist post WWII objectives and essentally still operates , despite some modifications, to obstruct the possibility of a single party majority ever gaining government control.

From 1994 two main coalitions emerged (centre-right and centre-left). Campus & Pasquino (2007) point to this new political reality as leading to institutionally weak governments: where the coalition leaders dominate the scene and election campaigns are more about personality performance than policy programme presentation. Unstable coalitions are the result and the electoral and party system still necessitates post-election negotiations for the formation of a government. In December 2016, the former President Matteo Renzi attempted to remedy this situation which causes post-election deadlock but the reform package was not fully approved .

The election of March 2018 was held according to a new mixed system . This established a threshhold of a 3% minimum vote ,based on proportional representation (PR), for single parties and 10% for coalitions in order to be allocated a 64% percenteage of seats in both houses( i.e. Camera dei Deputati: 398 seats and Camera dei Senati:213 seats).

PR is combined with a ‘first past the post’ system which awards a percenteage of 64% of seats in both houses ( i.e. 232 seats in the ‘Camera dei Deputati’ and 102 seats in the ‘Camera dei Senati’). This potentially favours the formation of coalitions in order to achieve the necessary majority and prejudices single parties who are less able or unwilling to form the alliances necessary to meet the majority threshholds. At the time this cover appeared, the populist anti-establishment party M5S , headed by Beppe Grillo, had gained enough support and momentum to threaten the existence of the center left ‘Pd’(The Democratic Party) as a leading political parties (eg.Grillo won 25.6% of the votes in the 2013 election). Berlusconi (hereafter ‘SB’) was therefore mounting a campaign for his centre-right ‘Forza Italia’ coalition party to counter the very real threat of the ‘M5S’ gaining the lead.

These new tendencies are explained by Valbruzzi (2013) whose research focuses on the party systems and coalition government patterns that have emerged from 1945 to 2013. Valbruzzi chronicles the stages that led to a complete change from the old party system towards new parties being formed with leaders such as SB (Forza Italia Party) and Umberto Bossi (Northern League Party) who replaced the older parties. The relationships that these ‘personality’ leaders have with their voters is not based on historic, sociological or ideological elements but is more aligned to personal identification rather than party allegiance. The mechanism which Valbruzzi terms ‘Electoral Accountability’ is becoming a rare element of Italian politics. This mechanism, put simply , is the ability of the voters to make an effective electoral choice and for this choice to translate to an effective government.

The ability to make an electoral choice depends largely on the clarity of the distinction between one party and the others and is further complicated when a coalition is the necessity for election. The less clear this is then the greater the tendency there is for voters to make electoral decisions based on the coalition leader’s personal characteristics which best appeal to them. This has replaced allegiances forged from the more complex ideological beliefs held with historical party politics. The availability of knowledge on personal and ‘symbolic’ appeal has depended on mainstream media. In the instance of SB, the marketing of his own personal brand has been constructed and delivered through his media empire. Voters are more inclined to identify personal qualities they feel a leader should posess through visual signals. The cover photo, which is the subject of this dissertation, is an example of the nature of the structure and content of a media product that exhibits political marketing strategies.

IMAGE CONSTRUCTION IN POLITICS – THE CASE OF SILVIO BERLUSCONI

The construction of the ‘brand’ type image of SB used in facillitating his political and media entrepreneurship over the last 20 years, has been the subject of much discussion by scholars in Italy and and related to the broader themes of media and democracy Primarily the interest in SB was generated from his political background as a ‘career politician’. He entered politics during the political corruption trials of the 1990’s ‘Tangentopoli’ (‘Bribesville’) era. In coming from the world of commerce with its associations, in Northern Italy especially, of efficiency and hard work , he contrasted favourably with the tainted ranks of certain ‘politicos’ under corruption charges at that time. He formed his own party ‘Forza Italia’ in 1992 (‘Go Italy’ ). His career has been defined as evidence for the theory of ‘antipolitics’ by Campus (2006) as he has been recognised for his charismatic personal qualities rather than for his party’s record.

His appearances on TV and his official image in newspapers and magazines are projected using increasingly modern and ‘Americanized’ political marketing strategies. But another important aspect which renders him the subject of study relates to the conflicts of interest between his media holdings and his political leadership, due to the scope of his control of Italian TV and press media through his company Fininvest . This holding company, amongst vast other interests,controls Mediaset and Mediaset S.p.a . which , produces 10 TV channels, also streamed through ‘Mediaset On Demand’. His acquisition of the publishing company Mondadori gave him stakes in the control of magazines such as ‘Panorama’ whose cover is the subject under analysis and ‘Il Giornale’ recognised as one of Italy’s five historic right-wing newspapers.

Ginsborg (2003), through an analysis of the system of Italian government, evidences how this media control has been the basis for SB’s success. He criticises the systems of the media, which have shaped SB’s charismatic appeal ,as the least free in Europe and this is supported by international observers such as the Freedom House Organisation. This conflict of interest between SB’s media empire and his political self has been the subject of investigation in Italy and prosecution. On this theme, Anderson & McLaren (2012) discuss the consequences and cite an instance when SB’s TV Station RETE 4, (part of his Mediaset group) was fined by the Italian broadcasting control board for favouring his ‘Forza Italia’ party coalition with airtime given of over three hours in approximately two weeks, whereas the opposing party’s airtime, headed by Romano Prodi, was given eight minutes.

Mancini (2011) corrects and extends what he terms as the conventional readings of Berlusconi that are reinforced by a large literature which focuses on the above topics in relation to his success. Mancini sees it related more to a decline in the strength of the major symbolic structures of Western Democracies: Communism, Socialism, Catholicism, Liberalism. He considers the evidence that shows a period of dominant politics ending with the arrival of the figure of SB. Pasquino (2016) describes him more recently as ‘The Knight of Anti-politics’ whose past electoral successes are still incomplete without enacting the urgent institutional reforms required. SB can be seen as the Italian example of the political ‘entrepreneurs’ of a new political landscape emerging around the world. The success of these political figures is largely based on their image appeal which is constructed for visual media channels to encourage associations with leadership qualities. The ‘Panorama’ cover is an example of the construction of a visual media product which works on this objective of image construction and reinforcement.

As stated by Hacker (1995), this can be seen to be done through the exaggeration of positive traits which depend more on affective interpretation than more complex cognitive processing. This supports earlier research by Nimmo and Savage (1976) which emphasized the importance of an expertly designed media product in cultivating favourable public opinion. Whereas Kinder (1978) found that the appeal of the candidate is strengthened if the voters’ opinions are shown to be shared by the candidate. This research is particularly relevant in the case of SB whose image on the magazine cover exemplifies the processes of image construction aimed at shaping voter choice.

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