Mediascapes journal

Tutto chiede salvezza e cura

2024-10-19T15:33:33+00:00

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the role of a contemporary Italian TV show, Tutto chiede salvezza, Everything calls for salvation (Netflix 2022 -), in addressing mental health among young people, who are dramatically affected by the increasing diffusion of mental disorders, with the aim to generate awareness and promote a new sense of caring. These goals are particularly crucial when we consider that media narration of mental disorders has always been extremely controversial, too often ending up in consolidating their social marginality while guaranteeing them a negative visibility in horror and thriller movies or police/detective dramas. According to the cultivation theory media representations can produce very negative cultural responses among the audiences, reinforcing social stigma. But what about if the same media can have the power to destigmatize mental disorders, contributing in building or reinforcing the mental health literacy? In the last decade, within the so-called teen television the representation of mental disorder in adolescence has increased and a significant diversification of these narratives has emerged with the effect of highlighting the mental health issue within adolescents agenda and discourses, both at an international and national levels. TV series such as 13 Reasons why, Euphoria, Atypical, Shameless, The end of the fu**ing world as well as Mental, Oltre la soglia, SKAM, Prisma, Everything calls for salvation etc. have in fact created a new visibility and different representations. Everything calls for salvation is a TV show produced by Netflix in 2022 and based on Daniele Mencarelli autobiographical novel. It is the story of his own hospitalization under a psychiatric Mandatory Medical Treatment when he was 18. Through qualitative interviews, the level of awareness, knowledge and emotional proximity to mental illness were analysed, by collecting more than 30 interviews among people aged between 14 and 24 years who watched the show. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of this specific representation of psychiatric disturbs, which is perceived as less stereotypical and superficial compared to other Italian contemporary content and able to engage the affective publics on such a crucial topic, open new possibilities in the collective process of caring.

Forme di mediatizzazione dello sport in canzone

2024-07-08T14:12:01+00:00

In the Italian mediascape the song-form, once it enters the media system through various intermedial objectifications, contributes to the institutional and social-constructivist trajectories of mediatization, on the one hand responding to a broader media logic, and on the other contributing to the media construction of reality. In these terms, its presence can also be tested in the specific mediatization of sport, within which it is shown along three levels: participating directly and transmedially in sportive events; collaborating on a paratextual level in the medial narration of the competitions; directly both recounting events, exploits and the lives of athletes, or making a metaphorical and conceptual synthesis of the essence of a sport.In Italy, the phenomenon is mainly attested with football and cycling. In particular, the songs related to the Italian national football team, moving on these three levels, are placed at the crossroads of a complex narrative, interweaving different elements and acting as a narrative device that contributes to the media storytelling of the national team's matches, especially the Word Cup, through both top-down and bottom-up logics. We identify four phases in which this particular form of sports mediatization manifests itself: the phase of ‘obsessions’, which goes from 1970 to 1990; that of ‘Notti magiche’, it began with the World Cup of Wonders in 1990 and then settled permanently in the cultural landscape; that of the ‘Anthems’, which goes from 1994 to 2014; and the actually dispersive ‘fragmentation’, which is observed from 2014 to today. The mediatization of the football in these stages have thus represented over time a textual element of cohesion and configuration of the national team's imaginary, through a solicitation of not only sporting, but also social and identity needs, especially when the songs are shared by practices of re-appropriation from below that are really shared by the public, even going so far as to replace Mameli's anthem on an identity and configuration level. In this way, football as a mediated sport shows its inherently a-political character and its profound nature as a social connector.

Il cinema nel periodico a fumetti Topolino

2024-09-21T08:16:37+00:00

This essay analyzes the cinematographic references of the Italian publication Topolino, published by Nerbini (1932-1935). The article uses an historical methodology, capable of describing objects that are slippery and hard to define, attempting to evaluate their impact on cinema as well as on the Italian economy and cultural industry. The article proposes a map of the film references present in Topolino (Nerbini). These references are found in the columns and in the short comics of this magazine. Under Nerbini’s publication, Topolino, has a lot of transmedial mechanisms – likewise featured in other periodicals published by Nerbini (for example Il piccolo cinematografo presenta, 1923). This case study is very relevant as Topolino is an important illustrated magazine within the context of Italian publishing. The interconnection between cinema and comics here is predominant because the Disney character Mickey Mouse is perceived first and foremost as a film star, only secondarily a hero of the comic-book. This essay begins with a methodological introduction. This is followed by a section that analyzes the intermediality of Mickey Mouse and his connections with the eponymous magazine and subsequently two further sections concerning the metatextual and cinematographic references present in the columns and comics, before the essay’s conclusion.

Comunità teatrali mediatizzate

2024-12-02T17:28:23+00:00

This paper analyses the intersection between theories of participative art (Bourriaud 1998; Kester 2004; Bishop 2012; Harvie 2013) and mediatization from the perspective of the participatory cultures (Jenkins 2006, 2008; Boccia Artieri 2012). To do this the paper presents the case study of BAT - Bottega Amletica Testoriana, an innovative performative project conceived by the director Antonio Latella in collaboration with the multidisciplinary circuit of the Marche Region (Amat) that stands out as a formative pathway and co-creation workshop for eight young performers. BAT must be seen as an experimental and innovative performative project based on the performers training and the audience engagement despite the lack of a final show. At the same time, it has engaged a select group of eight spectators who have followed the project closely and actively, forming a distinctive community of practice sustained by continuous interaction through a WhatsApp group. The paper presents the results of a research conducted both through interviews with the organizers, performers and a sample of the audience, and the analysis of the WhatsApp conversations among the eight spectators involved in the project and among them and the organizers. The presented findings allow to observe an emerging theatrical community based on the mediatization of dramaturgy, presence and communication roles.

La guerra come interazione e comunicazione

2024-07-30T09:54:33+00:00

Starting from Clausewitz’s On War, reinterpreted through the lens of Georg Simmel’s formal sociology, this article aims to develop a theoretical framework for analyzing war as an interactive and communicative dynamic. The debates on nuclear deterrence in the 1960s, alongside the events of the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Iran and Israel, serve as empirical references to test the applicability of the proposed approach.

Influ-activism

2024-10-16T08:08:49+00:00

In recent years, the convergence of activist and influencer practices has given rise to what we term “influ-activism”. This contribution seeks to define influ-activism as a dynamic hybrid space where digital activism and influence culture intersect, creating novel dynamics and challenges for both arenas. Influ-activism encompasses the marketing strategies and aesthetics typical of influencers, now employed by activists, as well as the political stances increasingly adopted by mainstream influencers. This convergence significantly impacts the visibility, authenticity, and mobilisation potential of social causes in the digital public sphere. The article unfolds in four main sections. The first section anchors influ-activism within the distinct literatures of influence culture and digital activism, providing a genealogy of the phenomenon and developing theoretical concepts for its understanding. The second section delves into the current literature on influ-activism, exploring the blending of influencer and activist practices. The third section offers a comprehensive methodological approach for the empirical study of influ-activism, examining its communicative agents, practices, audiences, and ecosystems. Finally, the conclusion considers the broader implications of influ-activism for the digital public sphere and suggests avenues for future research. By critically examining the neoliberal and platform logics that underpin influ-activism, this essay seeks to enhance the understanding of the intricate dynamics shaping contemporary digital activism and the broader influence culture.

Influ-activism, content creation, transmedialità

2024-11-04T11:46:30+00:00

The essay explores the impact of influencers on activism from a media ecology perspective. It delves into how influencers fit into the communication networks of social movements and their role in driving social, political, and cultural change. The essay also discusses the contrast between the collective nature of activists and the individualistic approach of influencers. It examines the artificial authenticity of influencer-generated content compared to the collective action of movement campaigns. The essay utilizes the framework of transmedia activism to analyze the narrative dimension of influencers and movements, exploring the participatory and creative dynamics that shape a movement's identity. The goal is to understand the strategic role of influencer content creators in activism campaigns and the relationship between their identity and that of social movements. To support the analysis, a case study is presented: the challenge initiated by the collective Lucha y Siesta, involving influencer content creators in graphic design and comics.

#travelforall

2024-11-08T14:36:50+00:00

This paper explores the nexus of influencer culture, marginalized identities, and social change advocacy through a case study of disabled Instagram influencers. Influencers are increasingly engaging with social and political issues and, at the same time, advocacy organizations and institutions – from startup PR agencies to governments – are courting them to reach new audiences. While marketing scholars have extensively researched the economic relevance of influencers, their potential role as advocates is relatively underexplored. To address this gap, this study analyzed six months of content from eight disabled Instagram influencers focused on travel. Travel, a commercially relevant topic, intersects with several disability rights issues. The apparent contrast between disability as a historically stigmatized identity and the expectations of social media culture provides an opportunity to investigate these phenomena alongside marginalization. Building on the situational theory of publics, we examined self-representations of disability, their relationship with hegemonic narratives, the relationship between market-oriented and issue-oriented content, how these influencers address brands, organizations, and online publics, and whether they nudge them toward action. Results show a marked prominence of disability-related content and a frequent engagement with disability advocacy themes. However, advocacy content tends to be kept separate from commercial content and is presented from a personal perspective without appeals to participate in action, with a tone that contrasts with the grievance framework typically used in disability rights activism. As such, innovative forms of advocacy are emerging that prioritize lived experiences as positive and ‘authentic’ – in contrast with dominant disability narratives – but are also limited to the individual level without explicit or implied links to collective mobilization. This highlights the potential and limitations of social media influencers as advocates, suggesting that this phenomenon ought to connect to other activation processes and organized activism to move beyond mere awareness-raising.

A Study in Pink

2024-07-30T14:49:47+00:00

This paper investigates influ-activism, defined as the intersection of influencer culture and activism, focusing on feminist and inclusive causes. The phenomenon is framed within the broader context of digital activism and platformization, highlighting the mutual influence between influencers and social media ecosystems. Building on existing literature, the study explores how digital platforms facilitate the rapid mobilization of social movements, while also reshaping activist communication and strategies. The research adopts a netnographic approach, analyzing Instagram profiles of ten female influ-activists aged between 25 and 52. These influencers were selected based on their engagement with feminist, LGBTQ+, and social justice topics. A thematic analysis of 151 posts, supported by NVivo software, revealed distinct generational patterns in their narratives and content strategies. The study identifies two main feminist frameworks: third-wave and fourth-wave feminism. Third-wave influ-activists emphasize gender equality through a critical lens on sexist language and imagery, often focusing on external advocacy. Conversely, fourth-wave influ-activists adopt an inclusive and intersectional perspective, promoting themes such as body positivity, gender identity, and self-expression. This wave also demonstrates a higher degree of commercialization, balancing advocacy with branded content. The findings suggest that younger influ-activists leverage innovative, media-integrated formats to engage audiences and foster change from within the media landscape. The study concludes that influ-activism represents a new form of digital activism, balancing authenticity, social commitment, and commercial interests. It highlights the evolving role of influencers as key actors in promoting social change in the digital age.

Che genere di influencers

2024-10-19T15:16:01+00:00

This study aims to explore the implications and potential challenges arising from the (more or less instrumental) use of gender issues by Italian influencers. In particular, we map the pulpiness of the themes emerging from a sample of 30 Italian content creators who base most of their storytelling on feminist claims. The research highlights the trade-off between activism and self-promotion, resulting in the possible dilution of meanings associated with feminism and the trivialisation of social moments. By using a follow-the-medium approach, two digital platforms were selected: Instagram and TikTok. Through a content analysis, this study aims to reflect on the effectiveness and limits of the activism of some influencer in promoting agendas with feminist themes, comparing some case studies. That is, the gender rhetoric adopted by four Italian activists (Giulia Blasi, Irene Facheris, Giorgia Soleri and Federica Fabrizio) were analysed in order to investigate the connections between images of the female body, biopolitics, platform capitalism and neoliberal feminism. The interpretative hypothesis is that there is an inescapable connection between their storytelling and platform capitalism: neoliberal and popular feminism depends on and validates the interests of social media platforms. Consequently, the idea of the influ-activist and feminism arises as a discourse to be performed rather than as a (collective) movement, an issue focused on the individual and her self-branding practices. Practices that are not, however, to be considered purely normative, but nevertheless emphasise forms of empowerment, albeit individual rather than linked to structural dimensions.

Fare femminismo online

2024-07-30T14:42:12+00:00

The emergence of new feminist figures on platforms has recently garnered significant attention, especially because of the increasingly evident overlap between feminist discourses and neoliberal market logics, raising questions about the potential repercussions on the "fourth-wave" of feminist movement. Based on in-depth interviews with Italian Instagram creators who identify as feminists, this study aims to delve into the meanings that “feminist creators” attribute to their online practices, focusing on their positioning within feminist political practice. The research concentrates on the stance of these figures towards online feminist activism to better understand their perception of their role within it, highlighting the complex connections between platforms and cultural production and for collective movements. Results show how the label of "activist" often constitutes a challenging concept to engage with, precisely due to the economy of visibility characterizing platforms such as Instagram. Despite being preliminary findings from an ongoing study, crucial dimensions for future developments in influ-activism research and, more broadly, online activism practices emerge.

Lifestyle politics narratives without full political self-identification

2024-07-30T14:34:32+00:00

This article explores the motivations, beliefs, and self-identification of a qualitative sample of 20 Italian environmental communicators active on Instagram. The analysis of the biographical interviews and the specific focus on the self-categorization of being or not being an activist suggest that we can consider all the sample participants as falling within the category of eco-influ-activists. The majority do not consider themselves “pure” activists, and there are different reasons for this: some narratives can be related to political lifestyle activism, while the “self-identified” science communicators explicitly indicate their need to be recognized as “scientists” and not activists or politicians because they discuss scientific facts and knowledge, and they constantly show the need to be considered as “objective” as possible. The discussion of the results sheds new light on the environmental communicators and their originality based on the following: a) the interpretation of their self-identification as non-activists, and because they debate activists’ and political topics, they can be included in the realm of eco-influ-activism, wherein environmental issues are debated and connected to consumer choices and lifestyles and/or scientific facts, and b) the blurred borders of the private and public spheres and of political and nonpolitical narratives.

Superguerrieri

2024-11-04T09:22:50+00:00

The public representations of disability, the image provided by the media of people with disabilities, are central to determining identity, relationships, and possibilities for social inclusion. An increasingly large part of today's narrative about people with disabilities now takes place through digital platforms where individuals, often caregivers and family members, share their personal experiences and typically use them to propose an image of disability and promote forms of activism and cultural intervention. The research presented here analyzed communication, activities, and methods of activism proposed by a sample of caregiver parents of minors with serious illnesses or disabilities, through the study of their Instagram profiles, between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2022. The general objective was to verify how this category of influ-activism produces both: a) a form of agency suited to the affordances of the platforms and mediatized voice; and b) creates content or information and a precise representation of their condition. The research results confirm that this case study represents a particularly indicative example of the affordances offered by the platforms, confirming the main hypotheses already emerging from the literature on the subject: i) the technical, media, and economic ecosystem built by the platforms is confirmed to favor the emergence of a kind of individualized activism, projects often directed towards a vocation for self-branding for specific and localized projects; and ii) algorithmic selection seems equally influential in expressive choices, the representations offered tend to resemble those present in other media: a neoliberal public commitment emerges, in which “adversity” is not overcome through a change in the social context but through motivation, performance, and individual merit.

Insta-Awareness

2024-11-16T10:47:03+00:00

The paper analyses how activist creators use different strategies to gain attention, engagement and participation on social media. The work is based on 10 interviews with Italian social media activists and the content analysis of 595 posts and reels by the creators themselves. The results show how the creators implement different strategies and levels of adaptation with the logics of the platforms, according to their goal of professionalizing of the digital activism activity. Moreover, the interviewees show that combining the ethical demands of the activist cause with the entertainment logics of the platforms is a laborious task, requiring various mediations and negotiations at the level of practices, identity and values and the support of a network of “off-platform” assets.

Uno sguardo medio-antropo-logico sui media audiovisivi nell’era digitale attuale

2024-12-23T21:29:42+00:00

Questo articolo analizza le trasformazioni nei sistemi audiovisivi degli ultimi due decenni e mezzo attraverso un approccio medio-antropologico. L’analisi ripercorre tre periodi storici: l’era del cinema (anni ’20-’50), il periodo di ibridazione tra televisione e cinema e l’attuale era digitale, concentrandosi sull’evoluzione del concetto di “immaginario” da forme collettive a molecolari. Lo studio individua otto cambiamenti chiave nel panorama digitale ed esplora come le nuove tecnologie abbiano ridefinito sia il consumo dei media sia le relazioni sociali. Conclude proponendo obiettivi di ricerca per comprendere le basi dell’era digitale e il rapporto tra immaginario digitale e teoria sociale.

Con questo saggio dal titolo del Gino Frezza Mediascapes Journal inaugura la nuova sezione MediaScenari dedicata al dibattito, alla costruzione di scenari e all’apertura di prospettive innovative. MediaScenari ospiterà articoli non referati che esplorano idee in evoluzione, riflessioni critiche e visioni interdisciplinari. Questo spazio nasce per promuovere un dialogo libero e creativo, capace di intercettare tendenze emergenti e interrogare i temi chiave del nostro tempo, incoraggiando contributi che sappiano immaginare il futuro, stimolare il confronto e alimentare la ricerca.

Dalla visibilità alla mobilitazione e ritorno

2024-12-24T11:07:15+00:00

Introduzione alla Special Issue “Influ-attivismo: nuove forme di impegno civico tra attivismo digitale e influence culture".