Preface

On 25-26 November 2016, within the framework of the celebrations for its ninety years of activity, ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) held a conference in Rome entitled “Italian Society and the Great Economic Crises 1929-2016”. For the occasion, some experts in the human sciences (from sociology to statistics, economics and social psychology) were asked to organize panels with the most accredited scholars. In particular, the two authors of this preface were asked to organize a panel titled “Media and Italian Society. After the panel, we proposed to our colleagues that the outcome of that debate should be published in a special issue of Comunicazioni sociali, and we considered it appropriate to extend the invitation to another colleague, who in a parallel panel had examined the creative industry of fashion with a similar attention.