The merging of political sphere, popular culture and media narrations is one of the most interesting features of today’s political communication on a global scale. In recent years, especially in most Western democracies, political reality has been represented and depicted by the media following primarily the commercial imperatives dictated by the “media logic” (Altheide & Snow, 1979). The “mediatization of politics (Mazzoleni & Schulz, 1999) finds its full manifestation in the sweeping process of the popularization of political discourse. The mutual adaptation between television – with its drives for entertainment, spectacle and audience ratings – and politics striving for public attention has generated the “pop politics”: a media-centered environment spawned from the collapse of TV genres and traditional social costumes, in which politics and popular culture, information and entertainment, comedy and drama, real and surreal precipitate into a new expressive blend. By a careful contextualization of the Italian case of political television in the Berlusconi era in the relevant academic literature on popularization of politics, the book, written by a leading scholar of political communication together with an experienced connoisseur of media languages, describes and investigates the drift of Italian politics to “pop politics”. On the one hand it analyses the political determinants of the phenomenon and the main players (the media tycoon and political leader Silvio Berlusconi as the pivotal figure), on the other it explores the media-driven dynamics, such as the advent of the TV “formats”, the rise of the infotainment, and the television of intimacy. It addresses the question whether and to what extent this type of political communication affects the civic culture and political participation.

Quando la televisione ha scoperto che la politica può fare audience, e i politici hanno capito di poter raggiungere il vasto pubblico adattandosi alle logiche dello spettacolo, è nata la politica pop: un «ambiente mediale» scaturito dal collasso di generi televisivi e costumi sociali invecchiati, in cui politica e cultura popolare, informazione e intrattenimento, comico e serio, reale e surreale si fondono in una nuova miscela espressiva. Per molti è una pericolosa deviazione dal compito «alto» della formazione di un’opinione pubblica avveduta. Intanto, però, quell’enorme frullatore di realtà e finzione che è la Tv ha scodellato una sorta di turbo-politica. Né mancano autorevoli studiosi secondo cui l’infotainment offre un’informazione minima, ma sufficiente a una «cittadinanza sottile». Dovremo allora rivalutare il «Grande Fratello», paradossale scialuppa di civismo, attraverso il televoto, per cittadini altrimenti destinati all’emarginazione? Bisognerà in ogni caso considerare con occhi nuovi, come fa questo libro, «Annozero» e «Ballarò», «Che tempo che fa» e «Domenica in», «Le iene» e «Porta a porta», «Striscia la notizia» e «Matrix».

Mazzoleni, G., Sfardini, A., Politica pop. Da 'Porta a porta' a 'L'isola dei famosi', Il Mulino, Bologna 2009: 177 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/28114]

Politica pop. Da 'Porta a porta' a 'L'isola dei famosi'

Sfardini, Anna
2009

Abstract

The merging of political sphere, popular culture and media narrations is one of the most interesting features of today’s political communication on a global scale. In recent years, especially in most Western democracies, political reality has been represented and depicted by the media following primarily the commercial imperatives dictated by the “media logic” (Altheide & Snow, 1979). The “mediatization of politics (Mazzoleni & Schulz, 1999) finds its full manifestation in the sweeping process of the popularization of political discourse. The mutual adaptation between television – with its drives for entertainment, spectacle and audience ratings – and politics striving for public attention has generated the “pop politics”: a media-centered environment spawned from the collapse of TV genres and traditional social costumes, in which politics and popular culture, information and entertainment, comedy and drama, real and surreal precipitate into a new expressive blend. By a careful contextualization of the Italian case of political television in the Berlusconi era in the relevant academic literature on popularization of politics, the book, written by a leading scholar of political communication together with an experienced connoisseur of media languages, describes and investigates the drift of Italian politics to “pop politics”. On the one hand it analyses the political determinants of the phenomenon and the main players (the media tycoon and political leader Silvio Berlusconi as the pivotal figure), on the other it explores the media-driven dynamics, such as the advent of the TV “formats”, the rise of the infotainment, and the television of intimacy. It addresses the question whether and to what extent this type of political communication affects the civic culture and political participation.
2009
Italiano
Monografia o trattato scientifico
Il Mulino
Mazzoleni, G., Sfardini, A., Politica pop. Da 'Porta a porta' a 'L'isola dei famosi', Il Mulino, Bologna 2009: 177 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/28114]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10807/28114
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