North/South, East/West Mapping Italianness on Television

by Ardizzoni, Michela

• ISBN13: 9780739115756
• ISBN10: 0739115758
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-12-06
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

North/South, East/West analyzes the economic, cultural, and political levels of identity production on contemporary Italian television by focusing particularly on regionalism, gender, ethnicity, and immigration as central to Italian identity politics.

Author Biography

Michela Ardizzoni is visiting assistant professor at the University of Louisville, Departments of Communication and Women's and Gender Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Articulating Identity, Globalization, and Italian Television
Introduction	p. 1
Framing Globalization	p. 3
Defining Globalization	p. 3
The Global Media Debate	p. 5
Media and Identity in the Italian Context	p. 8
Immigration and Ethnicity in Italian Media Studies	p. 10
Feminist Media Criticism: Gender, Gaze, and Multiculturalism	p. 15
Articulating Identity on Italian Television	p. 19
Late Modernity and Identity Politics on Italian Television	p. 20
About this Book	p. 22
Endnotes	p. 24
The Italian Television Industry: Politics, Commercialism, and New Frontiers
Introduction	p. 27
RAI - The Italian Public Service Broadcaster	p. 29
Defining Public Service Television	p. 29
The Creation of Three RAI Channels and Beginning of Lottizzazione	p. 31
Commercialism and Digitization in the 1990s-2000s	p. 35
Mediaset and Italian Private Television	p. 37
Berlusconi at the Intersection of Business, Media, and Politics	p. 40
La7: The Alternative to the Duopoly?	p. 45
Italy's Pay Television: Diversification or Concentration?	p. 46
Conclusion	p. 48
Endnotes	p. 49
Watching Italy Between the Regional and the Global
Introduction	p. 53
The Nation-State Paradigm Shift	p. 54
Cultural Identity and Hybridity in Media Globalization	p. 57
The Global, the Local and National Identity	p. 61
Signifying Italianness in Contemporary Television	p. 64
Catholicism, Religiosity, and Lay Identity	p. 65
Singing Italianness	p. 69
A Complex Reality: Regionalism and Identity on Television	p. 72
'Everybody Loves Soccer': Popularizing the National Sport	p. 77
Conclusion: Between the Regional and the National	p. 80
Endnotes	p. 82
Through the Ethnic Lens: National Identity on Television
Introduction	p. 85
Re-Conceptualizing Race and Ethnicity	p. 89
From Emigration to Immigration: Overview of a Geographic and Ideological Shift	p. 91
Analysis of Italian Television Programs	p. 96
General-Interest Television	p. 97
"Nonsolonero"	p. 101
"Un mondo a colori"	p. 103
"Shukran"	p. 106
RAI Med	p. 108
Conclusion	p. 109
Endnotes	p. 111
Engendering the Nation: Women and Identity on National Television
Introduction	p. 113
Women's Studies in Italy	p. 115
The Feminine Body on Italian Television	p. 120
Embodying Discourse	p. 130
Embodying Otherness: Foreigners, Immigrants, and Feminine Identity	p. 137
Conclusion	p. 140
Endnotes	p. 141
The Cultural Politics of Italian Television: Some Conclusions
Introduction	p. 145
The Public and the Private: Sharing the Same Mold?	p. 146
Testing the Nation-State: Articulations of Identity on Television	p. 148
Media Globalization between Embracement and Containment	p. 151
Modernity on Television	p. 154
In the Future...	p. 156
Bibliography	p. 159
List of Programs	p. 171
Index	p. 175
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