Media Criticism

I am starting a series this week about issues in foreign media that departs drastically from my regular dispatches on the 2008 election. The first part of this series is connected to a recent article in Monocle that discussed RAI in Italy. RAI is a state-owned television network that has been symbolic of questionable integrity and favoritism in Italian media.

Monocle highlighted an exception to RAI’s problematic reportage in the form of reporter Milena Gabanelli. Gabanelli has been working for the last ten years to expose corruption in Italy’s cornerstone industries including fashion and fine dining. The article was succinct but delved into the careerist nature of Italian journalism that makes Gabanelli’s work exceptional.

Gabanelli is only one reporter, however, and Italy is only one nation where the lines blur frequently between truth, opinion and entertainment. Professor Matteo Scanni of Catholic University of Milan states in the Monocle that “…the media is not so much a watchdog as a lapdog�? in Italy. Former prime minister and current candidate for prime minister Silvio Burlesconi owns media outlet Mediaset which embarrasses honest journalists in southern Europe on a daily basis. The fact that Burlesconi has shifted in and out of national politics while holding on tight to his grasp of Italian media demonstrates how bad it can get in terms of media objectivity. Burlesconi has also tried to use political power to thwart RAI and other competitors to Mediaset in a consolidation effort that would cause Bill Gates to blanch.

There are an awful lot of jokes made about Italian politics and media on the world scene. The Onion made a joke about the constant shift of power in the Italian government in one of the spoof paper’s classic “funny but true�? moments. We should not be so quick to jump on Italy for allowing private media outlets like Mediaset and state-run outlets like RAI to rule the day. Our country has a terrible record in terms of media objectivity because we share something with Italian media consumers: we prefer the sound of the sizzle rather than the cause of the sizzle. We need Milena Gabanellis in our journalism school ranks to step up and buck the trend of “me toos�? in the media.