Eurispes – CoRiS Sapienza Television News Observatory. As contagions (and ratings) rise, tension in the news increases
Prime time returns to “bulletins” of contagions. Tg4 the most “critical” of the government. Tg2 defends the right to school. Transversal mourns for Jole Santelli. TgLa7 “is outraged” by the labor exploitation of riders.
News from October 12 to 16 – The staggering increase in infections imposes the pandemic as the dominant theme. Obligatory openings for all except Tg4, which – as last week – often devotes its front page to the economic crisis and fiscal issues.
In illustrating policy measures in a progressively worsening situation, heated exchanges between the government and the regions are documented without particular emphasis or stance. Only Tg4 expresses openly negative judgments, both on the management of the epidemic and on the economic side, and conveys them through the commentary of numerous guests. These include Uil secretary Pierpaolo Bombardieri, heard on Friday. More cautious judgments come from Tg5 and Studio Aperto, which take up in their reports the other problem fronts such as the doctors’ and law enforcement officers’ protests. On Friday, the Mediaset flagship relaunches a message from Guido Bertolaso, who suggests some strategies for the government to “better manage” both the school and the increase in cases in intensive care. Meloni’s and Salvini’s alarmed statements find the most space on Tg2, which, also on Friday, comes out strongly against any strategy involving school closures, giving voice to the mother of a disabled child.
With the surge in new positives, which already reached peaks as early as Wednesday that had never been recorded even in the spring months, tension also rises in the headlines, with Tg3 and Tg5 repeatedly resorting to words such as “fear” or “nightmare”. Also on Friday, Mimun’s Tg3 picks up a commentary by psychiatrist Vittorino Andreoli, who puts at the center of his remarks precisely the dimension of “helplessness” into which our lives seem to have descended. So much concern is also reflected in a further increase in prime time ratings, which, compared to last week, gains half a million viewers, reaching an average audience of 18 million.
The passing, at age 51, of Jole Saltelli, president of the Calabria Region and the first woman to govern a region in southern Italy, is Thursday in the headlines for all, with much space in the reports for a farewell from the political world. Opening for Tg4. Mentana recalls her strength in facing illness and the respect Santelli had earned even from her opponents.
Epidemic also dominates foreign affairs with curfews in France and UK. Di Maio uber alles on Tg1. Libya, “responsible silence” on situation of detained sailors.
Headlines and features devoted to the lockdown measures implemented first in the UK, then in Macron’s France. The US presidential elections get, however, 5 headlines and are the subject of good coverage for all. Both Tg2 and Tg5 describe a Trump “unleashed” and ready to take back his electorate through a massive campaign on social media, despite the fact that the polls give Biden a clear lead.
Relations with Russia and the war in Armenia feature in the Rai news reports, and on Wednesday they are addressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, filmed by Tg1 in relation to his visit to Russia; on Thursday, the former M5S leader is interviewed again by Tg1, this time on the impact of the contagion at European level and on the feared delays in obtaining the recovery fund. The minister also addressed the affair of the fishing boats seized by Haftar – repeated on several occasions, including by the Mediaset news – speaking of the need for “responsible silence”, but giving reassurances on the conditions of the sailors detained in Libya.
Restricted spaces to the news. Uber case, Mentana’s outrage.
The focus on the contagious leaves little space for the news, and contains that morbid attention that would otherwise charge the new chapters of some “historical” cases. For this reason too, the life sentence on appeal to Innocent Oseghale for the murder of Pamela Mastropietro, on Friday, is in the headlines only for Tg5, and in a long report for Tg2. Another very relevant sentence, that of Montepaschi condemning former top management Viola and Profumo, is only covered, on Thursday, by Tg La7.
On Monday, services for all and a headline for Tg1 dedicated to the closure of the investigation on Uber Italia and to the accusations of caporalato (forced labour) brought against the top management for the repeated abuses inflicted on its riders, mostly migrants. An affair which, at the end of the service, Mentana prefers not to comment on, expressing his indignation. On Tuesday, Tg3 offers a good report on the activities of a mobile clinic that for years has been taking care of the health of migrants and seasonal workers in Borgo Mezzanone, in Puglia. Studio Aperto also “deals” with migrants, but it does so on Thursday by reporting in the headlines the closure of a drug bazaar run in Monza by “asylum seekers”, detailing in the report which nationality corresponded to the dealing of the various substances.
