Sky-rocketing infections, but information “keeps calm”. Eurispes – CoRiS Sapienza TV News Observatory
More than 200,000 cases but prime time remain confident
The TV News from 3 to 7 January – The year 2022 opens with editions largely absorbed (28 openings) by the dramatic increase in the number of infections, which during the week have reached more than 200,000 cases per day. Although the increasingly critical scenario, prime time does not abandon the confident approach which characterised last December’s coverage, confirming a satisfying reading of the Government’s action in the reports, despite the presence of some divergent voices among politicians. Thursday’s new measures, with compulsory vaccination for people over 50, were also welcomed without particular criticism, even though the 8 p.m. TV News reported the divisive reactions that followed the launch of the new anti-Covid policy. The Tg5 news on Friday highlighted Beppe Grillo’s Orwellian metaphors but in a critical key.
School, brutal confrontation Government-Regions
On the school front, the most significant divisions emerge (21 references in the headlines), with services that follow the confrontation between Minister Patrizio Bianchi and some regional governors (Vincenzo De Luca in the first place) who are willing to postpone the reopening. No vax: tennis player Djokovic’s “embarrassment” Criticism towards the no vax movement, which is at the centre of Mediaset headlines and services for its dangerous and self-destructive behaviour, remains strong. In addition, on this topic, there has been the story of Djokovic since Tuesday. The world’s number one tennis player, as a non-vaccinated person, had obtained an exemption to participate in the Australian championship but was then stuck at the airport because of his irregular condition. There were nine references in the headlines, with Enrico Mentana. He remarked on Tuesday how serious this grant sounded, especially in a country like Australia that had been in lockdown for almost a year.
Quirinale, the countdown to 24 January. Tg4 denounces the ” Ilva’s snatching “
Currently, there is little space for the Quirinale race, which collects only six headlines over the week. Tg4 remains the TV News that follows the debate between the political forces with the greatest excitement, reporting a left split on the names – and therefore inclined to an encore of Sergio Mattarella – and a centre-right united around the name of Silvio Berlusconi; the other TV News focus on the logic of the voting operations, which will begin on 24 January.
There is ample space across the board for politicians’ interventions concerning economic issues. The week’s reports show the European proposal to reinvest in nuclear energy features but do not produce any particular developments. There was also in-depth coverage of unemployment, with various headlines and reports. The opening of Tuesday’s Tg4 was powerful, with an alarming denunciation of the diversion of half of the funds (575 million) for the reclamation of the Ilva area of Taranto, destined instead for the construction of new environmentally friendly plants (news not taken up by other newspapers).
The shadow of the USSR on Kazakhstan
The protests in Kazakhstan, born of increases in energy costs and resulted in an open revolt with thousands of arrests and the entry into the field of troops of Russia and China, are the focus of most of the foreign affairs section, with 12 mentions in the headlines and in-depth analysis for Tg La7. Chronicle occupies the second part of the editions, with Tg5 (Tuesday) with two extremely dramatic episodes of parents killing their children. Space for Tg2 to remember the Costa Concordia disaster.
Migrants, the “numbers” and the “stories”
The year that has just begun opens with two distinct approaches to the migratory phenomenon. On the one hand, Tg4, which reports the numbers for 2021 (67,000 arrivals), speaks of an “immigration emergency” and compares them with concern to those five times lower in 2019, when “Matteo Salvini was at the Viminale”. On the other hand, RAI TV News and Tg5 dedicated a report to the story of the Afghan mother on Tuesday. To keep her children warm, she ended up freezing to death on the Iraq-Turkey border: one of the more than 120,000 people rejected over the last year.