A war that comes from afar
In early February 2022, Vladimir Putin's Russia, in a slow process of rapprochement, first recognized two Ukrainian territories home to independent Russian-speaking minorities and then invaded Ukrainian territory, militarily attacking the capital, Kiev, and numerous smaller towns. After several days in which the Russian army was outmatched by the numerically inferior Ukrainian army, the military dispute shifted to the regions declared independent by the Soviet leader, demonstrating to the world the inhuman ferocity that conflict can generate.
Since 1988, the territory we now know as Ukraine has been plagued by constant clashes, reorganizations, liberations, and restorations. A contested territory rich in raw materials, an inescapable part of the modern world's breadbasket, Ukraine has become the scene of a complex dispute with distant and profound origins, causing Europe and the former Soviet bloc countries to experience an unpleasant déjà vu, projecting them back to before November 1989, when the Berlin Wall had not yet fallen and Mother Russia dominated Eastern Europe. Even Fukuyama himself now admits that "The End of History" is still a valid text, but history is not over.
Communicating War: The Arenas of Discussion
When we ask ourselves how war is communicated on TV today, we cannot ignore the wide range of media that surround us and continuously inundate us with information.
As Luciano Floridi , Professor Emeritus of Oxford University, recounts in his essays , today individuals experience two relational realities: one in the real world, made up of physical relationships in a very specific proxemic space, offline, and one in the virtual world of the internet, made up of digital relationships in a re-spatialized and infinite proxemic space, online . Today, the boundaries between these two realities are very blurred, and the two relational spaces intertwine in a new, complex space that Floridi renames On Life.
But not everyone has the opportunity to access the internet and experience this new communicative reality. As numerous authors (including Manuel Castells) point out in their texts, we are witnessing the inequality of access to information known as the Digital Divide . The difficulties of accessing the internet are compounded by the difficulty of processing the information that the internet constantly delivers 24/24 through our devices. Other social inequalities, other difficulties in digesting and processing information.
Communicating War: The Role of TV Today
Today, television still represents the medium recognized for its ability to be a simple means, within everyone's cognitive reach, to tell a cross-section of reality that is not far from our lived world.
When audiovisual content was consumed exclusively on television , the Auditel 2022 Annual Report tells us , the world of audience measurement was simple. Today, the 45 million television sets in Italian homes have been joined by approximately 75 million new connected screens. And consumption has moved from family-based to individual, from indoor to mobile, from linear to on-demand, thanks to approximately 60 different types of devices through which audiovisual content can be accessed.
Television offers stories that are consumed by an audience that, thanks to the advent of the internet and the subsequent emergence of social media platforms, can openly express themselves on every topic the small screen conveys in the comfort of their living rooms.
Public television and large private broadcasters offer programs that, from various angles, chronicle the Ukrainian conflict. The war story is currently receiving ample coverage in newspapers, and the internet is bursting with live images from the battlefield. We are faced with many intertwined stories, each supporting the other's narrative.
The context of the investigation
The exploratory and descriptive research was conducted between April and May 2022 as part of the Communication Theories and Techniques course (Prof. Mirella Paolillo) of the three-year degree program in Digital Cultures and Communication at the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II, developing a reflection on the narrative of war through television.
Prime-time political talk shows are the best places to observe to try to understand how TV informs us and allows us to experience live the war currently raging in the territories on the eastern border of Europe.
Cartabianca , a political programme hosted by Bianca Berlinguer and broadcast on Tuesdays in prime time on Rai3, PiazzaPulita , a political programme with a strong critical slant hosted by Corrado Formigli which airs on La7 on Thursdays in the same time slot, and Dritto e Rovescio , an in-depth political programme hosted by Paolo Del Debbio which airs on Rete 4 on Thursdays in competition with PiazzaPulita, represent the three media arenas covered by the investigation.
The media representation of war in television media products
Three programs, one story. One way to tell the story that's worrying the people of Europe and the world. A very similar storytelling style, revealing a strong agenda, images that touch the soul, that stir emotions, two dominant themes. This, in short, is what emerges from an initial look at the content of the three talk shows.
What drives such diverse television networks to tell the story of the conflict in the same way? Is there perhaps a higher will behind the scenes orchestrating the communication of the conflict to convey a snapshot of reality that the public must assimilate?
These questions bring to mind George Gerbner's studies on cultivation theory. Gerbner argued that regular television viewers were more likely to develop points of view that reflected those conveyed by the media. Is this the goal of television's media agenda of storytelling?
The three broadcasts feature an unusually consistent panel of commentators. Indeed, pandemic aside, it's rare to see the same people on so many shows at the same time. Two major questions inform the studio discussions: has Europe deployed all its diplomatic power to stop the conflict? Can arming the Ukrainian resistance really lead to a ceasefire?
Communicating War: A Voice Out of the Chorus
A dissenting voice dominates the debate in all television arenas: that of Professor Alessandro Orsini , director of the Observatory on International Security at the Luiss University of Rome, where he teaches Sociology of Terrorism at the Department of Political Science.
Orsini represents a lone voice criticizing the European Union's diplomatic shortcomings and NATO countries' inappropriate decisions to arm the Ukrainian resistance. The hosts' modus operandi is consistent: they portray an arena where everyone is aligned against the professor, who has been widely denigrated by print editorialists. But the professor is not alone, even if the television narrative doesn't highlight this. An active audience is unleashed online, fearlessly escaping the Spiral of Silence, even engaging in verbal violence against his media opponents.
More information does not equal an informed public
Today, humanity lives immersed in a whirlwind of information that's difficult for even the most educated minds to manage. The flow of information we draw upon for information is vast, continuous, and full of unexpected twists and turns. Often, having access to a wealth of information doesn't mean being more informed. A high cultural level, economic resources, and the ability to consume acquired information are the minimum requirements for forming one's own opinion on the issues facing our era.
What is the state of Italian journalism today?
The challenges facing information today continue to involve honesty and truthfulness. Journalism today is suffering from the market forces that regulate content disseminated online, losing sight of its role as a watchdog of the changes that political and economic choices bring to society.
Interest in what's happening on the local and global political scene is a sign of engagement and participation (including emotional and psychological) in public life. The role played by information sources, which have changed significantly over time, is crucial . This is what the latest Istat 2020 Report on the participation in political life of Italians aged 14 and over tells us .
What is the state of public opinion?
Political participation occurs primarily indirectly, through information or discussion (74,8%), and rarely actively (8,0%). Between 2014 and 2019, the share of people aged 14 and over who do not participate in political life increased from 18,9% to 23,2%. Television is the dominant media, used by 89,2% of those who engage in political information. It is followed at a distance by newspapers (33,3%), radio (32,1%), weekly magazines (7,5%), and non-weekly magazines (3,0%). However, people also obtain information through more informal channels, such as discussions and exchanges with friends, relatives, co-workers, and acquaintances. In 2019, 15.8 million people aged 14 and over obtained information about politics online. Use of the internet as a channel for political information increases with educational attainment.
This 2020 Istat Report is echoed by research by the Youth Territorial Observatory of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Naples Federico II: " Young People in the Infosphere" (Caputo and Paolillo, Franco Angeli 2022). This study, though local in scope, is more recent than the Istat report and also takes into account the fundamental transformations in the participatory practices of younger generations in the public sphere in light of the pandemic events that have affected the world. According to this survey, the construction of public opinion and the resulting participation in political life by younger generations occurs through a mix of traditional and new-generation media channels linked to the internet. For many of them, television remains the easiest way to stay informed, followed by social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Authors: Massimo Fedele, Simone Buglione, Anna Ciuccio, Giulio Martucci, Sara Liscio and Roberta Maglione
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