Abstract
The concept of political parallelism identifies the different forms in which the media and politics can interact. However, media partisanship has always been almost exclusively limited to news media. This study shows that the Italian media system is at the center of a significant change, in regard to the way in which mass media political parallelism works and develops. Due to structural reasons, Italy’s political parallelism crosses the threshold of the news media and seems to fully apply to popular media as well. The politicization of popular media has been investigated through a content analysis of the Berlusconi-owned Chi (the most read magazine in Italy with 3.5 million readers on average). By proposing four models of coverage, the authors will show that the coverage strategies put in place by Chi convey the extent to which the covered subjects are politically and personally close to the undisputed leader, Berlusconi.
Theoretical framework
Today’s advanced democracies are experiencing a continual increase in the importance of the media in shaping and influencing the balance of power among political and institutional actors. Political leaders themselves are increasingly acknowledging the necessity of mastering the media if they want to become successful leaders. However, mastering the media does not necessarily mean making use of it for one’s personal advantage. The media works differently. As Mazzoleni and Schulz (1999) have rightly noted, while it is true that politicians have grown accustomed to approaching the media in a professional way, it is also true that they have become more dependent on it.
Nevertheless, another caveat is worth pointing out. On the one hand, the media does not easily let external agents master it. On the other hand, once the media has become a key player in the political game, content production and dissemination are likely to be governed, or at least influenced, by politics. One element through which one can understand the influence of politics on the media is the extent to which politics and the media overlap (Strömbäck, 2008). Colin Seymour-Ure (1974) was the first to label the different forms of interaction between politics and the media, and the term he used is particularly cogent: political parallelism.
This article examines the case of Italy – a high-political parallelism media system (Hallin and Mancini, 2004). The Italian media is characterized by its marked and long-running tendency to overlap with politics and act according to ideological and party affiliation. Another example is represented by the party press (Giugliano and Lloyd, 2013). The party press has a strong presence in the Mediterranean countries, which are characterized by a polarized-pluralist media system (Hallin and Mancini, 2004). The collapse of the 19th-century’s ideologies in recent decades, however, has rendered the party press increasingly impotent in influencing the national political debate. Indeed, party press outlets have been gradually usurped by other printed outlets, which are not always directly owned or managed by political parties, but which are nonetheless characterized by marked political biases. This is the case for il Giornale and la Repubblica. These cases testify to how strongly rooted the marriage between media and politics is in the Italian society. In Italy, political parallelism always finds a way to express itself, despite the fact that the secular ideological pillars have fallen under the pressure of modernization.
The argument made in this study is that – due to the mass media’s long-running political involvement and the anomaly embodied in Berlusconi’s conflicts of interest – media partisanship has spread beyond its ordinary boundaries in Italy. As previously mentioned, Seymour-Ure was the first researcher to conceptualize party-press parallelism. Later, other scholars interestingly noted that political and media systems can interact in different ways. In fact, mass media political parallelism can be created by diversified political actors, such as political parties, the government, or parliament, through the actions they take toward the media (Ciaglia, 2013; Humphreys, 1996; Mancini, 2012). Additionally, political parallelism is not a dichotomous phenomenon. Consequently, there can be different degrees of media partisanship, depending on the amount of pressure exerted by the political hand on the media (Blumler and Gurevitch, 1995). However, irrespective of both the degree of contiguousness between the two systems and the nature of the political actor primarily involved in this process, political parallelism has always been conceived of as a phenomenon that exclusively applies to the news media. We argue that in Italy because of the exceptional circumstances that characterize this country’s media system, this phenomenon has crossed the boundaries of news media and spread to entertainment media.
Before clarifying this point, however, it must be acknowledged that numerous studies (Baum, 2005; Delli Carpini and Williams, 2001; Jones, 2005; Riegert, 2007; Van Zoonen, 2005; Zaller, 2003) show that within Western democracies, politicians tend to regularly appear in media outlets that are primarily aimed at entertaining the public. These outlets are permeated by celebrity gossip (Pedote, 2013), which many times is directed toward politicians’ private lives. Thus, politicians’ private lives increasingly gain the interest of the public (Corner and Pels, 2003). Political leaders cannot escape the media’s attempts to intrude into their private spheres because the entertainment culture has now become one of the principal tools through which to understand and decrypt social life in general terms (Dahlgren, 2000; Postman 1985; Van Zoonen, 2005). Gossip about politicians’ families, vacations, and how they spend their spare time circulate ever more frequently in the media, in most cases without the politicians’ consent. Such gossip has become a key ingredient in building the media visibility a politician needs (Stanyer, 2012). Consequently, political leaders are now called on to pay equal attention to their (pseudo) private persona as they are to their political work (Langer, 2010). However, successfully managing one’s private persona is difficult. In fact, politicians are likely to fall into many traps set by the media, which may want to circulate information that can be damaging to a politician’s reputation. The leaders are nearly never capable of controlling such a process, which under certain circumstances can profoundly undermine their political careers (Allern and Pollack, 2012; Downey and Stanyer, 2013; Thompson, 2000).
The phenomenon that has been described in this article is developed through a process of celebritization of the politician, by which the media increasingly covers politicians in the same way it covers celebrities (Indiana, 2005; Mazzoni and Ciaglia, 2013; West and Orman, 2003). As various studies suggest (Marshall, 1997; Rojek, 2001; Turner, 2004), having celebrity status allows politicians to take advantage of new forms of social legitimization.
Research question and methodology
This article provides a theoretical interpretation, through data-based evidence, of how the boundaries of the Italian mass media’s political partisanship are being reshaped. This study examines the following question:
In the Italian scenario, how does political parallelism cross the threshold of the news media and spread to entertainment and popular media?
As mentioned previously, political parallelism normally applies to the news media. This study shows that in Italy, due to both the long-time partisan tendency shown by the press and to the Berlusconi anomaly, political partisanship can also affect the media outlets that would normally be very far from political actors and debates. This is the main reason behind the choice to analyze the magazine Chi only. Chi is the most read weekly magazine in Italy (3.5 million average readers per week) and is owned by the Mondadori Group, a company led by Marina Berlusconi, Silvio’s older daughter. As data from Audipresse show, Chi’s readership is very similar to that of another gossip magazine owned by the Mondadori Group: France’s Closer. This readership is mostly composed of older people with a low degree of education who live in the less developed areas of Italy. In short, Chi’s primary target is represented by people who are typically not interested in political affairs. We are aware that by only studying Chi, our findings are neither generalizable nor applicable to the Italian entertainment media. However, our objective is not to identify a systemic phenomenon. On the contrary, we aim to emphasize an exceptionalism generated by what are likely to be unique circumstances, such as the combination of a consolidated tradition of media partisanship with the Berlusconi anomaly. The choice of Chi, therefore, is consistent with our aim of understanding what these two tendencies can produce.
Furthermore, we enlighten the dual role played by Chi. We argue that, due to the high number of readers it reaches every week, Chi is the primary arena for self-promotion for those politicians who make their private lives more public. In this sense, Chi’s role does not deviate from that of other entertainment media. However, Chi is also and most remarkably a war machine, the real political armed branch of the Berlusconi galaxy. And this branch is led by managing editor Alfonso Signorini, one of the most important figures operating in Berlusconi’s TV network, Mediaset. In fact, in addition to being Chi’s managing editor, Alfonso Signorini is one of the most powerful figures within Berlusconi’s group, Mediaset. He has been for many years one of the hosts of Verissimo and the Italian Big Brother (broadcast on Mediaset’s Canale 5) for 7 years, and the leading host of Kalispéra, one of the most successful shows on Mediaset’s Canale 5. Furthermore, it should be noted that since 2006, the leading host of Verissimo has been Silvia Toffanin, partner of Berlusconi’s older son, Piersilvio, who is Mediaset’s vice-president. This aspect further highlights the very strong ties that link the Berlusconi family, the Mediaset group, and Mondadori’s Chi.
Although Signorini is commonly defined as ‘the prince of gossip’, he is a direct expression of the political parallelism of Berlusconi’s Italy. This was confirmed by Massimiliano Panarari (2009), who said,
Alfonso Signorini is Berlusconi’s Minister for Political Propaganda […]. The weekly led by Signorini has strongly contributed to build Berlusconi’s image, which successfully combines glam and pop. Signorini is fully convinced that even in the pale and disoriented today’s liberal post-democracies, fairy tales continue to pay off. (p. 673)
The analysis period is 1 September 2012 to 28 February 2013, which corresponds to the 6 months prior to the general elections held on 24 and 25 February 2013. This period was chosen to cover two crucial events in Italian politics: the Partito Democratico (PD) primary elections held on 25 November 2012 and the aforementioned general elections. The electoral campaign is, by definition, the period in which political parties claim their territories, accentuate their differences, and polarize the debate. It is the democratic moment in which it can be expected that political partisanship will find complete expression, within both the political and media systems. We develop the research in two phases. In the first phase, we carried out a content analysis that is exclusively aimed at understanding Chi’s ‘quantity of coverage’ of various political and politically relevant actors. With the expression ‘politically relevant actor’, we identify journalists and other personalities who have political significance even without being formally affiliated with any parties. Most importantly, due to the type of medium that will be examined, politicians’ partners, relatives, and lovers have also been included. Indeed, in most cases, they are the personalities who carry the real political messages. For each article, the central actor was identified. Furthermore, the space occupied by each article was noted and finally added up per each actor. This procedure allowed us to draw a rank on the basis of the quantity of coverage received by each political and politically relevant personality. Intercoder reliability was assessed by having two coders analyze 60 randomly selected reports and calculating Cohen’s k (.91), a value that, according to Fleiss (1981), can be considered excellent.
In the second phase, four models of coverage will be proposed. To do that, two specific categories of analysis were adopted. The first one is typically referred to as a very important variable in media and journalism studies. This is the tone of coverage toward the covered actors, which can generally be positive, neutral, and negative (De Vreese et al., 2006). Due to the high degree of media and political polarization that characterizes the country, Italy, on which this article is exclusively focused, and due to the limited number of articles that were selected for analysis, we deemed that a dichotomous approach would be more appropriate. Coverage was therefore classified as either ‘mostly positive’ or ‘mostly negative’. The second variable that was considered is political placement of the covered actors. Given the acknowledged high degree of parallelism between media and politics that sets Italy apart from many Western countries, this variable gains here a completely peculiar significance and is therefore particularly worth examining. In fact, as will be shown, politicians are not the only actors who can be classified according to their political or party placement. In Italy, political polarization spreads to other categories composing the country’s society, such as journalists, TV hosts, and even relatives. This is one of the reasons why even gossip magazines can acquire in Italy political significance. As said, on the basis of these two categories of analysis, four models of coverage have been identified and explained (see Figure 1 below). To do so, the six longest reportages have been selected and then textually and visually analyzed. We decided to rely on the variable of article length because it is particularly rare for politicians to appear on multiple-page reportages in gossip magazines. The fact that we came across a wide number of long articles testifies to the increasing relevance that politicians are gaining in Italy’s entertainment media. Furthermore, the articles that were selected are very much representative of the different coverage styles adopted by the magazine depending on the identity of the covered actor and its anthropological closeness to Berlusconi. In doing this, we have closely followed Ralph Negrine (1994), who argues that mass media partisanship is widely dependent on the extent to which political actors are actually allowed to intervene in the process of content creation. Most importantly, political parallelism is equally strongly reflected in the ‘content’ of the news and in the different ways in which different political actors can be depicted and ‘communicated’ to the public.
Four models of coverage of political and politically relevant actors adopted by Chi between 1 September 2012 and 28 February 2013.
Empirical findings
The role of Chi as an arena for politicians’ self-promotion
Popular media today are completely and legitimately included among the communicative resources that modern politicians are required to master to render themselves fully functioning public as well as private figures. As mentioned in the previous section, politicians see many opportunities in this process. While they can continue to promote and advocate their political proposals through traditional channels, they can also advertise and promote their (pseudo-) private virtues through alternative media. However, this new scenario involves a number of risks as well. In fact, a higher attention from the media over public personalities’ private lives makes the latter more vulnerable, especially when they have secrets that they would rather not to publicize. Unveiling these secrets and making them of public knowledge is one of gossip magazines’ core raison d’êtres. The weapon that these magazines normally make use of to denigrate politicians and other public figures is that of scandal (Entman, 2012). In this respect, a leading role is played by Chi in Italy. Due to its high rate of penetration, Chi is the primary magazine in which any politician needs to appear once they decide to play the game. Many political and institutional actors are now extremely keen to play by these rules.
As such, it is prudent to examine the 20 most covered political or politically relevant actors that Chi covered during the 6 months preceding the elections.
Berlusconi was the most covered actor in Chi between 1 September 2012 and 28 February 2013. Such evidence is not surprising. Chi is the Berlusconi family magazine, and the head of family comes before everything else. With 26.5 pages, Berlusconi receives nearly three times as much coverage as the then-premier, Mario Monti (9). Monti’s coverage was less predictable. Being a notoriously reserved and shy person, Monti is only second to Berlusconi in terms of newsworthiness for the leading Italian ‘soft magazine’. In attempting to advance an early interpretation, it could be said that, on the one hand, Mario Monti tries to soften and humanize his persona by opening himself to media outlets drastically different from those he is accustomed to.
For the family magazine, however, Berlusconi’s family is considered highly newsworthy. In Table 1, we find Barbara Berlusconi, Silvio’s second daughter (16.5 pages) and Veronica Lario, Silvio’s ex-wife (15.5 pages). Furthermore, it is interesting to note that among the 20 most covered actors in Chi, female politicians strongly prevail. Among these figures are Nicole Minetti (Il Popolo della Libertà, PDL), former councilor to Lombardy and part of the Ruby scandal (31.5 pages); Mara Carfagna (PDL), former Minister for Equal Opportunities (8.5 pages); Romana Liuzzo, member of PDL (5); Nunzia De Girolamo (PDL), currently Minister for Agriculture (4.5); and Renata Polverini (PDL) with 4.5 pages.
The 20 most covered political or politically relevant actors in Chi between 1 September 2012 and 28 February 2013.
IDV: Italia dei Valori party; MP: member of Parliament; NCD: Nuovo Centrodestra party; PDL: Il Popolo della Libertà; SEL: Sinistra Ecologia Libertà party.
Chi also makes room for some of il Cavaliere’s enemies. As we will see, however, the degree of enmity varies depending on the enemy. In fact, Chi covers some of Berlusconi’s sworn enemies, such as the journalist Michele Santoro (7), one of his long-time arch-enemies, and the Italia dei Valori’s (IDV) leader and former prosecutor, Antonio Di Pietro (5 pages). In the following pages, it will be interesting to show the nature of Chi’s coverage of personalities such as Santoro.
Other types of opponents appear on Chi as well. In this case, however, they are simple political opponents (and not enemies), who are only opponents because they belong to other political parties. Berlusconi does not feel as anthropologically distant from them as he does from his sworn enemies. Within the category of simple opponents figure personalities such as the mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi (23), Mario Monti (9), and Renzi’s collaborator, Giorgio Gori (7). The fact that politicians such as Monti and Renzi have garnered the most coverage suggests that Italy’s popular media are no longer exclusively used by center-right politicians the way they were only a few years ago. A wide range of leaders, whether respected public figures or promising rising stars, choose to appear in Chi when they want to unveil their private lives. In the Italian media landscape, Signorini’s magazine seems to have gained increasing importance. It is not by chance that Monti and Renzi have willingly and regularly opened up their private lives to Signorini, as demonstrated by their numerous interviews in Chi.
Four faces of the same coin. Toward an identification of models of coverage
Table 1 provides a partial overview of the most covered actors during the 6 months preceding the elections. The table does not say much about the quality of Chi’s coverage. As already noted, popular magazines can be powerful tools for politicians to establish channels of communication with audiences that could not be reached through traditional media. Equally, entertainment media can help politicians improve and soften their public persona. By sharing detailed aspects of their private lives with the public, politicians try to reduce the gap between the office holders and ordinary people, a gap which they normally struggle to fill. This is the logic at the core of the concept of pop politics. However, such an objective can only be achieved if politicians have virtues to promote and positive aspects to emphasize, and if those magazines adopt an accommodating approach toward them.
In this respect, reflection is needed. Unlike quality papers, popular magazines are not strictly dependent on current events. One political leader can appear on a pop magazine’s front pages without having been at the center of a recent political event. Walking in the city center, going on holiday with the family, and going shopping can be more than enough to grab the popular media’s attention. However, in such cases, popular magazines have a wide margin of discretion. In other words, in those cases, the true difference is made by the attitude the magazine decides to adopt toward the politician. This attitude is reflected in the magazine’s choice of particulars, in the ways in which it tells the story, and the way in which neutral activities, such as walking or shopping, are framed and communicated.
However, as will be shown, Chi’s discretion in the choice of the nuances with which different political personalities are depicted strongly conveys Signorini’s intention to govern the process of news dissemination. By so doing, one of the fundamental rules of partisan media applies: different actors are associated with different attributes. Additionally, Chi’s angle operates in the Berlusconi galaxy. By relying on the analysis of the coverage provided by Chi, we have identified four categories of actors:
Berlusconi and his ‘domain of relationship’
The women of PDL
Sworn enemies
Lukewarm enemies
As Figure 1 shows, given the angle (Berlusconi’s Mondadori and Mediaset) from which Chi looks at Italian politics and politicians, the center-left actors were classified as enemies. In fact, they can be considered as natural enemies, being part of, or somehow supporting, Berlusconi’s opposite coalition. However, the degree of enmity varies depending on each personality and this variation is reflected in the type of coverage that Chi provides. Hence emerges the differentiation between lukewarm and sworn enemies. In the following sections, an explanation will be attempted as to this difference in the tones of coverage of political opponents. As for Berlusconi’s closest personalities, as can be seen, it was not possible to come across any examples of negative coverage of PDL’s personalities or supporters. On the other hand, the category of center-right politicians and supporters who received mostly positive coverage turned out to be extremely broad. Due to that, attention was specifically paid to two subcategories upon which Chi is particularly keen on focusing: Berlusconi’s domain of relationship and the women of PDL.
Berlusconi and his ‘Domain of Relationship’
The first category is the least surprising one. Berlusconi and his closest entourage have maintained over the years a high degree of newsworthiness for TV shows and printed newspapers (for both quality and popular outlets). The degree of such newsworthiness has never been dependent on what office Berlusconi has held. Irrespective of the office he holds, Berlusconi is newsworthy. In regard to the quality of coverage, Berlusconi arouses the media’s interest in relation to a variety of areas: his family, the places where he uses to spend his holidays, and his obsession with physical shape. There are many articles in which Berlusconi appears smiling and comfortable while wearing his swimming trunks. The aim is clearly to show how good his shape is. Indeed, Chi’s articles on Berlusconi and his inner circle are characterized by an extremely accommodating tone. Chi aims to deliver an image of tranquility and normality, despite Berlusconi’s political career being notorious for abnormal events. This represents one of the most characteristic aspects of berlusconism: the tension between Berlusconi’s exceptionalism (which entails Arcore’s villa, his immense wealth, and his lifestyle) and his constant concern for delivering and disseminating a message of normality to establish a connection with ‘typical Italians’. These are the Italians who are shunned by the sectarian ‘left-wing’ elites, that is the Italians who love football and read Chi. Translating such a process into an oxymoron, it is possible to say that Berlusconi aims to deliver a message that any ordinary person can attain exceptionalism. As many analyses have shown, this category of citizens/electors has been a key ingredient for Berlusconi’s political and electoral successes over time. Unlike the center-left parties, Berlusconi and his coalition have been able to establish a strong and long-lasting connection with the ‘typical Italian’, which primarily signifies middle-aged citizens with low levels of education. These citizens are generally distant from political debates and are more likely to regularly make use of entertainment and popular media, such as Chi.
Furthermore, we see that the Chi issued on 20 February 2013, just 1 week before the elections, ran a 5-page article on Francesca Pascale, Berlusconi’s new partner. The article opens with a full-page image of the couple, where Berlusconi appears extremely comfortable, smiling, and serene (despite his troubles with the judiciary). Francesca stares at him with a wide smile, providing an image of natural complicity, which all happy couples display. 1 The article is aimed at giving Chi’s readers more details about Berlusconi’s new partner, a woman whom everyone knows about, but of whom very few know. This is a typical example of media coverage ‘unbound’ and ‘independent’ from current events: it is completely centered on the actors it covers. The article is a journey through Francesca’s life. She has not been involved in any recent events. Therefore, the tone of the coverage is almost entirely dependent on Chi. And Chi’s tones will surely be positive. The headline is simple: ‘Francesca is back’, but as the article begins, different interesting elements begin to emerge: ‘Despite the rumors that she was about to get off the scenes to not obstacle Berlusconi’s campaign, and her love story was just an expedient for the media, Francesca Pascale is and will continue to be on Silvio’s side’.
There are two principal keys of interpretation. First, the love story between Silvio and Francesca is real and much stronger than their enemies’ sarcasm and mockery regarding their age difference, as well as the alleged electoral convenience of their relationship. The second interpretation key: Francesca knows her stuff. Berlusconi’s troubles are well known, he is overwhelmed by a lot of pressure, and his opponents attack him more and more every day. Nevertheless, Francesca is and intends to continue being with the man she loves.
Additionally, Francesca is a passionate supporter of the football team Napoli. The mission to paint Berlusconi as a normal man has been almost accomplished: despite being engaged to a wealthy man, Francesca cooks and hates going to the gym. As for the second aspect, Chi’s readers are told that Francesca is versed in politics. Indeed, she is qualified to counsel her partner and may one day hold a prestigious office herself. She was one of the earliest subscribers to Forza Italia, and previously worked at Fuorigrotta Bagnoli Council and at the Provincial Council of Naples. This report is symbolic of Chi’s approach to Berlusconi and his inner circle. The majority of the articles do not refer to specific events. Thus, Signorini has a wide margin of discretion with regard to deciding the nuances through which to depict various people and suggest the categories by which to decrypt the message. In the case of Berlusconi and his entourage, the message is normality, namely, the serenity that characterizes all successful leaders.
The women of PDL
The second category, the women of PDL, displays many similarities with Berlusconi and his inner circle. Previous research has shown that popular and entertainment magazines tend to pay particular attention to female celebrities (Mazzoni and Ciaglia, 2013). Such logic also applies to those cases in which celebrities are political leaders. In the case of Chi, however, the application of this rule is strongly dependent on the identity (and the political background) of the covered subjects. Indeed, the way in which Chi covers PDL’s women is even more interesting if compared to how this magazine approaches and treats women who belong to political categories than PDL.
For now, it suffices to say that while Berlusconi and his inner circle are characterized by an image of normality, the women of PDL are associated with an image of success, style, and elegance. This image contrasts with the old style characterizing left-wing politicians, whose concerns consist of approving new taxes and hating Berlusconi. This message is delivered, and sometimes shouted, by Chi through full-page articles, full-color photographs, redundant tones, and emphatic headlines. Chi often describes the women of PDL as ‘the most beautiful women in the world’. In other reports, they are shown as self-confident and determined. One very interesting example for that is represented by Chi issued on 20 February 2013, in which articles about Valentine’s Day are published. How do politicians spend the day on which love is celebrated? With the objective of launching her candidacy as member of Parliament (MP), PDL’s Romana Liuzzo invites a high number of people for dinner ‘under Cupid’s sign’. However, a precise political slogan is associated with this party. This is one of the most remarkable examples of how political parallelism is declined and implemented in the era of celebrity politics: ‘On the cry of only love will save us from Monti’s policies and Bersani’s property tax, the new PDL’s candidate Liuzzo organized a party with some special guests: Carfagna, Cicchitto, and Ravetto’. 2
Mara Carfagna, Fabrizio Cicchitto, and Laura Ravetto are leading PDL figures. Therefore, PDL’s politicians are collaborating. Both new and long-serving MPs meet, celebrate, and talk on Valentine’s Day. They collaborate ‘in the name of love’, which sets them apart from the left-wing parties, who can only hate their political opponents. However, there is more to say about this article. Not only is the anthropological distance between the left and Berlusconi’s right emphasized, but two of the most important leaders running against Berlusconi (Monti and Bersani) are associated with damaging and undesirable policy measures. PDL’s female politicians are depicted here as fresh alternatives to both past allegedly disastrous policies (implemented during the Monti-led government) and future potential risks (represented by a government led by Bersani).
However, because such a strong political message is delivered by a magazine such as Chi, it becomes part of a broader scenario characterized by radiant women, fancy clothing, and accurately chosen accessories. Pictures of two of PDL’s most important MPs, Mara Carfagna and Laura Ravetto, are emphasized. The two women are the most photographed people in the article. Furthermore, readers are provided with detailed information about the clothing they wear and the quality of their handbags (Chanel for Laura Ravetto, Louis Vuitton for Mara Carfagna). All the particulars are carefully described with the purpose of underlining the two women’s elegance and good taste.
Sworn enemies
The image of both Berlusconi’s domain of relationship and the women of PDL that emerges from our analysis is, to a certain extent, predictable given the type of magazine selected for analysis. Nevertheless, various (and surprising) elements of interest emerge from the way Chi covers Berlusconi’s opponents (according to the degree of enmity it characterizes each of them by). Here lies another important feature of the new declination of mass media’s political parallelism that we propose. Political parallelism does not exclusively result in the unconditional support of the political leader to whom one media outlet is ‘close’, it also discredits and detracts from that leader’s opponents. The strategy implemented by Chi during the 2013 election campaign is even more sophisticated. The magazine calibrates its tone according to the nature of the opponent it is called on to cover: that is, according to whether the opponent is a sworn enemy or a simple political opponent.
Paradoxically, almost all of il Cavaliere’s sworn enemies stand outside of the politico-institutional spectrum. More specifically, the enemies that Chi identifies are magistrates, such as Ilda Boccassini, or journalists, such as Michele Santoro. The reportage on Ilda Boccassini that we examine is particularly interesting, as it can be closely compared to the previously analyzed article on PDL’s MPs. Chi on 26 December 2012 published a lengthy article on Ilda Boccassini, magistrate at the Tribunal of Milan, titled, ‘Classy shopping’. As will be shown, this title is clearly ironical and allusive. There are interesting bits, such as: ‘Milan’s prosecutor does not resist the temptation to go shopping to the luxurious “rectangle of fashion”. In the meanwhile, she throws her loved cigarette on the ground’.
In a single sentence, two regrettable actions of Boccassini are noted. Not only does she love smoking (the loved cigarette), but, while so doing, she even disregards one of the basic civic rules, throwing the cigarette on the ground. The article describes Boccassini shopping in Via Montenapoleone, one of the most glamorous areas of Milan. The article is not composed of any written sections. The only exception is represented by a text box in which the clothing and accessories that Boccassini is wearing are minutely described. Their price is reported as well. Her Faliero Sarti scarf is worth €300, the Gallo stockings €21. She also exhibits a Car Shoe 2011/2012 Collection handbag. The headline of this text box is even more significant: ‘Matter of style’. 3
This article becomes even more significant if compared to Liuzzo’s Valentine’s Day party. On that occasion, fancy clothing and accessories were noted as symbols of class and good taste. In Boccassini’s case, they represent vulgarity and bad taste, which are worsened by the magistrate’s civic misbehavior. It is not by chance that PDL’s female MPs pose in front of Chi’s photographers, whereas Boccassini is caught while shopping on Milan’s most luxurious street. Notably, how political parallelism applies to soft media: similar circumstances are imbued with completely opposite meanings according to whom the protagonists are. By referring to the known categorization by Stanyer (2012), it is fair to say that the different approaches that Chi adopted in the two aforementioned articles places them into two different caricatures: the coverage of Carfagna and Ravetto is consensual/non-scandalous, whereas the coverage of Boccassini is non-consensual/scandalous.
However, Berlusconi has many enemies. Therefore, the case of Ilda Boccassini cannot be the only example of how soft media partisanship attacks Berlusconi’s sworn enemies. In fact, the Boccassini method is also applied to Michele Santoro, anchorman of Servizio Pubblico and Berlusconi’s number one enemy among journalists. The reportage that we selected was published in Chi on 8 January 2013, a few days prior to the epic duel at Servizio Pubblico. 4 The article contained a number of photos portraying Santoro on holiday on Cocoa Island, the Maldives. The journalist is photographed while diving into the water and relaxing with his wife on the beach. The heavenly island is described in the article, which has a seemingly neutral headline: ‘A relaxing vacation between snorkeling and foreign readings’. However, unlike the Valentine’s Day party, Chi meddles in Santoro’s affairs, reporting that the seaside bungalow where Santoro is staying is costing him €9000. The exclusivity of the location is therefore not emphasized as a choice of style, but as a privilege that very few can afford. How the article is framed clearly places it in the category of non-consensual/scandalous coverage. Although Santoro is not involved in any scandal, his vacation became scandalous to Chi readers, thanks to the interpretative mechanisms the magazine used. Such mechanisms directly stem from the strategies put into place by Chi. The magazine scientifically differentiates the implications of the events it covers (events that can be very similar at times) according to who the actors are.
Lukewarm enemies
The typology proposed in this article ends with the category of lukewarm enemies. This term refers to simple political opponents, namely, those personalities who are only classifiable as enemies because they cannot be otherwise. These are people who belong to parties other than PDL, but toward whom Berlusconi does not feel anthropologically far, as in the case of his sworn enemies. For instance, il Cavaliere has never hidden the respect he has for PD’s Matteo Renzi, Florence’s mayor when this research was carried out and prime minister since 22 February 2014. At the same time, Antonio Ingroia, former prosecutor and currently leader of the leftist Rivoluzione civile (an electoral cartel which was dismissed soon after its disappointing electoral performance at the 2013 general elections), is perceived as a threatening electoral competitor by the PD to a greater extent than by PDL. Indeed, it is unlikely that Ingroia will steal a significant number of votes from Berlusconi’s party. It is reasonable to argue that Berlusconi may even hope for a good electoral performance by Rivoluzione civile, as this would entail that a high number of votes would likely be taken from PDL’s principal opponent, PD. The Chi articles analyzed here are about Renzi and Ingroia.
The most famous Chi article on Renzi (an article which very soon went viral as it was continuatively referred to both on TV and on the principal social networking platforms) does not fall within our period of analysis but is worth mentioning because it represents the pop-politician’s manifesto. In this 5-page article, Renzi poses dressed like Happy Days’ Fonzie.
5
One of the text boxes elaborates the following:
Do people say I resemble Fonzie? Do they criticize me for attending Amici?
6
These are radical-chic critiques. I want to talk with young and old, and to do that I need to go to the shows they watch and talk the language they speak. My duty is to be straightforward and not elitist.
The modern pop-politician’s credo could not be explained any clearer.
Getting back to the period of analysis, Chi published, on 26 December 2012, an article dedicated to Matteo Renzi on holiday at the Abetone, where he was skiing. The 3-page article titled, ‘The mayor on the snow’ shows Renzi in perfect shape, smiling, and relaxing with his family. The allusive tones of Boccassini and Santoro’s articles have now disappeared. No reference is made to the possible cost of the trip. However, the article refers to the current political, stating that the mayor seems to have recovered from the defeat he suffered at the PD primary elections the previous November:
The mayor is surely not depressed for the defeat at the PD primary elections he suffered from Bersani. He goes to have some relax in the mountains. Renzi is an excellent skier, as revealed by the images in this reportage […]. Between all-American dreams of glory and skiing, Renzi keeps his muscles warm with a view to other eventual descents (to the field).
Just a few months earlier, on 17 October 2012, Chi published another masterpiece of pop politics. This article consisted of a dialogue between Renzi and his father. The PD primary elections were getting closer (25 November). The 7-page article gets the front page, with the headline, ‘Me, my father, and our dream: unified Italy’. Chi’s journalist almost abstracts himself from the context, as if a real dialogue were taking place between Renzi and his father on an ordinary Florentine day:
They talk about politics, drinking a glass of wine and eating a few slices of salami, as they sit on the family house lawn, in the surroundings of Florence.
You and Bersani are the same age. You now need to yield to others.
You are not the first who wants to change things …
‘The world changes, but politicians remain always the same’, betrays Matteo.
The reader is provided with an image of Renzi, who although is strongly determined to change the status quo, is not hostile to an entire generation, as many media outlets assert. Renzi even discusses rottamazione 7 with his father, who is part of the generation he encourages to step back. They eat bread and salami, and drink wine in a bucolic setting. The political implications here are more telling than in the previous article, however. Renzi is now running his electoral campaign – not against Berlusconi, but against Bersani. This is likely one of the main reasons why Renzi is being allowed to campaign in Chi:
I am proud of the choice your brother made.
Do you mean Samuele’s decision to leave Florence to avoid being seen as a ‘person with pulls’?
Yes. It should not be taken for granted. He could have been a doctor at home. Instead, he is now a doctor in Switzerland and no one can say he is thanks to pulls.
You and your generation have contributed to spread the message that one can only find a good job if they know somebody. We will be the ones who change this attitude. I want the young to find a job because they know something well, not because they know someone.
‘Pulls’ are an evil to which the generation of Renzi’s father (and Bersani) has contributed. The only hope is represented by people like Matteo’s brother. These people, on the strength of the things (and not the people) they know, do not fear leaving home to pursue their careers. Another hope is represented by Matteo himself, who stays in Italy without the fear of fighting a generation that has held power for too long and made a mess of it.
Finally, it is worth mentioning an article on Antonio Ingroia, which was published in Chi on 30 January 2013. Remarkably, given this article’s argument, Ingroia discusses some of the views of his political opponents. As previously mentioned, Ingroia leads Rivoluzione civile, a left-wing coalition, but he immediately clears things up by stating, ‘[I have] never been a communist. I not even subscribed to the party’.
Who is his number one (political) enemy? Surprisingly, it is not the leader of the opposite political coalition – Berlusconi – but ‘Monti, who has been fooling Italians’. Instead, Berlusconi ‘has always been humorous, like me’. On the other hand, Bersani ‘would do anything to grab the power’. These words are emblematic of the logic of political parallelism applied to the soft media. Even the leader of the most left-wing party must assimilate Chi’s politico-editorial rules if he wants to appear in the magazine. Indeed, the leader who best comes out of Ingroia’s words is paradoxically the one who is politically furthest from him. In conclusion, another aspect should be noted. When the coverage is positive (non-scandalous, à la Stanyer) as in the cases of Berlusconi, Carfagna, Renzi, and Ingroia, the articles are almost always arranged and agreed beforehand: the leaders pose, open the doors of their homes, and introduce their families. Conversely, when Chi aims to produce a scandal, even when there is none, the magazine chases its prey. It suffices to steal a few snapshots of the victims doing the most mundane of activities. The war machine will then create the perfect crime.
Conclusion
Italy has historically been characterized by a strong contiguousness, if not overlap, of media and political systems. Such a connection was initially found in the party press and was one of its more evident expressions. The media–political connection then embraced TV, generating an anomaly par excellence: the 20-year media–politics blackout represented by Berlusconi’s conflicts of interest. However, as far as the press is concerned, mass media’s political parallelism has always been a phenomenon limited to the news media.
As this research shows, due to both the long-running tendency toward partisanship displayed by Italian media and the political anomaly that characterizes part of that system, new forms of political partisanship are emerging. Media partisanship is crossing the threshold of news media and spreading into entertainment media. Chi is the most obvious expression of this process. Chi is a weekly magazine displaying a marked dual nature. First, Chi is the most popular magazine in Italy. It is the magazine in which every politician who decides to open his or her private life to the public wants to appear. Appearing in Chi makes it possible for a politician to reach a large number of people, thanks to the magazine’s attractiveness to readers who are normally uninterested in politics. On the other hand, Chi acts according to a partisan logic. In this respect, the Signorini-led magazine stops being an entertainment medium and becomes a war machine, an armed branch of the Berlusconi galaxy. And the effects of this shift can be clearly identified in the different nuances with which Chi approaches and covers personalities who belong to different political coalitions. However, the motive behind Chi’s modus operandi is not exactly that of the political parties to which its victims or heroes belong. Rather, it is the degree of political, anthropological, and even human proximity that these personalities show to the true and undisputed force behind the magazine: Silvio Berlusconi.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.