Transparent

In a world now characterized by globalized information, there are countries and continents that we practically never hear about. As if nothing ever happens in those parts (which is not true) or nothing worth reporting (which is equally false). Even if the web allows those who want to have specific information on a certain country to have some possibility of satisfaction, it remains problematic that in general terms there are areas of the world that are completely transparent to the mainstream media. And all of this is no less serious because the situation has been like this for decades: the point is that the collective removal of the very existence of a huge slice of the world is not justified.

There is a survey that every year tells all this with numbers. It is called Illuminare le periferie and for over a decade it has been reviewing the generalist information container par excellence: the evening news. Yes, it is true, a lot has changed since the days when there was only one Rai news program and social media were light years away from being even thought of, but in terms of millions of viewers and importance, the evening news is still able to have an impact.

Last year, in the seven evening news programs of Rai, Mediaset and La7, there were a total of 15,589 news stories from abroad, equal to 36% of all those broadcast. Not a small number, with an increasing figure driven by the events in Ukraine and Gaza. The point is that almost all of this news comes from Europe, North America and Asia (93%). Africa, as a whole, is worth 5%. South America is just 1.8%. Ten years ago, 13% of the foreign agenda concerned Africa, and 6% Central and South America. Things are getting worse.

In the top 10 countries or regions covered by Italian news (USA, Ukraine, Europe, Israel, Middle East, Great Britain, France, Russia, Vatican City and Turkey) there is no African or South American state, and – says the report – «it is not just a question of editorial choice but the reflection of a power structure that perpetuates a vision of the world strongly influenced by postcolonial dynamics». Therefore, it is «urgent to decolonize the representation of foreign affairs in the Italian media».

It also serves to better tell what is happening. An example: the drama in Yemen had 2 news items in 2020, 4 in 2021, none in 2022, and then suddenly 42 in 2023, following the involvement in the war between Israel and Hamas and the attacks on container ships in the Red Sea by the Houthis. With the inevitable questions – which have not always received the appropriate answers – about who they were, what alliances they had, what objectives these new “pirates of the sea” pursued (bad thing, lexical simplifications).

Ultimately the problem is that we understand little of the wide world we inhabit: «The disparity of treatment and depth not only limits the understanding of the Italian public regarding the realities of these regions, but is functional to an atomized vision of the social, economic and political struggles and claims of many countries in the world».


Stefano Caredda
NP June / July 2024