Free or Controlled Press? - A History of Italian Journalism

This course will study the evolution of the diffusion of public information in Italy. This historical overview will begin with the “Acta Diurna” (Roman official notices comparable to Daily Public Records) and go through the first efforts of the Lombard Enlightenment to create lay publications in competition with the informative methods used by the Catholic Church. We will then move on to discuss the birth of the first major newspapers founded and financed by the major industrial enterprises and the Lombard and Piedmontese cotton industry. We will also analyze the press under the Fascist regime, media controlled by political parties, media connected to the Resistance and electronic media. The course will end with a study of Rai/Mediaset, the slow affirmation of the Rete in Italia, the so-called "citizen's journalism" and the phenomena of the "free press". By the end of the course the recurring question of whether Italian national media is the servant of the dominant powers or independent, will be answered.