Decodificare il presente, raccontare il futuro

TREDICESIMO-PIANO


gio 21 luglio 2016

THE REASONS OF THE DEVILS

This is our new challenge for the months to come.

Mr Pereira (in Sostiene Pereira, Italian drama, 1995, TN) says that: «Journalism does not need thoughtless people and agitators».It should be heart driven: «but we need to find a balance. The heart comes first, but our eyes should be kept wide open».
The Devils were mainly conceived with the purpose of clarifying two of the major misconceptions of our time. In the first place, the fact that finance and economics are inaccessible topics for most people and that they are of exclusive interest of the richest 1% of the world. It is false. Because the speculative attack against our banking system carried out by the financial world, or the fact that they are playing Monopoly with Greece, directly affect the lives of the remaining 99%: countries, ordinary people, middle class.
In the second place, the battle against the erosion of sovereignty suffered by sovereign states starts with the creation of airtight compartments and with the interruption of the process of osmosis. Of course, there is a general lack of interest in foreign politics, in fact, during electoral campaigns – when the propaganda machine reaches its maximum potential – candidates hardly talk about foreign policy. With the exception of contingent matters or emergency situations, political projects usually lack supranational projection, and they seem to be unable to find their own place in the world. Medias in general tend to conform but old territorial visions have already been extensively overcome by the events, and besides this context characterized by the great return to past nationalisms, in the increasingly-globalized world, does it really make sense to look at our era through the keyhole?
After defining our area of interest – and namely the analysis of the contemporary economic and financial crisis from an international point of view and through the resulting inequalities produced on the society – we need to understand “how” to do it and to necessarily examine the state of health of the Italian news industry.
The only possible evolution for the current information paradigm/ news paradigm is to change model, while considering that it may not be possible to improve the old one. This is not plausible, and not because such a model is hopelessly inadequate, but rather because it has reached a specific and irreparable degree of perfection. Compulsively, the Italian news system keeps asking itself “Where did I go wrong?” and keeps trying to find a solution that does not exist. In fact, the problem resides in the fact that there are no mistakes. The traditional system is substantially perfect, or better, it used to be, in another era and for a different kind of reader.
It is probably a waste of energy to keep believing that the revolution –too many times predicted and retracted – resides in the details. By their own nature, revolutions are explosive and traumatic, because they dismantle the existing structure. Therefore, it is probably not a coincidence if readers do not perceive a paywall or a new graphic version as a revolution. How innovative is the concept of paying to access quality information? And how futuristic is a change of dress if the general structure stays as it is?
In a study of 2011, recently translated into Italian by Laterza, Zygmunt Bauman analyses the cultural industry in the consumer society, coming to the conclusion that «(cultural, Ed.) products on the shelves and check out advertising are designed in order to generate uncontrollable desires, which are momentary by their nature (as George Steiner puts it they are made to generate “maximum impact and instant obsolescence”)». A possible way to deal with the liquid modernity described by the Polish sociologist is to start investing – now more than ever – in cross-media communications: to create a network of different channels, entangle experiences and skills, and write a more complicated plot of the story. For example, if the primary purpose of media is to offer their public the most complete information possible, why do they not integrate their own editorial products with those of the competitors? Are we at war or are we all fighting on the same side of the barricade? And can we be allies without losing our peculiarity and independence?
Why do we not choose a different path, and namely, instead of moving other media on our online portals, can we move our editorial projects on other media?
Can we turn a novel into a newspaper? Or transform a news website into a TV series or a theatrical performance?
This is our new challenge for the months to come.