Mass Media and the Redistribution of Power

1
Mass Media and the Redistribution of Power

• Qualitative analysis of the participation of
  women politicians in political information
  programmes
• in Italy

2
Aim of the research

• to investigate
• gender stereotypes
• contained in political information programmes

3
Basic questions

• Is the distinction today between the roles of men
  and women still valid?
• To what extent is such a distinction clear-cut
  and themed?
• Is politics a male-only environment or does it
  offer the same opportunities for women as well?

4
Basic questions

• Have role stereotypes changed or are they still
  linked to traditional gender models?
• Are women aware of their gender identity, or do
  they deny it, challenging and ignoring it?

5
Features of information talk shows

• Information as the main communication goal
• Candidates and other people as participants
• Electoral and political issues on a larger scale,
  with no direct link to the forthcoming elections
  (i.e. social issues)
• Hosted by a showman rather than a neutral
  journalist who is as much of a protagonist as the
  guests are

6
The corpus11 shows in total

• Porta a porta
• Otto e mezzo
• Ballarò
• La zona rossa
• Excalibur

7
The history of Italian TV

• Birth January 1954 with Rai, First TV channel
• 1961 second Rai channel
• 1979 third Rai channel
• 1974-78 first private television stations
• 1981-82 first private channels broadcasting at
  national level
• 1984 Rete 4 and Italia 1 linked to Canale 5,
  within the Mediaset group
• 2001 La7, third television group

8
The duopolistic structure of Italian television
9
Hypothesis and goals

• Customization is a dominating trend in TV
  programmes but isnt always a characteristic of
  female presence
• Women often represent themselves only as part of
  a political group
• When they dont represent themselves as members
  of a group, they appear as icons

10
The semiotic approach

• A qualitative analysis
• The focus on texts
• The narrative structure of events
• The modal characterization of subjects
• The passions of texts

11
The focus of the analysis

• Popular and dominating themes
• The actors narrative roles and the stereotypes
  such roles convey
• The modality of female presence (political,
  interpretative, defensive, spectacular)
• The modal and pathemic characterisation
• How interaction is managed
• The actors communication style

12
The under-representation of women

• The representative value of female presence
• A matter of political correctness
• Female inconsistency

13
Thematisation

• Many policy issues such as war on Iraq,
  terrorism..., no thematisation on Europe
• Campaign issues not important
• Centrality of political issues, especially for
  women problem of the political identity
  of female guests
• History
• Memory
• Group as team support

14
The Narrative Roles

• the victim
• the champion (in the sense of paladin)
• the self-conscious
• the icon

15
Basic aim to protect themselves
The victim

• sense of having been wronged
• angry victim

• need of protection
• wounded victim

16
The champions

• Basic aim to make things known.
• To defend a fact more than themselves
• Witnesses
• Champions of Truth
• Confidence coming from a real, present-day
  experience

17
Basic aim to defend and to discuss female
issues
The self-conscious

• Double-thinking, being as women subject and
  object of discussion
• Cultural competence and incarnate knowledge
• Themselves as subjects who will and can
• Female specificity historical
• 
  practical

18
The Icons

• Face and symbol
• Tradition of meanings, memory, and references in
  themselves
• Coherent and integrated image
• Individual and public dimension

19
Two types of Icons

• The rhetoric of excess
• Instincts and passions
• Stereotype of mother and wild animal
• Subject of aggression (seducing) and protection
  (maternal)
• Triumph of Nature

• The rhetoric of competence
• Political and media competence
• Subject of thought, action and choice
• Triumph of Culture

20
The passions of women

• a more sensitive humanity
• the emotional impact
• the force of symphathy
• subjects of pity
• subjects of sorrow

21
Conclusions

• (under-representation)
• depersonalization
• representative role
• rarefaction of female presence
• specificity only at modal and passion level
• subjects of passions and knowledge
• optative subjects