The Comical Inquisition: Striscia la Notizia and the Politics of Fake News on Italian Television

Abstract

This article presents a discussion and analysis of the most prominent fake news show on Italian television, Striscia la Notizia, to demonstrate how it can effectively mount critiques against the political class, expose institutional inefficiencies, and mobilize audiences for matters of public interests. In order to analyze Striscia's original brand of journalism, the article starts with a thorough account of the historical conditions that have fostered its rise to prominence. The second part of the article is based on a textual analysis of a number of segments from various episodes, which I selected in order to provide an account of the techniques, themes, and language adopted by the show. By providing both theoretical and empirical knowledge, I therefore wish to interrogate the ways in which fake news programs such as Striscia can create effective sites for citizens to engage with matters of public interest, while in the process challenging political institutions and the traditional role of mediation of official news outlets.

Notes

¹The term comes from the Italian verb “lottizzare,” which means to create “lotti” (lots) within a geographical area or a property. Inside Italian public broadcaster RAI, it came to identify the practice of assigning editorial or administrative positions along party lines. The “zebra” formula for example meant that journalists representing lay or catholic parties had to alternatively fill positions, creating the effects of “zebra stripes” in the structure of the staff.

²According to a 2010 Demos-Coop survey on information sources and public opinion in Italy, Striscia enjoys the highest percentage of trust of any newscast or public affairs show on Italian television. See http://www.demos.it/a00511.php. For a discussion on the survey result, see Diamanti (2010).

³The word “veline” is a playful reference to the practice by the Ministry of Popular Culture during the Fascist era of issuing directives, named “veline” on the news that were allowed to be released (from the thin type of paper used, “carta velina” in Italian). After Striscia popularized it, the term has become synonymous with attractive showgirls on television, and the velina has become an icon of contemporary Italian popular culture, often associated with a sexist and demeaning representation of women.

⁴Law 223, issued on August 6, 1990, is commonly referred to as “Legge Mammì.” See http://www.difesadellinformazione.com/leggi_e_provvedimenti/15/legge-n-223-del-1990--legge-mammi-/.

⁵This literally means “off the air.”

⁶While Striscia's producers have, to date, never openly revealed how they obtain the outtakes, in his book Striscia la Tivù, Ricci (2008) hints that he used special equipment to intercept the low-frequency transmission of Emilio Fede newscasts, TG4, one of his favorite targets.

⁷The Italian word is “inciucio,” a term used to refer to an informal and often controversial agreement among political parties or factions.

⁸This refers to Gianfranco Fini, leader of Alleanza Nazionale, post-Fascist right wing part and member of the Polo delle Libertà coalition in 1994.

⁹ See RTI (1994).

¹⁰“Pizzino” is journalistic jargon indicating brief messages, often written in encrypted text, used by the Sicilian Mafia for high-level communications.

¹¹See RTI (2008). Veltroni was at the time the leader of the PD, and Di Pietro is still currently the leader of IDV party. The word “strappo” is a pun on the double meaning of the verb “strappare,” which literally means “to tear apart,” for example, a piece of paper, but also in political terms it means to “break away” from a coalition or a common platform.

¹²See RTI (2010).