One of the memes launched on Maria Rosaria Boccia’s profile before the interview with Minister Sangiuliano on Tg1.
“One of the interesting facets of the Sangiuliano-Boccia case is the media one,” explains massmediologist Massimo Scaglioni (who teaches History of the Media at the Catholic University of Milan and Transmedia Narrative at the University of Italian Switzerland). “I have recognized three different levels. The first level is that of narration, the so-called storytelling. The story itself is not new. It is power that ends up in an embarrassing situation because of a love affair. A hyper-consolidated script, that of the sexual scandal of power is well-known and well-known, in cinema and TV series.
The first that come to mind are “House of Cards” or “The Ides of March”».
“I wouldn’t go that far. In this case there are picturesque and salacious elements that hark back to the Italian sexy comedies of the Seventies with Lino Banfi and Edwige Fenech.”
By the way, there is no need to bother with fiction. International politics is full of them at the highest levels: the American president Bill Clinton and the intern Monica Lewinsky, the French president François Hollande and the actress Julie Gayet…
“There is no doubt, nothing new under the sun. What had never been seen was the communication scenario.”
A 16-minute interview on Tg1 with a minister to wash his family’s dirty laundry and explain his personal version of the facts, complete with live crying like in Barbara D’Urso’s living room…
“On TV, 16 minutes is an eternity. Interviews on Tg1 last two, maximum four minutes when a head of state is speaking.”
President Mattarella’s end-of-year address to the nation lasts 15 to 20 minutes…
«But the funny thing is that looking at the ratings of the interview with Sangiuliano you notice that Tg1 at the time of his statements loses half a million viewers, going from four million to three and a half million, to then go back up when “Affari tuoi” starts after the Tg up to over four million».
One in eight viewers changed channels…
“This should be read as a refusal, a rejection by many listeners. And here we come to the second level of reading.”
And which one?
“The media battle. The government’s communication (it is impossible that Meloni did not know about the interview) made a very heavy choice, that of proposing the interview in the prime time slot, transforming the news into a propaganda tool. A very risky operation that did not take social media into account. The so-called crisis communication was poorly managed”.
And in fact, Dr. Boccia responded blow for blow to Sangiuliano’s version. All she needed was a smartphone and an Instagram profile, with its enormous viral impact, to take down an information battleship.
“TV – the pandemic has shown – has shown that it still enjoys very strong trust from the people. But when TV makes propaganda it becomes vulnerable. There are tools capable of supporting and spreading factual truths (confirmed by documents) through which the king is naked and no television can hold up. Everything we have seen on the Instagram profile of this private citizen shows a great awareness of the use of the media, much more than the communication of the advisors of Minister Sangiuliano and probably of the Government itself has been able to slow it down or contain it. It must always be kept in mind that in a context with different means (vertical, like TV, and horizontal, like social media) the principle of truth is fundamental: the risk of being proven wrong a second after having done the interview is just around the corner”.
And the third level?
“It concerns the role of training and information of Tg1, the main Italian news program, which is a public service role and instead with this interview it has transformed into a sort of confessional, a change of genre never seen before. It reminded me of something halfway between the Maurizio Costanzo Show and Big Brother. But here one of two things: if the situation is serious you go to Parliament, if instead it is not serious you have to go to the afternoon gossip programs, not to the main news program of the country. A short circuit from which you will not easily emerge.”
On the other hand, all you need is a cell phone and maybe a pair of glasses with a camera, available in any eyewear store, or almost…
“Dr. Boccia uses these tools consciously, even if they are borderline (in Montecitorio you cannot film, ed.). Today it is very simple from a technological point of view to be able to document the facts and make them public virally and publish them reaching a wide audience, which becomes further expanded with a viral effect, breaking through any propaganda”.
