Internet and Online Journalism in Italy (part 3)

25 July 2012

Media in Italy and the digital challenge

Part 3:
Internet and Online Journalism
By Iginio Gagliardone
and Davide Morisi

With the support of

Internet and Online Journalism in Italy – 25 July 2012

The Mapping Digital Media project
In early 2011 the Open Society Foundation (OSF)
launched the Mapping Digital Media project to study
the opportunities and risks linked to the transition from
traditional to digital media.

Among the 60 countries in the study, the situation in
Italy was analysed in a detailed report published in
October 2011.

Thanks to funding from OSF quattrogatti.info has
developed a series of presentations and videos
highlighting key aspects of this report as well as new
data and analysis.

In this last presentation we concentrate on the spread
of internet in Italy and its effects on journalism.
www.quattrogatti.info


Access to internet: Italy lags behind
Italy ranks among the last countries in Europe for internet access, with only
one family out of two connected to high speed internet, against a 68%
average in Europe. Comparing the diffusion of broadband, only Greece, Bulgaria
and Romania lag behind.
100
Households with access to internet (2011)
90

80

70

60 Non
banda
% of households

50
larga
40

30
broad-
20 Banda
band
10 larga
0

Source: Eurostat, Internet use in households and by individuals in 2011


Still very few people online…
The low diffusion of the net leads to low frequency of use:
• only one person in two browses the web at least once a week, against
a European average of 2 out of 3;
• a staggering 39% of italians has never used internet, a percentage which
is among the highest in Europe1.
100%
Individuals who have accessed the internet at least once a week in 2011
90%
Source: Eurostat, Internet use in households and by individuals in 2011
80%

70%
% of individuals on the population

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

1. 2011 Data, Digital Agenda for Europe www.quattrogatti.info


…yet access to mobile internet increases
The penetration of 3G technology is now triggering a positive shift in Italy.
Allowing people to navigate online through mobile phones, 3G is contributing to
compensate for broadband‟s lack of take-up.
60
Italy: subscribers to internet and 3G mobiles as a percentage of overall population
50

40
% of overall population

30

20

10

0
2005 2005 2006 2006 2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 2009 2010
Internet non banda larga Internet banda larga Telefonia mobile 3G

Source: Open Society Foundations, “Mapping Digital Media – Italy”.


New ways to search for information
According to Censis, in 2011 some 50% of Italians used internet
to search for information2.

However, percentages vary radically by age group:
• 83% of 14 to 29 year olds searches for information on the net,
• this is as low as 51% for adults 30 to 64, and 19% for over 65s.

The search for information online is

Immagine di Peter Brough
increasingly mediated by news
aggregators, information portals and
especially social media, used by a third
of Italians at least once a week3.

2. It should be noted that, according to Censis, almost all Italians online (53%) use internet to search for
information (52%). Source: Censis, Nono rapporto sulla comunicazione, 2011.
3. Eurobarometre, n. 76 (autumn 2011). Data for Italy is in line with the European average (35%).


The most popular websites
Top 10 websites in Italy – Unique monthly visitors (x 1000)
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
The list of Italy‟s most-clicked
Google 24039
websites is topped by:
Facebook 20836
• Search engines (with Google
YouTube 16742
leading the way),
MSN / Bing / WindowsLive 16446 • Webmail portals,
• Facebook, boasting over 20
Virgilio 14680
million visitors a month,
Yahoo! 14092 • Youtube (which also belongs to
Google).
Microsoft 13992

Libero 13187 No information website linked to
Wikipedia 12363
traditional media such as
newspapers and TV figures in the
Blogger 10153 Source: Audiweb, June2011
top-10. www.quattrogatti.info
(from Bruno and Nielsen, 2012)


The most popular information websites
The top 10 information websites in Italy
Unique monthly visitors (x 1000) La Repubblica and Corriere della
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
Sera top the list on the web as they do
La Repubblica 8607
with their paper editions, proving that

La Repubblica – 926.000
Corriere della
7895
internet has not yet disrupted pre-
Sera
Internazionale - 237.000 existing power dynamics within the press.

Il Fatto Quotidiano – 758.000
TGCOM 6029
Corriere della Sera - 690.000
News portals (such as Libero News and
Il Sole 24 Ore - 123.000

Libero News 5022
Virgilio) and news aggregators such as
La Stampa.it 4010 Google News are the real news of online
information.
ANSA 3715

Quotidiano.n
It is interesting to note the high ranking
3354
et
of Il Fatto Quotidiano on Facebook
Virgilio
Notizie
2383 (given its very low „paper‟ readership), as
an example of how innovative uses of
Google News 2000 First 5 information
websites on Facebook* social media can multiply readers.
Il Fatto Number of fans – 5/5/2012
Quotidiano
2119
* The list of websites on Facebook does not include sports
Source: Audiweb, June 2011 (from Bruno and Nielsen, 2012)
newspapers and blogs


Internet and journalism: novelties and paradoxes
The growing importance of internet
has had contrasting effects on journalism:

• It has offered new opportunities for experimentation,
transforming some online journals into „communities‟ and
creating new spaces for sharing information, where the
relationship between journalists, audience and sources has
become more integrated;

• It hasn‟t (for now) challenged the dominance of large
conglomerates and the strong relationship between
journalism and politics.
This fight between new and old has created tensions and
paradoxes…


Journalism online: is anything changing?
The largest players with most resources to innovate
have demonstrated scarce creativity and ability to
launch new products. Neither RAI nor Mediaset have
succeeded in „reinventing‟ themselves online.

La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera dominate the
market for journalism on the net. However, while they
have been offering new content on different platforms
(such as smartphone and tablet), they have been much

Foto di itBox24
more reluctant in experimenting new forms of
journalism.

Moreover, legislative measures have been favouring
large conglomerates, while there have been no
incentives to do journalism exclusively online.


Journalism online: survival as success
Though internet has decreased entrance barriers for
those who want to start up informative websites, new
players who only operate online find it hard to emerge,
but above all to survive.
Websites that try to re-launch investigative journalism
such as Linkiesta or that try and innovate styles and
create community such as Il Post have obtained
funding to kick-off, though it is unclear how they will
become sustainable in the longer term given that
advertisements alone are not enough.4.
The vast majority of advertisements online are
captured by very few groups, first and foremost
Google Italia5.

4. Nicola Bruno and Rasmus Nielsen, „Survival is Success: Journalistic Online Start-Ups in Western Europe‟
5. Open Society Foundations, “Mapping Digital Media – Italy”, p. 75


Internet, journalism and politics

Immagine di OpenSourceWay
Barriers to innovation in journalism
aren‟t only proprietal. They are also
cultural and they depend on the model
that has characterised the relationship
between journalism and freedom of
expression in Italy.

In the country, freedom of expression has historically established itself as the
guarantee of a plurality of opinions, through laws such as the par
condicio, and defended by newspapers in favour of one political party or the
other.
This system, over time, has forced many journalists to become politically
partisan or to act as mere moderators of others‟ political opinions. Except
for a few rare cases, a type of journalism that could rise above politics (such
as in England and Germany) has failed to emerge.


Internet, journalism and paradoxes
Together, economic and cultural factors have had paradoxical
consequences on online journalism:

• New ideas and talents who grew up with the internet find it
hard to attract resources, while traditional players (who re-
propose the same old logic to the new media) still dominate the
market;

• The number of players online has increased, many of them
declaring they say what others don‟t say. However, there is a lack
of authoratitative sources that control politics and
information, as is common in many other countries.



What could be useful, but isn’t there (yet?)
Beyond the Italian borders, new media have triggered new forms of
journalism, through initiatives that allow citizens to hold politics and
information accountable.
• Factcheck and Bildblog verify news items on
the main media sources, in the US and Germany;
• Politifact verifies statements made by politicians
to see whether they mantain the promises they made
during their campaigns;
• The Datablog by the Guardian experiments
with new forms of journalism based on data;
• Spot.us collects resources online to finance investigative reports;
• Propublica and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism promote new
models of investigative journalism sustained by foundations.

Apart from a few timid attempts
none of these projects has yet been launched in Italy.


Online newsrooms: what changes
The net has nevertheless set new
challenges for old and new players alike:
• A new “news cycle”
There is no longer any deadline (when
the newspaper goes to print) so news

Foto di SourceFabric
gets launched „in real time‟.
• „Do it all‟ journalists
Online newsrooms are staffed by less
and less specialised people6.

• New „communities‟
Online jounalism bases itself on a careful choice of topics, which are
then debated and commented on by other journalists and readers.

6. As the director of the Post, Luca Sofri, explained “everyone does everything” – Linkiesta, 7 May 2010


Online newsrooms: pros and cons
These new journalistic routines have pros and cons:

Pros:
• A piece of news can grow a little at a time, with journalists adding details
and multimedia materials as the story unveils.
• Readers can become sources of information (such as in catastrophic
events) and they can contribute to „check‟ on the news story through their
comments.
• A stronger sense of community is created.

Cons:
• Fact-checking becomes more difficult with an increased dependence on
institutional sources, press agencies, and events such as press conferences.
• The filtering of comments adds a large burden on journalists (so much so it
is sometimes tendered out) and appears like „censoring‟ to readers.
• It is increasingly difficult to develop investigative journalism that requires
human and financial resources that are not sustainable for online newsrooms.


Conclusions: technology and culture
To fully take advantage of the possibilities for

Foto di Uwe Hermann
change offered by new media two large steps
ahead are needed in Italy.

The first is structural. The digitalization of the
country needs to be completed, investing in
broadband. Italy is now paying its set-back in
this sector, both economically and socially7.
The second step is cultural. The country must overcome the idea that
freedom of expression is simply the existence of a plurality of conflicting
opinions, and instead focusing on strengthening the independence and
reliability of information. What Italy is still missing are authoritative
voices, able to overcome partisan interests and act as „watchdogs‟ of politics
and information alike.
7. According to European Commissioner Neelie Kroes, this gap costs Italy a loss between 1 and 1,5% of
GDP (Neelie Kroes, forum Confindustria digitale, 11 aprile 2012). www.quattrogatti.info
See also Open Society Foundations, “Mapping Digital Media – Italy”.


Useful links
Open Society Foundation, Mapping Digital Media – Italy
Report in inglese / Report in italiano (versione non aggiornata)

On internet and journalism online
• Nicola Bruno and Rasmus Nielsen (2012)
Survival is Success: Journalistic Online Start-Ups in Western Europe
• William H. Dutton (2008)
The Fifth Estate Emerging Through the Network of Networks
• Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru, Lucy Chambers
Data Journalism Handbook
• Online journalism blog

Datasets
• Digital Agenda for Europe, Country profile – Italy
• Eurostat, Internet use in households and by individuals in 2011
• Eurobarometro, Standard Eurobarometer 76, Autumn 2011
• Censis, Nono rapporto sulla comunicazione, 2011
• Agcom, Relazione annuale 2011

Thanks!
If you appreciated the presentation forward it to your friends
and support our project!


We thank
Nicola Bruno and Cristian Vaccari for comments

To contact the authors : info@quattrogatti.info

To participate: partecipa@quattrogatti.info

Internet and Online Journalism in Italy (part 3)

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Internet and Online Journalism in Italy (part 3)