Author: Madeline Mains

Italy – Country Report: Information Network Final

Title: Rai News

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Visual/audio

Updated daily

How to access: http://www.rainews.it / Twitter @RaiNews

Description: This source is an Italian news channel and website that is known as the biggest news channel in Italy. It is in Italian, and it covers both national and international news, focusing more on national news stories. The source’s perspective has been considered to be geared more towards the conservative government, but its greatest strength would be that it covers such a wide array of topics. The biggest weakness would be its biased point of view, though it is not always inherently clear when reading the articles. This source is valuable to those wanting to learn more about Italy because since it is the biggest news source in Italy, those reading articles on this site can see a news source that citizens all over Italy use daily.

 

Title: La Repubblica

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Newspaper

Updated daily

How to access: http://www.repubblica.it / Twitter @repubblica

Description: This source is an Italian newspaper that is a very popular general-interest source based out of Rome. It has been around since 1976 and updates daily, with local editions in cities all over the country, such as Bari, Bologna, Florence, Genova, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Parma, and Torino. Their website focuses on both national and international news stories, and local stories in the local editions. This newspaper is known to lean left in their reports, and this bias is their biggest weakness. It is valuable for those wanting to learn about Italy because it not only gives national and international news from an Italian viewpoint, but it covers local stories as well.

Title: The Local.it

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Social media

Updated daily

How to access: https://www.thelocal.it / Twitter @TheLocalItaly

Description: This source is basically Italian news in English, including international news that specifically pertains to Italy. This website also has other countries it focuses on in Europe, and their goal is to be “a window on life in other cultures”. It is useful to have sources that are not in Italian or based in Italy because it gives an outside point of view on Italian issues, and when comparing to other Italian sources it is easy to see some of the differences on how these stories are portrayed.

 

Title: Corriere della Sera

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Newspaper

Updated daily

How to access: http://www.corriere.it/index.shtml?refresh_ce / Twitter @Corriere

Description: This source is an Italian newspaper that is one of the most well-known daily newspapers in Italy. It is in Italian, and has a moderate, pro-government standpoint. This source covers national news mostly, and focuses in on specific regions and even specific cities within those regions, giving a variety of stories from everywhere in Italy. This source is useful for those wishing to learn more about Italy because it gives more of a variety of stories and it even is in Italian, so if one is learning Italian it can be interesting to get the perspectives of different cities around the country while improving their reading skills.

Title: CIA World Factbook

Author: United States government

Type of source: Data

Updated sporadically

How to access: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/it.html

Description: This source is a government database in English that has information on all countries in the world, with specific data and facts on each of them. It is divided into different categories that help you identify what exactly you are looking for, ranging from geography to transnational issues. This source is more than likely at least a little bit biased because it is looking through the lens of the United States looking at other countries around the world. It can be a helpful source still because the actual facts, such as GDP, are correct and can help with just general learning about a country.

 

 Title: Italy Chronicles

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: New media

Updated sporadically

How to access: http://italychronicles.com / Twitter @newsfromitaly

Description: This source is a pretty well-known blog that follows different news stories from Italy. It has been running since 2005 and the founder, Alex Roe, has been cited in the Italian press, has been cited in Wikipedia and the Huffington Post, and has also been a commentator on affairs in Italy on the Australian radio. This source is also useful in the sense that it is not based in Italy, with not only news stories but travel advice and stories as well.

 

Title: Il Sole 24 Ore

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Traditional

Updated daily

How to access: http://www.ilsole24ore.com/?refresh_ce=1 / Twitter @IlSole24ORE

Description: This source is a very well-known daily Italian newspaper that is located in Milan, in Northern Italy. This source has plenty of categories, including Italy (national and regional news), world news, and then it divides into specific categories such as finance or business. This source leans towards being conservative, but is not terribly biased in this way. It is a useful source for those wanting to learn about Italy because since it is such a well-known newspaper and covers different regions than some of the other sources I’ve listed, it gives a broader perspective into the lives of Italian citizens and how they get their news.

 

Title: Italian News Clicks

Author: Emmanuel College

Type of source: New media

Updated sporadically

How to access: http://italiannewsclicks.blogs.emmanuel.edu/

Description: This source is through Emmanuel College and is “an easy reader of selected clips from the Italian press designed to provide students, teachers, scholars, and lovers of Italian language and culture with a realistic and lively sampling of everyday life and, a friendly introduction to major Italian newspapers and columns”, according to the header. Since it is a sampling, it samples national news from around the country. It seems to be sporadic when updating, so it is not the best news source if one is looking for a daily or even weekly source for their Italian news, but it can be useful to see how people who are not from Italy (specifically Americans in this case) view Italian news and how they can portray their news even when they do not live there or experience it firsthand.

 

Title: The Italian Insider

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Social media

Updated daily

How to access: https://twitter.com/italianinsider1?lang=en / Twitter @ItalianInsider1

Description: This source is a Twitter account of a weekly printed newspaper that updates with stories about Italian affairs and the Mediterranean. This source is in English, and is written to provide an English version of the tabloid free press in various regions of Italy. Following the Twitter is a bit different than following a regular news source since there is not a specific way to find exactly something you’re looking for if you don’t search for it specifically in the Twitter itself. You can browse, but it is easier to use the search function. This source can help one learn more about Italy from a social media standpoint, as one can get an idea of how Twitter can be used as a news source.

 

Title: OECD Data

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Data

Updated sporadically

How to access: https://data.oecd.org/italy.htm and http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/country-statistical-profile-italy_20752288-table-ita

Description: This source is more of a source for specifically data on Italy. It has many graphs and other graphics on different aspects of Italy, such as agriculture, development, and education. It is not clear how often this source is updated, but if I were to guess it would be at least annually to reflect the previous year’s statistics as well. It not only has graphs of these topics, but has graphics of rank, showing where Italy stands in relation to other countries around the world. This source can be helpful when learning about Italy because it gives more of a general overview of data based information.

 

Title: Italia News

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Visual/audio

Updated daily

How to access: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiT6hzoVYo26aXj4icVBgDw/featured

Description: This source is a YouTube channel with videos about political news in Italy, mostly national politics. It is mostly opinions of various citizens who run the channel, and it has garnered a large following, probably of people with like views as the people who post these videos. This source seems to be more biased because these people have similar points of view when they make their videos, but it can be helpful when trying to learn about Italy because of this source being biased. It helps one learn not to only trust one source.

 

Title: Gazzetta del Sud

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Newspaper

Updated daily

How to access: http://www.gazzettadelsud.it / Twitter @GazzettaDelSud

Description: This source is a pretty well-known Italian newspaper source that is not as widely used, because it focuses on Southern Italy. It not only covers national Italian stories, but specifically southern news, and even divides into the Southern Italian regions and focuses in on Sicily and Calabria. This source is one of the only sources that focuses on Southern Italy and these regions specifically, which again gives a broader perspective when learning about Italy and reading Italian news.

 

Title: Alguer.it

Author: Multiple authors

Type of source: Newspaper

Updated daily

How to access: http://alguer.it/ / Twitter @AlguerIT

Description: This newspaper source is a city specific source based out of Alghero in Sardinia, an island off the west coast of Italy that is considered part of the country. The name of this news source (Alguer) is the Catalan word for Alghero, though the website is completely in Italian. This source gives a very specific point of view from this city, and has other local editions from Cagliari, Sassari, Olbia, Nuoro, Oristano, and Porto Torres, which are all cities in Sardinia. This source can be useful when learning about Italy because it gives the perspective from the Sardinian island, when most of the news tends to be Northern Italy or Southern Italy. This is the only source on my list that specifically adheres to one region, and it is interesting to get that perspective.

Global News Post 6 – Italy

Venice mayor proposes charging day-trippers

Venice mayor proposes charging day-trippers

When you think of Italy, often near the top of the list of most popular tourist attractions is Venice, the famed lagoon city where you can ride a gondola through the various canals that serve as streets. However, something not many people realize about this city is it has many problems. Some of these problems include the city slowly sinking, the environment is being damaged, and cruise ships that come too close to the city. Another important problem that is often overlooked is the quality of life for the locals. The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, has tried to come up with a solution for “the city’s tourism woes” for a long time now, but has been accused of failing to do so, with over 125,000 people visiting Venice over Easter weekend.

Brugnaro’s latest idea involves only allowing locals to stay there. In an interview with Corriere, he says “the solution is obvious: those who live, work or have a place to sleep in the city can enter, the others must stay away”. His proposal includes making tourists pay a fee to visit the city and even closing the city off on crowded days, though it would appear this could be difficult to uphold. Seeing as these ideas have been under construction for a long time now, it is unclear as to whether or not they will actually happen.

 

Works Cited:

“Venice Mayor Proposes Charging Day-Trippers.” The Local, The Local, 5 Apr. 2018, www.thelocal.it/20180405/venice-mayor-proposes-charging-day-trippers-to-alleviate-overcrowding.

Global News Post 5 – Italy

Italy received more asylum requests in 2017 than any other EU country except Germany

Italy received more asylum requests in 2017 than any other EU country except Germany

In 2017, it is reported that Italy received the second highest amount of asylum requests than any other country in the European Union, only having less than Germany. Germany accounts for a large portion of these requests, coming in at 30%, while Italy comes in at 19.5%. According to Eurostat, These applications came from mostly people from Nigeria (20%), Bangladesh (10%), and Pakistan (7%). Most other countries in the EU receive asylum requests from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Italy rejected over half of these requests, but the article does not include any reasons why this happened. Though Italy finds itself second in the amount of asylum requests it receives, it is not the fastest growing number in the EU. Other countries such as Spain, France, and Greece have requests that currently are growing much quicker.

This article was relatively short, with just specific information regarding Italy and the percentages of its asylum requests last year and that of a few other countries in the EU for comparison purposes. This article was interesting because although I knew a lot of people came to Italy to seek asylum, I did not realize it was the second highest percentage in the EU. Plus this raises the question of why? This is because it is the easiest country to get to from Africa. However, many people soon leave Italy and move onto Germany because things are not that great in Italy if you aren’t a citizen.

Works Cited:

“Italy Received More Asylum Requests in 2017 than Any Other EU Country except Germany.” The Local, The Local, 20 Mar. 2018, www.thelocal.it/20180320/italy-2017-asylum-requests.

Global News Post 4 – Italy

Voting with their feet: Young Italians are leaving Italy in huge numbers – The Local.It

Voting with their feet: Young Italians are leaving Italy in huge numbers

In Italy today, corruption is not hard to find. More Italians are moving abroad because of this corruption, including 28-year-old Imma Arco. She has had a difficult time finding a job and the only option for her now is to pack up and move out of the country. When describing her situation, she said that “there is a lot of corruption in Italy, which makes the situation very difficult. I hope that in England, I’ll feel more rewarded.” Italy is still trying to recover from the 2008 economic crisis and they are so far not having much success, and the younger generation in the country is suffering for it. The unemployment rate for people aged 25-34 is 17% currently. The article goes on to say that “often in Italian companies, a father hands a managerial role down to his son. The son often does not have a degree, he is then reluctant to hire a graduate, and that’s where the damage is done”. Jobs found abroad are “more merit based”. The last part of the article also talks about how hard it is for Italian citizens to plan ahead for things such as having a family because they know they might need to move, and if they don’t have a job that need to move is more likely. According to Eurostat, in 2016 Italy had the lowest birthrate in the European Union for this reason.

This was an interesting article to read because I don’t think a lot of people realize some of the hardships Italy is currently going through. The rest of the world sees it as a beautiful place to vacation and that’s about it. The reality is that because all of these young people are leaving the country to find new job opportunities, the country as a whole “faces a real risk of being brought to its knees”.

Works Cited:

“Voting with their feet: Young Italians are leaving Italy in huge numbers.” The Local, 2 Mar. 2018, www.thelocal.it/20180302/voting-with-their-feet-young-italians-leaving-italy.

Global News Post 3 – Italy

Cortei, sabato ad alta tensione. A Milano studenti sgomberati da monumento – Rai News

This article talks about protests that have occurred in the city center of Milan, where students who are protesting are being evicted from the city centers. Other cities that have been part of these protests include Rome and Pisa, where citizens hold signs that say “Mai piu’ fascismi” (no more fascism) and “Mai piu’ razzismi” (no more racism). These protests began after the racist shooting that occurred in Macerata by a far-right extremist named Luca Traini. He targeted six African migrants, and later it was found that he had a copy of Mein Kampf in his home. The mayor of Milan fears moments of tension following these protests, but the protesters feel as if it is necessary to further their cause.

This article begins by talking about Milan specifically and how protests began there, and continues to detail how the rest of the protests came about in other cities due to the same attack. It is a pretty basic and straightforward article and method of conveying the information, no graphs or fact sheets that are expanding on any information the article gives. The only addition is a slideshow of eight photos that depict the police force removing young people from one of the protests. It is interesting to also note that though the article talks mainly about these protests, it does not say what the outcome was or if they are resolved.

 

Works Cited:

“Giornata di cortei e manifestazioni. A Roma sfila l’Anpi, a Milano in piazza la Lega.” Rainews, www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/articoli/Cortei-sabato-ad-alta-tensione-A-Milano-sgomberi-e-contusi-f6f0e951-994b-4bd8-90f8-e0c7a9afddd9.html?refresh_ce.

Global News Post 2 – Italy

Italy has a worse quality of life than China: survey by The Local

Italy has a worse quality of life than China: survey

Results from a world-wide survey was recently released on what countries people thought had better qualities of life than others. Out of 80 countries listed, Italy was ranked at 22. The countries at the top of the list included the Nordic countries, Canada, the United States, and China, with the top ranking country being Switzerland. When taking other aspects other than quality of life into consideration, Italy came in at 15. This score took into consideration adventure, cultural influence, and heritage. It is well known that Italy is struggling economically right now, so their scores for the entrepreneurship and open for business categories were much lower. Overall, this paints Italy as a country that is much better to visit but not necessarily to live in currently, and “many foreigners who move to Italy report being disappointed with what they find”.

This article not only includes an explanation of all the facts that it gives, but also uses two more specific fact sheets that gives the breakdown of the different scores that Italy has earned. There are two sheets, one that is an overview of life in Italy, with categories such as adventure, citizenship, power, and the general score for quality of life. The second sheet is a specific overview of the quality of life aspect of Italy, with categories such as if it is economically stable, affordable, safe, politically stable, and income equality. Even though Italy overall scored a 15, it scored considerably lower for quality of life, coming in at 22, and I think this definitely says something about the way people live there. People who do not or have not lived in Italy romanticize life there, and according to this article, that might not be the smartest move if someone is planning to move there.

 

Works Cited:

Local, The. “Italy has a worse quality of life than China: survey.” The Local, The Local, 23 Jan. 2018, www.thelocal.it/20180123/italy-quality-of-life-survey.

Pizzoli, Alberto. “Untitled.” The Local, 23 Jan. 2018, Local, The. “Italy has a worse quality of life than China: survey.” The Local, The Local, 23 Jan. 2018, www.thelocal.it/20180123/italy-quality-of-life-survey.

Country Report Draft 1 – Italy

(visual/audio) Rai News: This is the biggest news channel and website in Italy. It is primarily in Italian, and is updated multiple times every day. It covers both national and international news, but focuses more on national news stories.

It is accessed at http://www.rainews.it / Twitter @RaiNews

I chose this site because it is such a major news outlet in Italy and because it covers such a broad array of topics. To stay up to date, I plan on checking it a few times a week and I’ve also followed their Twitter account. I’ve also chosen this source because of it being in Italian, which will help me improve my language skills as I study Italian as my second major.

 

(newspaper 1) La Repubblica: This is another popular Italian news source, being a general-interest newspaper in Rome. It has been around since 1976 and updates daily. Their website even updates multiple times a day, and focuses on both national and international news stories as well as having a funny tab called “Fake News” that displays just that, fake news.

It is accessed at http://www.repubblica.it / Twitter @repubblica

I chose this source because it is also a major news outlet in Italy, specifically the country’s capital, Rome. It is also in Italian so it will further benefit my language acquisition skills, and it also talks about a broad variety of subjects, ranging from politics to sports. I will be checking it a few times a week and also have followed their Twitter to keep up on events.

 

(social media) The Local.it: This source is basically Italian news in English, including international news that specifically pertains to Italy. This website also has other countries it focuses on in Europe, and their goal is to be “a window on life in other cultures”.

It is accessed at https://www.thelocal.it / Twitter @TheLocalItaly

I chose this source because it is a different take on Italian news. After checking out the About Us page on this website, I noticed that none of the people who are reporting on these events are actually from Italy, which is kind of cool to have an outsider perspective on certain events going on there. I will also be checking this site a few times a week with the other ones, and have followed the Twitter too.

 

(newspaper 2) Corriere della Sera: This source is one of the most well-known daily newspapers in Italy. It is another source in Italian, which is great for continuing to learn to read these types of things in Italian. This site is also a great source because you can look into specific regions and even specific cities in those regions, giving a variety of stories from everywhere in Italy.

It is accessed at http://www.corriere.it/index.shtml?refresh_ce / Twitter @Corriere

I chose this source because it is one of the most well-known newspapers in Italy, meaning a great deal of the population read it and their news must be pretty reliable in that case. Also because it covers stories from all over Italy, this is helpful since not all of the stories will be about the same thing.

(data) CIA World Factbook: This source is a government database that has information on all countries in the world, with specific data and facts on each of them. It is divided into different categories that help you identify what exactly you are looking for, ranging from geography to transnational issues.

It is accessed at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/it.html

I chose this source because it is a credible source that will provide me with reliable data on a variety of topics related to my chosen country. It is a great source for both general information and if needed, I can get more specific as well.

 

(new media) Italy Chronicles: This source is a pretty well-known blog that follows different news stories from Italy. It has been running since 2005 and the founder, Alex Roe, has been cited in the Italian press, has been cited in Wikipedia and the Huffington Post, and has also been a commentator on affairs in Italy on the Australian radio.

It is accessed at http://italychronicles.com / Twitter @newsfromitaly

I chose this source because it is one of the only sources I could find that was not a big newspaper from Italy. This source is a blog, and comes from one person detailing news from Italy, and they update at least once a day. I will be going and checking this website daily, as well as following the Twitter.

 

Process:

I mostly used Google to search for sources, seeing as it was so much easier to find sources that way. Generally, the sources I found were pretty popular sources for Italian news, with a few lesser known sources that give a bit of a balance between perspectives and how different sources approach some of the same stories. It felt a bit harder to find international news sources to me, but I also knew what to look for since I have looked at a few of these websites in other Italian classes I’ve taken in the past. I think as for adding new sources in the future drafts, I will try to venture away from Google more, seeing as it can only get me so far. I’d like to try to find more sources with different perspectives as well.

Global News Post 1 – Italy

Meet the People Blocking a New Gas Mega-pipeline in Southern Italy by 350.org

Citizens of southern Italy, specifically Melendugno in Puglia, are protesting the construction of a pipeline that would be potentially extremely damaging to the land, community, and environment around their homes. One of the women protesting the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is Valentina, a local artisan who claims to be protesting because “[she] care[s] a lot about [her] land, and secondly because [she is] tired that so much public money is spent for private gain and for the interest of the few rather than for the population”. The vice mayor of Melendugno, Simone Dima, was also interviewed concerning this matter. He says the people of Melendugno “consider this a useless project because at the national level there is no need for more gas, and [they] consider this a useless project in a territory that has a touristic vocation”.

The people of Melendugno are gaining support increasingly as time goes on because there is an international outcry for banks in Italy to “reject the loans on which the project relies to go ahead”. One of the reasons behind this protest is because TAP is part of the “European Commission’s energy flagship project Southern Gas Corridor”. This project has been talked about a lot more recently because it involves creating new gas infrastructure, but the current infrastructure is “already operating below capacity”.

This article provides many video examples as well as text to accompany them and explain in general what each person does and what they have to say about TAP. To get more specific information, one must watch the videos. I think it absolutely helps that the author of the article decided to include many different points of view, including young and old people, and even the vice mayor of the city.

 

Works Cited:

350.org. “Meet the People Blocking a New Gas Mega-Pipeline in Southern Italy · Global Voices.” Global Voices, 16 Dec. 2017, globalvoices.org/2017/12/13/meet-the-people-blocking-a-new-gas-mega-pipeline-in-southern-italy/.

Zuccotti, Paolo. “Untitled.” Global Voices, 350.Org, 13 Dec. 2017, 350.org. “Meet the People Blocking a New Gas Mega-Pipeline in Southern Italy · Global Voices.” Global Voices, 16 Dec. 2017, globalvoices.org/2017/12/13/meet-the-people-blocking-a-new-gas-mega-pipeline-in-southern-italy/.