In terms of media content, according to the Global Media Monitoring Project, over the past 20 years, the status of women in the Italian news media has hardly changed. Although the news is increasingly presented and produced by female journalists (36% in the Global Media Monitoring Project, 2015), it is mostly men that make the news as subjects (Azzalini & Padovani, 2015). In traditional media (radio, television, and newspapers), which have been monitored since 1995, the visibility of women as sources or subjects of news has increased from 7 to 21 per cent (Azzalini & Padovani, 2016), below the European and global average (25% and 24% of women subjects, respectively) (Global Media Monitoring Project, 2015).
Furthermore, women as sources of news are seldom included as authoritative expert voices (18.5%) or spokespersons (13.3%), while stereotyped representations are paralleled by the irrelevance of gender-related issues (4% of all news). This demonstrates a profound gap between the advancement of women in society and the image of women (and men) as reflected by news media (Azzalini & Padovani, 2015).
According to the Osservatorio di Pavia (2018), gender inequality issues are being addressed in the planning of public service media RAI. One-fourth of the 263 analysed items refer to gender, with violence against women being the most-discussed item. Women and gender identities are represented respectfully (in 98.3% and 98.8%, respectively, of the analysed cases), and gender stereotypes appear to be challenged in 7.5 per cent of cases only. The presence of women and men in television programmes is still unequal (37% versus 63%), while explicit or subtle stereotypes still persist (4.4% and 7.8%, respectively).
A specific and sensitive topic is violence against women, particularly femicide. From 2015 to 2017, a study by the University of Torino in partnership with the RAI Research Center investigated how femicide is normalised in the public and media discourses (press, local televisions, and some online environments, and social media). The coverage of femicide and gender violence still appears as highly stereotyped and not capable of, nor interested in, innovating public narratives.
We can highlight that article 25 of the Service Contractthat licences the RAI calls for the adoption of regular gender-monitoring of RAI content (besides what has been covered in Indicator F8 – Rules and practices on internal gender equality). A yearly report is produced by an independent company, and the latest report is available on the RAI website and results from a study conducted by the Osservatorio di Pavia (2018). Despite progress made by the public service with regard to the adoption of internal rules, recommendations, and guidelines regarding the promotion of gender equality in media content (i.e., Service Contract 2018–2022), no other specific initiative can be reported from the MDM leading media outlets. Although a Manifesto delle giornaliste e dei giornalisti per il rispetto e la parità di genere nell’informazione [Manifesto of women and men journalists for the respect and gender parity in news and against all forms of violence and discrimination through words and image] was launched in 2017 by the Equality Commission of the FNSI, Unione Sindacale Giornalisti Rai (UsigRAI) and GiULiA Giornaliste (the Manifesto di Venezia [Venice Manifesto]), leading mainstream media lack recommendations and guidelines for gender-sensitive coverage of gender-based violence.
Various civic and professional initiatives, as well as women’s alternative media outlets, exist. Amongst Italian leading media specifically focused on media gender-transformative content, we report Corriere della Sera’s 27esima ora and the web pages managed by GIornaliste Unite LIbere Autonome (GiULiA) Globalist.
Gender and media monitoring activities are carried out by observatories like Gemma (Gender and Media Matter, University of Rome), TV Fai-da-te (University of Bologna), and Inchiaro (University of Milan Bicocca). A prominent role is played by Cares (Osservatorio di Pavia). A recently established good practice is 100 Donne Contro gli Stereotipi [100 Women Against Stereotypes], a dataset of women experts created in 2016 to which journalists can refer when looking for diverse sources, in order to promote a balanced representation of women and men’s competences in the news.
