Pluralism of viewpoints is regularly controlled by the Communications Guarantee Authority (Agcom). Private television broadcasters respect the par condicio during election periods, while the public service is obliged to allocate air time proportionally to all the political forces in Parliament.
Italian leading news media do not seem to be truly open and accessible to the public, since readers and audiences are rarely involved in the information production process. Contrasting trends can be found. An increased awareness of the importance of using social media among information professionals goes together with limited management of the relational elements of digital platforms.
Though Italian legislation does not explicitly require the adoption of self-regulatory mechanisms, several leading media newsrooms adopt internal codes of ethics.
In Italy, the profession and deontology are characterised by a relevant number of codes pertaining to different aspects, and establishing principles and norms, but these are seldom known or explicitly considered guidelines in newsroom practice.
Monitoring instruments for media content in the Italian landscape are numerous and diversified. In this scenario, the presence of Agcom, which works to protect pluralism also through a series of monitoring activities, should be underlined.
In Italy, the price represents an entrance barrier for few households in terms of access to information. Although almost all of the Italian population accesses the media, and over 80 per cent of citizens access information every day, lower education and economic levels can lead to the exclusion or marginalisation of certain segments of the population from the consumption of news.
Minority and alternative media play an important role in the Italian news media market, particularly for linguistic minority groups, who the Italian Constitution guarantees provision of relevant news access by both public and private initiatives. The plurality of non-commercial and civic initiatives, often connected to the so-called third sector, is also meaningful.
The diversity of news formats in Italy is quite rich. A high degree of abundance characterises different media sectors, with positive results for democracy.
The Italian national and local news media landscape is not easy to analyse, as it is hard to disentangle the local from the national dimension. The overall level of concentration is moderate.
The Italian landscape shows moderate media ownership concentration, with some market-dominant positions by large companies.
The Media for Democracy Monitor (MDM) is a research project from The Euromedia Research Group. This is a network of researchers that collects and exchanges information that help to describe and analyse developments in media structure and policy in Europe.
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