Page 116 - The Professionalisation of Political Communication Chaning Media, Changing Europe Volume 3

Political Communication.qxd 12/7/06 7:30 pm Page 113
Political Communication.qxd 5/1/07 15:06 Page 115

POLITICAL PROFESSIONALISM IN ITALY | 113

and skills that are typical of the business sector. If he brought these skills, and the
people able to perform them, from his own companies, as we shall see later on, his
opponents obtained the same skills from the professional market. The highly
competitive communication market that suddenly replaced the public service oriented
scene altered the requirements for political communication and pushed it more
towards entertainment. Consequently, political debate became more dramatised and
not dissimilar to other forms of television spectacles and television entertainment in
general.

Italian political life itself became more dramatised and much more of a spectacle than
in other countries. From being a country in which the competition for new markets
(both at the level of the political market and media market) was almost completely
absent, Italy became the country of political drama (Ceccarelli, 2003). When D’Alema,
leader of the ex-communist party, became Prime Minister in 1999 he brought to
Palazzo Chigi, the seat of government, a number a young professionals with skills and
personal experiences in mass communication (Cattaneo & Zanetto, 2003). As an
example of the overlap between political communication and entertainment and
between the political environment and the professional market, when D’Alema
resigned as Prime Minister, one of his collaborators became press secretary on the TV
own
series, ‘Big Brother’, another established his how firm of political consulting, and yet
another went back inside the DS party as chair of the Communication Department.

When in government, these individuals were essentially involved in spinning activity
that, at that moment, was a completely new approach to Italian democracy. At the
same time, they made great efforts to organise the sorts of events that would give
the D’Alema government opportunities to enhance its relationships with the mass
media in ways that were not part of the culture of the traditional leftists in Italy:
D’Alema met Bono, leader of the pop band U2, and an important Italian singer,
Giovanotti, at Palazzo Chigi; he prepared a risotto during a famous talk show. The
centre-left government of D’Alema inaugurated another professionalised activity
that would be pursued by the next Berlusconi government: TV ads were broadcast to
promote the initiatives and the legislative accomplishments of the government. All
these activities show a completely new attitude to the relationship between
government and mass media – the same new attitude that would be even more
evident in campaigning.

This new attitude and approach to the media has been substantially improved upon by
the Berlusconi government that followed the D’Alema government, with an even more Political Professionalism in Italy
important role being given to its press agents, who really took on the spinning function
that had not, up until then, been practiced in Italy. Building on suggestions drawn from
polls and surveys, Berlusconi is able to shape media content and set the public agenda
by selecting the topics, the language and the statements that very often appear to be
outside the realm of politics but that give a voice to that part of the electorate – the 115