(December 15, 2024, Il Fatto Quotidiano)

In Italy, as in other Western countries, most media outlets are controlled by a few wealthy elites, including Cairo (Corriere della Sera, La7), Agnelli (Repubblica, La Stampa), Berlusconi (Mediaset), Caltagirone (Il Messaggero, Il Mattino), and Angelucci (Il Giornale, Il Tempo, Libero). This overlap between media and economic power has compromised information integrity, leading to a loss of credibility, prestige, and readers. Between 2013 and 2020, major Italian newspapers (Corriere della Sera, Repubblica, Il Sole 24 Ore, and La Stampa) lost 44-54% of their circulation. Similar trends are evident internationally, with UK newspapers dropping 30% in the same period, and the Washington Post losing 77 million dollars in 2023 and half its readership since 2020.

Despite declining sales, the ultra-wealthy remain interested in media ownership to shape and control dominant narratives. While Berlusconi-era conflicts of interest focused on domestic affairs, today’s narratives align geopolitically across Western nations. Internationally, three major news agencies—Associated Press (U.S.), Agence France-Presse (France), and Reuters (UK)—dominate the dissemination of global news, shaping narratives that transcend national boundaries. This new frontier of constrained information freedom plays a crucial role in guiding public opinion in Western countries, sometimes even steering them towards war.

Contrasting this claustrophobic media environment, social media platforms offer an alternative, despite their chaotic and unregulated nature. Platforms like YouTube allow users to curate networks of high-quality references. TikTok, a Chinese-owned platform, has gained significant traction in Western countries, provoking concerns about its potential use for spreading disinformation in hybrid warfare scenarios. For example, unexpected election outcomes, like in Romania, are often attributed to social media influence. Claims of Russian disinformation campaigns impacting the 2016 U.S. presidential election were debunked by a 2023 Nature study, which found no significant link between Russian campaigns and changes in voter attitudes, polarization, or behavior.

While social media has been scrutinized for enabling the spread of fake news, the traditional media’s role in shaping public narratives has been largely overlooked. Social platforms have grown to reach 3.9 billion users worldwide, compared to 2.1 billion in 2015, while traditional media mainly caters to older generations. This generational divide highlights the vast, real-time transformations fueled by social media, changes that remain poorly understood. The rise of new platforms further complicates efforts to control these spaces, underscoring the growing gap between reality and its mediated narrative.

(Published in Il Fatto Quotidiano)