The global economic crisis is an issue that has been debated for several years. When an event or phenomenon appears on the horizon, some kind of meaning must be ascribed to render it familiar; the perspective of social representations (SRs) is an appropriate theoretical framework to investigate how it happens (Moscovici, 1961; 1976). SRs are reproduced and co-constructed through communication which includes the interaction between people and with the media (Moscovici, 1984). Mass communication are thus one of the possible starting points to study the construction of social reality; the crisis began to receive heightened attention by the Italian media, especially from September 2008, and became a central topic in the discourses they produced (De Rosa, Bocci & Bulgarella, 2010). The present study investigates SRs of the crisis conveyed by Italian newspapers between 2007 (the year in which financial crisis began to be felt) and 2013. Its aim is to highlight: 1) the content of the representation along time, 2) how the phenomenon is objectified through metaphorical language. More than six thousand headlines were collected from four Italian newspapers: Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Il Giornale and Il Manifesto. The first two were chosen as the most read newspapers in Italy; the last two dailies in reason of their political line-up. The texts underwent a lexicometrical analysis using Taltac2 software. The results showed that the crisis was represented for the most part as an ”illness coming from afar” or as an ”inevitable disaster” that was shaped by an ”agentic entity”. These interpretations construct an event about which little or nothing could be done except for to suffer/endure or to try to stem the rising tide. SRs are strictly correlated to practices (Jovchelovitch, 1996), as well as feelings (Chryssochoou, Papastamou & Prodromitis, 2013). A representation of a crisis that evokes passivity and only the possibility of ”seeking shelter from the storm” precludes any possibility of responding proactively to the situation. The main results will be illustrated and discussed with particular reference to the metaphors detected as well as to their implications for individuals’ perceived lack of agency.
Crossing the abyss of the crisis. Social representations of the economic crisis in the Italian press / Rizzoli, Valentina; Diego, Romaioli; Contarello, Alberta. - (2016). (Intervento presentato al convegno 13th International Conference on Social Representations, tenutosi a Marseille (FR)).
Crossing the abyss of the crisis. Social representations of the economic crisis in the Italian press
VALENTINA RIZZOLI;
2016
Abstract
The global economic crisis is an issue that has been debated for several years. When an event or phenomenon appears on the horizon, some kind of meaning must be ascribed to render it familiar; the perspective of social representations (SRs) is an appropriate theoretical framework to investigate how it happens (Moscovici, 1961; 1976). SRs are reproduced and co-constructed through communication which includes the interaction between people and with the media (Moscovici, 1984). Mass communication are thus one of the possible starting points to study the construction of social reality; the crisis began to receive heightened attention by the Italian media, especially from September 2008, and became a central topic in the discourses they produced (De Rosa, Bocci & Bulgarella, 2010). The present study investigates SRs of the crisis conveyed by Italian newspapers between 2007 (the year in which financial crisis began to be felt) and 2013. Its aim is to highlight: 1) the content of the representation along time, 2) how the phenomenon is objectified through metaphorical language. More than six thousand headlines were collected from four Italian newspapers: Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Il Giornale and Il Manifesto. The first two were chosen as the most read newspapers in Italy; the last two dailies in reason of their political line-up. The texts underwent a lexicometrical analysis using Taltac2 software. The results showed that the crisis was represented for the most part as an ”illness coming from afar” or as an ”inevitable disaster” that was shaped by an ”agentic entity”. These interpretations construct an event about which little or nothing could be done except for to suffer/endure or to try to stem the rising tide. SRs are strictly correlated to practices (Jovchelovitch, 1996), as well as feelings (Chryssochoou, Papastamou & Prodromitis, 2013). A representation of a crisis that evokes passivity and only the possibility of ”seeking shelter from the storm” precludes any possibility of responding proactively to the situation. The main results will be illustrated and discussed with particular reference to the metaphors detected as well as to their implications for individuals’ perceived lack of agency.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
