Ideological and Political Polarization in the Italian Radio System—between Revolution and Conspiracy

Political and Ideological polarization in Italian radio system From the first forms of amateur experimentation to the latest modern digital hybridization, the history of Italian radio is strongly linked to the innovations, changes and humors of society and politics of the Bel Paese. In almost a century of existence, Italian radio was first a formidable medium of propaganda in the hands of the fascist regime, then a vehicle of resistance during the years of Radio Londra and radios that supported the partisan fight against nazi-fascist. After World War II, Italian radio system crystallized in the monopoly of the public service broadcaster Rai, until the liberalization of local frequencies in the mid-70s started the remarkable - and unregulated - season of proliferation of the so-called Free Radios. In the last forty years in Italy, public radio and commercial radio have been co-existing, both at national and local level (Monteleone 2013). Thanks to the adaptability of the means of production, diffusion, and consumption (especially of the contents), this system has been able to evolve and survive first the television hegemony, and then the internet revolution (Zanchini 2017). In this period, radio has played a major role in collecting, reporting, and sometimes to exciting, the feelings of italian society. For its interactive nature and the emphasis on audience participation in radio programs - since 1969 in the radio show Chiamate Roma 3131 - radio has had to be the repository, megaphone, sometimes spokesman, of the most innovative and radical instances of the last troubled century of Italian history (Simonelli 2014). A relationship of confidence and trust with public opinion that has been manifested even in the most controversial and difficult moments of the republic, and on the most conflicting issues that divided and inflamed the public and political debate over the years (Menduni 2012). The already mentioned reference to the link between radio and Italian political history is not accidental and is fundamental to understanding how the radio medium has given the possibility to these positions more ideologically polarized to find a voice. The aim of this chapter is to present a historical-analytical cross-section of the most significant Italian radio experiences that have provided voice for the polarized souls of the Italian public debate, at different times and in different ways. Starting from the definition of polarization as the divergence of positions placed at the extremes of a continuum provided with meaning (Lelkes 2016), two specific case studies were selected, which are relevant because, in different ways, they gave representation to the political and ideological polarization of Italian society. The first case study is part of the broader field of radio stations born as an organ or in support of political parties and movements. A trend that was already present in Italy at the end of the Rai monopoly in 1976 with the liberalization of local radio and television frequencies, which still survives in radio stations such as Radio Padania, a historic broadcaster related to Lega, Italian center-right party, or the more recent (and digital) Radio Immagina, a radio station affiliated with the center-left Partito Democratico. More specifically, the chapter will reconstruct the history, and present the most significant experiences, of radios born in support of extra-parliamentary political organizations that had a leading role in the season of political fervor that has become history as gli Anni di piombo. Between the end of the '60s and the beginning of the '80s of the last century, Italy experienced a period of severe social and political tensions. During this period, a galaxy of subversive groups from the far right and the far left stirred up a radical political revolution which, in its hottest moments, resulted in street violence, massacres and political terrorism. A season that is not easy to analyze, whose causes, actors involved (even parts of the Italian State), and implications are still unclear . On the wave of these ideologically polarized movements, not all of them violent, were created some radio stations that became a symbol and speaker of that season. They were not necessarily bodies of those movements, more often the stations were opened and managed amatorially by militants and sympathizers, who embraced to the message of those groups not only in content, but also in the productive organization and distance from the commercial logic. In the mid-1970s, it was mainly the left-wing movements that saw the potential of radio as a medium for militancy, propaganda, and proselytizing: radio stations as Radio Città Futura from Rome, Radio Alice and Radio Città from Bologna, also Radio Aut by Peppino Impastato - a symbol of the fight against Mafia - collected a large amount of support and from those newsrooms emerged journalists and professionals who influenced the way of doing radio in the following years (Dark 2019). Even in the area of the far right movement, in that same period few radio stations were born, among the most important Radio Gamma and Radio Contro from Rome, Radio University and Radio Alternativa from Milan. These, however, had neither the same following nor the same influence as the left-wing radio stations. Some of these experiences, both in the far-right area and in the far-left area , survive to this day although they have adopted different names and forms. It will be interesting to see how these have evolved, adapted and faced the changes in Italian society and the technological developments of radio broadcasting. The second case study, meanwhile, belongs to the field of mainstream radio and focuses on the polarization of opinions over proplematic issues or trigger events. Although today the polarization of themes and opinions is not one of the dominant features of the informational programs in Italian commercial radio stations - a trend that is much more significant in television - in recent years, a few programs and radio stations, both national and local, even with a wide circulation and excellent audience numbers, have made the conflictual debate the stylistic signature of their contents (Atzori 2017). The Covid-19 pandemic, and the subsequent vaccination campaign, offer in this sense an extraordinary opportunity to identify two realities that, more than others, have provided a voice for conflicting and polarized positions with respect to public health policies and means of combating the virus. The first example is the radio show La Zanzara on air on Radio24. La Zanzara is a radio talk show on air since 2006, created by Gabriele Cruciani and hosted by Cruciani himself and by the journalist David Parenzo (since 2010). The success of the program owes a lot to the phone calls from the audience, the conductors leave the listeners basically free to say their opinion on the topic of the episode without any filters. It frequently happens that the tones of La Zanzara get high and that conductors and listeners insult each other. The subjects treated mainly range between current affairs and politics. Over the years, the radio program has drawn a great amount of controversy, due to the vulgarity of the language and the polemical and conflicting tones of the hosts and of the phone calls from home. During these two pandemic years, the radio show received strong critiques for the attention given to Maurizio Buratti - better known as Mauro da Mantova - no vax coachbuilder who died of Covid, who after being infected had proudly boasted, on a live phone call, that he had gone to the supermarket with his mask down despite being positive. Mauro da Mantova thanks to his phone calls has become a sort of recurrent character within the program, and his statements, even those that may have been dangerous for public health, were commented by the presenters with the usual ironic vein. This has led to a debate in the Italian public opinion on the appropriateness of giving visibility, in the Italian mainstream media system, to anti-vaccine supporters . The second example concernes a local radio station: Radio Radio, one of the most listened radio stations in the area of Rome. It ascended to national attention at the end of 2021 when Enrico Michetti, one of the historic speakers of the roman radio station, was indicated as a candidate of the center-right parties in the mayor of Rome election. Radio Radio has its roots in the vibrant world of football-themed radio stations in the capital, in which it plays a leading role to the point of earning an appearance in the famous TV series Suburra dedicated to the world of roman crime. Not only sport, however, the Roman broadcaster over the past year has been engaged in a real campaign against the "health dictatorship", which means against political imposition of measures to counter the spread of Covid. Dissent from the use of masks, protests against closures during the first lockdown period in March 2020, opposes the introduction of a Green Pass - digital certificate of vaccination, which, starting from July 2021 in Italy, will allow the vaccinated to access to various types of social and work activities - and of course anti-vaccine. All this supported by the recurring presence of guests such as philosopher Diego Fusaro, and psychologist Alessandro Meluzzi, openly hostile to vaccination and supporters of conspiracy theories on the virus . The analysis of these two different cases of polarization will allow us to look at the different ways in which radical opinions find representation in the Italian radio medium and the consequences they bring to public and political debate. In a system still characterized by a strong presence of Rai public service and a commercial radio that mainly targets entertainment and music rather than information (Atzori 2018), experiments such as those of the radio stations dedicated to "movements" and radio programs with a strong polemical connotation such as La Zanzara and Radio Radio still represent a "unicum", and for this reason it is increasingly interesting and important to recount and analyze them. Mauro Bomba Aida Picone