Connected and abandoned. Vices and virtues of multiplatform communication in the age of complexity

The contribution, focused on the results of empirical research, analyses the impact of communication and digital networks on perceived insecurity, starting from the content of media narratives around terrorist attacks (years 2015-2020), collected through the administration of focus groups to preadolescents and adolescents and in-depth interviews with media and police officers. The data collection allowed the elaboration of proposals that go beyond the issues related to international terrorism and aim at interpreting and countering distortions in media narratives by guiding media and public space operators in other complex contexts, e.g. the pandemic and war that have upset geopolitical balances, and information production routines (Gavrila, Morcellini 2022). Such evidence is complemented by an in-depth analysis of the new Testo Unico per i Media Audiovisivi (TUSMA) approved in December 2021. By imposing minimum standards for non-linear audiovisual media services with a view to the protection of minors, this Directive extends the field of harmonised Community law and it emerges that hyper-communication is no guarantee of the quality of communication (Wolton, 2016), rather it generates a sense of inadequacy and places us in a deficit condition. In this context, attention to the universe of audiovisual media must be pronounced, since it is multiplatform content that is part of minors' communicative diet. The shared commitment should be substantiated in a strategy that allows the audiovisual media to be a safe space to the development of children and young people, aimed at the revival of society (Colombo 2000, Gavrila 2021a). In this direction, the new TUSMA provides the protection of vulnerable groups and national and international security from violence and hatred (Gavrila 2021b). The concluding thesis is that media practitioners should become aware of their communication responsibilities, which implies the assimilation of the ethical dimension as a daily practice for the protection of minors.