Media Outlets in Italia

Today was another great day in Florence. I went to my 8am and 12pm class and in between I went to a few of the stores here. I enjoyed lunch at a great pizza place (that had real pizza not thin crust.) All of the Gators then met up to here a lecture from the editor-at-large for an English paper here in Florence. We learned so much about how media outlets in Italy work as well as some other random facts. So here are a couple of things I learned.

1. 10% of Italians read the daily paper, 80% rely on TV News
2. 90% of Italians are baptized Catholics, only 20% of them attend mass regularly
3. (My Favorite) La Gazzetta dello Sport is a newspaper published here EVERY DAY that contains everything sports! There is usually around 30-50 pages published every day including ratings of futbol (the real futbol) players and even ratings of referees. About 400,000 people read this paper every day and on Mondays it goes up to 3 million due to the fact that soccer games are played on Sundays
3 1/2. The reasons ratings of refs are included are due to a scandal that took place a few years ago.
4. In order to become a journalist in Italy you must pass an entrance exam, belong to a group "Ordine dei Giornalists" and then spend 600 unpaid in your specific field! Talk about an internship.
5. 60% of families in Italy have the internet.
6. The Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi not only has political control but he has a ridiculous control over the media. He (or members of his family) own newspapers, national television channels, and even gossip magazines! So even when he has scandals, there are some media outlets that find a way to divert the attention in some manner.
7. Speaking of Berlusoni, you know how has wife filed for divorce? How about it is a 3 year process to go through a divorce in Italy! Obviously due to the influence of the Catholic Church.
8. Overall we learned that political parties have control over the media, which would never make for any outlet being "fair and balanced"
9. I have a list of the top 5 shows in Italy I will present later, I want to watch one first so you read my opinion of it as well.
10. Most girls in Italy aspire to be a velina. Wikipedia says "veline are two young women in their early twenties, one blonde, the other brunette. Initially, they came onstage to hand the news to the hosts; today they perform short dance breaks or stacchetti, always finishing up on the news anchors’ desk." The view of women in Italy seems as though women are just sexual objects, and there are a few out there attempting to alter this image.

That's all for now! Day trip to Sienna tomorrow!

Ciao!
Alisa