Public Service Communication in Italy: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

RAI (Radioaudizioni Italiane), the Italian Public Service Broadcaster (PSB), has a distinctive history, which, in some respects, sets it apart from other European PSBs. Its mixed funding structure of advertising and licence fee, and its regulatory framework and governance, which have fostered a close relationship between the government of the day and the leadership of the corporation, are some of the most important elements defining RAI’s history. A practice known as lottizzazione (the allocation of positions of power inside the broadcaster according to a quota system based on political affiliation) and the concentration of media and political power in the hands of Silvio Berlusconi, majority owner of Fininvest/Mediaset¹ (the main commercial broadcaster) and three times prime minister (1994–5; 2001–6; 2008-present) add layers of complexity to this history. In an environment characterised by a large number of parties and a conflict-based democracy (Hallin and Mancini, 2004), and poisoned by decades of an unresolved conflict of interests between Berlusconi’s private holdings and his public office,² questions arise as to the conditions of the country’s PSB, the future of its Public Service Media (PSM) and, more generally, about the significance of the Italian experience for broader concerns about the health of contemporary democracies (Ginsborg, 2005: 185–90).