Luca Barra

The mediation is the message Italian regionalization of US TV series as co-creational work

• The article focuses on the co-creational labour made by professionals (and non-professionals) who, in a non-Anglo-Saxon country such as Italy, adapt and modify (heavily or slightly) the ‘original’ media products (i.e. TV series) in order to make them accessible to the domestic audience. After a concise introduction on the ‘Italianization’ process, the article proceeds to describe two ways of adapting nationally: the professional translation and dubbing system and the grassroots fansubbing phenomenon. The attention is both on the production routines and on their influence on the meaning of the text. •

TV Goes Social: Italian Broadcasting Strategies and the Challenges of Convergence

In recent years, the Italian television scenario has become fully convergent, and social TV is an activity – and a hip buzzword – indicating both a rich set of possibilities for the audience to engage with TV shows, and an important asset developed by television industry to provide such engagement, with promotional and economic goals. Mainly adopting the perspective of the production cultures of Italian broadcasters, the essay will explore the “Italian way to social television”, highlighting the strategies adopted by networks and production companies to encourage online television discourse and to exploit it as a content, a marketing device or a source of supplementary income.

Paratexts, Italian style: The promotional cultures of Italian commercial and pay television broadcasters

In recent years, the completed transition towards a fully developed multichannel environment and the growth of non-linear offers has brought to the Italian television (TV) landscape unprecedented attention on the ways in which programmes are communicated to the audience and their images and identities are carefully built. The preparation and circulation of promos have therefore grown in importance and relevance in the national TV industry, as new original practices emerged and a long-lasting tradition was challenged by new formats and goals. Building on a set of in-depth interviews with professionals involved in the writing, production and distribution of promos, and analysis of other production materials, the article reconstructs the ‘promotional cultures’ of Italian broadcasters, analysing the main production processes, the different kinds of promos and the various skills involved, and the logics and constraints involved in the making of these ephemeral paratexts that more and more are pervading both the structure of programming flow and the experience of national TV viewers. Thus, the article investigates the professional practices and logics of contemporary commercial and pay TV programme promotion in Italy, defining the role played by national private broadcasters and transnational groups in shaping an Italian promotional space on TV. The ‘Italian style’ of TV show promotion emerges as a constant negotiation between local historical traditions and clichés, on the one hand, and international trends in promo production and aesthetics, on the other, with a solid path shared with other countries and broadcasters, and some peculiar specificities.

Invisible Mediations. The Role of Adaptation and Dubbing Professionals in Shaping US TV for Italian Audiences

With the increasing global circulation of media products, professionals devoted to the process of audiovisual translation and ‘national mediation’ for foreign ready-made programmes have gained a central role in contemporary TV. Presenting the results of an ethnographical study, this essay explores the ‘invisible art’ of TV adaptation and dubbing, explaining its procedures, traditions and challenges. Adaptation has to consider both the technical necessities of the audio-visual and cross-cultural aspects of translation, while dubbing involves extremely intricate production routines, professionals with different skills, written and unwritten rules, a range of different workplaces, economic investments and traditions. The result is a new text, modified following contrasting linguistic, cultural and professional goals.

Cinema multiforme. Pratiche di consumo e strategie di offerta del film in televisione e nello scenario convergente

Sulla base dei risultati di una ricerca qualitativa, il lavoro indaga da una parte il mutato ruolo dello spettatore del cinema sulle piattaforme televisive e digitali in uno scenario pienamente convergente, proponendo in particolare tre profili di consumo (onnivoro, leggero e tradizionale) che illustrano le combinazioni tra le diverse offerte e le complesse valorizzazioni del contenuto-film e un modello a piramide rovesciata che inserisce le tecnologie di fruizione in rapporto alle pratiche spettatoriali convergenti, e dall’altra le reazioni, le logiche e le strategie dell’offerta televisiva e mediale che tengono necessariamente conto di questo scenario multiforme e in evoluzione. Building on the results of a qualitative research, the authors investigate, on the one hand, the varied role of cinema viewers on television and digital platforms, inside a fully convergent media scenario. In particular, the essay defines three different consumption profiles (omnivore, light and traditional), to illustrate the combination between an abundant offer and the different appreciation of films, and shows an inverted-pyramid model combining consumption technologies and convergent viewing practices. On the other hand, it studies the reactions, logics and strategies of TV and media offer, necessarily taking into account an evolving, multiple scenario.

Blurred Lines, Distinct Forces: The Evolving Practices of Italian TV Audiences in a Convergent Scenario

This chapter builds on the final results of a several-years-long qualitative research on Italian convergent television, mainly focusing on the different professional and cultural approaches to television and media convergence and on the changes in television viewers’ consumption habits and practices, following or reacting to broadcasters’ production strategies. An original “pyramid” model of “weak” and “strong” audience engagement is presented, to represent effectively the relationships between television shows and their audiences and the different possible practices. The model is also particularly effective in explaining the more recent trends inside the Italian scenario. These changes in viewing practices and in the interplay between broadcasters and audiences have been divided into four categories to offer a fluid and unstable yet accurate portrait of television convergent consumption.

Taboo Comedy on Television: Issues and Themes

The two interdisciplinary fields of Humour and Television Studies can offer interesting insights into the underlying mechanisms and functions of taboo comedy on TV. This chapter highlights some of the main issues pertaining to the subject of this collection of essays by offering an overview of some central and recurring themes and tensions emerging from an observation of a variety of television shows tackling controversial comedy. By discussing both wider issues, such as the appreciation and perceived (un)acceptability of taboo comedy, and more specific themes connected to programming and the representation of reality on television, this chapters aims at offering a multidisciplinary frame of reference for the study of controversial humour in this medium.