An Eye Opener

My Italian Cultural History class painted a very different picture of Italy from the one I had when I first arrived. The two most shocking topics we discussed were the control of the media by the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and the view of women in the media. The prime minister controls about 90% of the media.  Because of this, he has been known to state something in a press conference, then deny ever having made the statement and order the television networks and newspapers not to report the original statement. Citizen Berlusconi, a PBS documentary on the control Berlusconi has over the government and media, gives a thorough description of the extent of his power and can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSw1pu3IcBE.  Berlusconi has also changed the way women are viewed by altering the way they are portrayed on television.  This short documentary, http://www.ilcorpodelledonne.net/?page_id=91,  shows the images of women that are seen daily.  One might argue that we have similar programming in the United States, but according to my professor, the portrayal of women as sex objects occurs on majority of the television stations all hours of the day, and children grow up watching these shows.  Although similar programs may be found on some cable networks, it is not the only option for entertainment by television.  What shocked me even more was the fact that women are not protesting the way they are portrayed in the media—as pieces of meat for sale, as the last scene in the documentary literally depicts. These two classes allowed me to see a different side of Italy, and took away some of the romance of the country, which Italy portrays to the outside world. 

 

A short update on my desire to volunteer while in Italy: I asked the resident director to help me find a place to volunteer and she said it would be difficult to do during the summer but would look into it.   I followed up with her about a week later and she had not found anything yet (although I’m not sure how hard she looked), so I decided to try and find a place by myself.  I located an elementary school that I believe had summer camps and went to ask if I could volunteer there.  Unfortunately, no one there spoke English, and my Italian is not very strong, therefore, I was unable to express my desire to volunteer.  As much as I would like to continue to try and locate a place to volunteer, I realize that I do not have very many weeks left in Italy and it will be very difficult to convince someone to allow me to volunteer for such a short period of time.