The metadiscourse on the representation of Femminicidio in the media
Following the relocation of Italian discussions on femicide from the small niche of feminist discourse to the mainstream media sphere in 2012, the coverage of cases with women as murder victims widened significantly, both in traditional (newspapers and television) and in new media channels (online journalism).1 This new visibility lead to the development, by feminist activists and scholars, of a critique of the journalistic portrayal of femicide that can be labeled as metadiscourse, in light of its reflexive nature.
A crucial and precursory role, in this sense, was played by the media activist Luisa Betti, who denounced the frequent description of lethal gender violence cases as crimes of passion and outbursts of violence linked to jealousy or psychiatric issues (2014). According to Betti, this tendency, which is often coupled with the inclination to blame the victim for her behaviors, contributes to excuse the perpetrator, thus minimizing the social relevance of the phenomenon and its political implications (2014). Bettiās insights on this topic were confirmed by a scholarly analysis published by Pina Lalli and Chiara Gius, which highlighted the frequent use of the frames of romantic love and loss of control in Italian news coverage (2014:63ā66). The authors of the study contend that both frames present femicide as the āconsequence of mere contingencyā and, in so doing, validate āthe idea that intimate partner femicides are not just impossible to prevent and to predict, but that they are part of the ānatural course of things.āā (71) Further research on the topic demonstrated the persistence of narrative techniques that absolve the perpetrator of responsibility (Abis and OrrĆ¹ 2016; Giomi 2015:567ā568) and objectify the victim by eroticizing her or by presenting her as subaltern to the partner/former partner (Abis and OrrĆ¹ 2016).
Furthermore, the association of women journalists Gi.U.Li.A. (Giornaliste Unite, Libere, Autonome) [United, Free and Autonomous Women Journalists] provided the feminist metadiscourse on the representation of femicide in Italian media with a substantial contribution by disseminating the aforementioned insights and research among professionals and the general public. Among other activities, Gi.U.Li.A. translated and promoted the Guidelines for Reporting on Violence Against Women drafted by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in 2014. The guidelines circulated widely among Italian journalists who participated in specific training courses organized by the association (Gaiaschi 2018:241). The document encourages reporters to use accurate, non-judgemental language that takes into account the victimās agency without blaming her. It also recommends journalists dealing with gender violence to make reference to the social context from which patriarchal abuse stems avoiding euphemistic, minimizing, and spectacularizing expressions (IFJ 2014).
This short outline testifies to the vitality of feminist discourse on femicide in Italy and shades light on the relevance of the metadiscourse on the portrayal of the phenomenon by media. Feministsā decision to embed in their critique of lethal gender violence a careful analysis of its representation demonstrates, in turn, the importance that narratives play in challenging the existing patriarchal milieu linked to the practice of gendered killing. In light of this, the present part investigates the reception of feminist theorizations on femicide and its portrayal in journalistic inquiries published in books, with the objective of evaluating the narrativesā ability to engage ethically with femicidal events.
Investigative journalism on Femminicidio: general tendencies
Despite scholars having long discussed the lack of dynamism that seems to characterize investigative journalism in Italy (Pansa 1985; Bianda 2003; Bellu 2005; Agostini 2005), in the case of femicide this genre happens to be prolific and has produced a significant amount of books2 and TV programs3 but only a few in-depth investigations published in newspapers or magazines.4 This is not surprising if we consider the general reluctance of Italian inquiries to occupy spaces traditionally associated with the journalistic practice and its corresponding tendency to expand into different channels (Bianda 2003; Bellu 2005; Agostini 2005). As Angelo Agostini pointed out, the Italian inchiesta has extensively permeated the non-fiction publishing sector (labeled as saggistica in the peninsula) to the point of revitalizing the book format (2005:138). Among other things, this has been made possible by the increasing levels of integration between investigative journalism and feature writing, which resulted in the adoption of a narrative style that guarantees accessibility among a wide range of readers (Bianda 2006:198). For this reason, the genre of journalistic inquiry seems to fulfill the political function of building community and aggregation upon the discussion of social phenomena that affect the country, despite its chronic inability to directly affect Italian institutional power dynamics (Bianda 2006:199).
The associative and relational value of the inquiry is crucial to the narration of femicide because it allows the representation of gender-based violence as a systemic practice that involves all members of the community on different levels. To put it in other words, the inquiry is a genre that incentives peopleās aggregation and in so doing, serves the needs of feminist discourse, which insists on the importance of looking at femicide as the extreme manifestation of a continuum of violence embedded in the patriarchal culture that pervades all of society (Radford 1992:3ā4). The relevance of such a narrative practice to the topic of lethal gender violence is confirmed by the success of the previously mentioned TV show format, which shares characteristics with journalistic inquiries published as books. As Enrico Bianda stressed, they both expand the space of the newspaper article into a broader piece where cases can be analyzed in-depth and they open up to the possibility of experimenting with narrative strategies explicitly aimed at triggering the emotional reaction of the reader/audience (2006:198).
Scholarly research on the representation of femicide in Italian TV programs dedicated to the in-depth coverage of the phenomenon has highlighted the emotional and empathic potential of the format (Binik 2015). However, the same programs have been extensively condemned by feminist critics who have noticed how they tend to build audience aggregation and sentimental participation on the basis of simplification and entertainment. Examples of this include the image of victims and perpetrators offered in TV shows like Quarto grado and Amore criminale, where murdered women are often depicted as ideal martyrs who conform to traditional gender roles (Binik 2015) while offenders are generally treated as people who kill out of deviancy or passion (Serra 2014). Together with these simplified representations that do not showcase the complexity of gender violence and its connection to the performance of patriarchal gender roles, TV programs such as Amore criminale present their narration as objective even when they mix factual and fictional elements (Serra 2014). As the president of the commission against femicide, Francesca Pugliesi, argued in a statement in which she asked for the withdrawal of the show from public television, this process of covered novelization exemplifies the sacrifice of gender violenceās reality to entertainment purposes (Repubblica 2018).
Journalistic inquiries published as books, on the other hand, propose a more variegated set of narratives on the topic of lethal gender violence. As this selection aims to demonstrate, the potentials of the genre discussed above are exploited by some of the journalists who have decided to work on the issue, either by covering a specific story of femicide or by looking at the phenomenon from a broader perspective. The entertaining component is no stranger to inquiries published in books. In fact, these cultural products are influenced by the tendency that the Italian Media Studies scholar Milly Buonanno defined as faction, which describes the growing interest of journalistic texts to welcome fictional modes and intensely emotional registers within a factual narrative (1999:58ā62).
Nevertheless, journalists who experiment with the written format seem to retain a deeper connection to the principle of counter-information [controinformazione]. Historically associated with the vast range of independent inquiries that blossomed in Italy during the highly politicized decades of the 1960s and the 1970s (Veneziani 2006:19ā21), controinformazione refers to the practice of renarrating events that were previously simplified, concealed, or silenced by official media. In this sense, printed journalistic inquiries on femicide tend to present themselves as alternatives to the sensational and stereotypical representation of the phenomenon offered by periodical journalism and TV shows.
Moreover, printed investigative journalism showcases a relationship with the idea of authorship that differs from that displayed in newspaper articles or televised inquiries. The name of the journalist(s) who conducted the research always accompanies the text and the reference to the subjective dimension of the account plays a substantial role, to the point that some reporters make their subjective filter visible by means of implicit allusions to their positioning or through an introduction that clearly states the perspective from which the narration is built. This particular feature is crucial to the representation of nonfictional femicide cases because it guarantees a much more transparent and sincere connection to the reality of the phenomenon and to its related experiences. The specific consideration that investigative journalism demonstrates for the issue of authoriality testifies to the interconnections between the genre and literary writing. This is not a coincidence if we think that for a long time in southern European countries like Italy, journalism was āan extension of the worlds of literature and politics,ā which only started to have an autonomous status and an independent professional path at the end of the nineteenth century (Hallin and Mancini 2004:110).
The contamination with literary strategies such as subjective narration can also be associated with the tradition of the so-called reportage narrativo [narrative reportage], a hybrid journalistic sub-genre linked to the practice of travel writing whose origins can be traced back to the context of eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe, when it flourished as an output of the Grand Tour. In Italy, the reportage narrativo was popularized at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the introduction of the so-called terza pagina [third page], a section that Italian newspapers dedicated to cultural topics (Zangrandi 2003:9ā10). Since then, the sub-genre has been exploited by a significant number of Italian authors, mainly literary writers who have decided to engage in the production of nonfictional texts (Papuzzi 1998:53ā75; Zangrandi 2003:69ā165; Bertoni 2009:28). The reportage narrativo predates Tom Wolfeās New Journalism, which was initiated during the 1960s in the United States and anticipates its tendency to adopt explicitly subjective narrative strategies as well as to reject the category of objectivity as an axle for the reporting process.
However, the influence exercised on the texts considered in this section by the reportage narrativo and by the New Journalism does not prevent the authors from retaining a specific interest in the ideas of documentable reality and truth. This particular tendency differentiates investigative journalism from the literary works that will be analyzed in the chapters included in the second part, which (mostly) engage with the portrayal of actual events but do not aim at offering a detailed account of the facts they represent and showcase a less linear relationship with the principle of truth.
The texts selected for analysis are the following: Il sangue delle donne. Cronache di femminicidi in Umbria [Womenās Blood. Reports on Femicides in Umbria] (2014) by Alvaro Fiorucci, Se questi sono gli uomini [If These Are the Men] (2012) by Riccardo Iacona, and Quello che resta ā Storia di Stefania Noce, il femminicidio e i diritti delle donne nellāItalia dāoggi [What Remains ā The Story of Stefania Noce, Femicide, and Womenās Rights in Italy Today] (2013) by Serena Maiorana. The order in which the texts are discussed is not chronological. On the contrary, it serves the analysis as it helps to categorize the works according to their degree of proximity to the style and ethos of periodical journalism. Although the study focuses on a limited number of books, it can shed light on the tendencies that dominate printed investigative journalism on femicide as well as on the discrepancies that characterize the genre.
