Where: Perugia, Italy
When: April, 13-17, 2011
Alter Ego: the other as described by the media
The session of Alter ego started with a movie by the film director Alessandro De Filippo. The hall was not at all crowded. However the present audience seemed to enjoy every piece of silence while capturing the touchy beginning of the music of the movie and the sound of waves hitting the boat of migrants on their way to Sicily, the attractive destination for migrants.
The movie tackled the issues of migrants outlining their life from the arrival to the popular Italian island till the point of settling down. Migrants from different parts of the world (Morocco, Senegal, Colombia, Vietnam, Kenya and others) were interviewed to learn about their life in their new home land.
The film stressed that usually the migrants who arrive to Italy, particularly Sicily are shown in media with an image of desperation, big boat and generally negative impression. However, the stories prove that most of them do not arrive by boat and illegally.
All of the migrants interviewed were speaking fluent Italian and shared their stories. Some had gone through hard work and life experiences, like living on a street or working as sellers on a beach. However, they all seemed to be settled down now. They mentioned robbery and burglary as the biggest problem happened to them. A Chinese couple said they had been robbed for 8 times making the amount of 60 000 euros. The items to be stolen can lead to everything – usually house, car, money, etc., even personal photos.
The migrants were also asked whether they are planning to return to their home countries. The majority confirmed that they find their new place as home and would not come back or if would – they wouldn’t belong to their home society any more. However, some also realize their dual identity. Moreover, after going through migrant status they find themselves eligible to accept the diversity no matter of religion, race or different point of view. “Each person has something to give and something to learn from,” some are convinced.
After the movie the discussion took place starring the film director, Giuseppe Faso (director Centro Interculturale Empolese-Valdelsa), Alioune Badara Gueye (cultural mediator), Elena Parasiliti (editorTerre di Mezzo). The discussion stressed the problems of media representation of immigration issues in Italy (crisis on Lampedusa island), like exaggerating and making sensations, creating negative stereotypes and using biased language. Speakers tried to suggest means (discussion, explanation in schools, confrontations of opinions and experiences) to overcome these tendencies, which influence a lot the common perception of immigrants in Italy.
Netizens of the world Unite!
We are in times when virtual world manages more than the physical world thanks to such opportunities as Facebook, Youtube, Second Life and others. This is how the panel of ‘Netizens of the world unite!’ was opened.
Daniele Sensi (l’AntiComunitarista) started the panel with focusing on accessibility of the accounts the users have in the social networks, particularly his personal experience with the YouTube channel. He analyzed why in some cases the users are blocked, deleted or denied and showed the examples of violation from YouTube. One of the conclusions he made was that Google without any clear reason can prevent you from accessing the material.
Peter Ludlow (philosopher, Northwest University Chicago) was asked to be the next speaker and explain his thesis said in his recently published book that ‘people who build these platforms should not be only good software engineers, but humanists’. ‘I think the rights we have in real world should be the same as in virtual world,’ he stressed. Therefore, he outlined the problem: ‘these platforms are not run by people of humanities – they are brilliant programmers, but not maybe great humanists’, like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook). This means that laws of virtual world are created without the background of humanities, he added.
Alessandro Giliolo (L’Espresso) continued commenting on Peter Ludlow’s book. He said it’s extraordinary as it’s for the first time focusing on the rights of the netizens. He admitted that it’s the first time when companies have enormous rights, but they deny these rights to users. A.Giliolo compares this phenomenon to Kafka novels and calls it ‘blind beauracracy’ and ‘silly beauracracy’ wondering what principles these social networks follow to delete, deny and block users on the net. Especially, the speaker stresses Facebook platform.
However, A.Giliolo gives some critics to Peter Ludlow’s book, namely, he disagrees on what the author says that there’s nothing what politics can do. A.Giliolo argues he doesn’t believe in the power of the users and that virtual worlds could become more democratic.
Peter Ludlow said he agrees that the situation with Facebook is very serious as so many people are spending their social and working lifes on Facebook. Moreover, Peter Ludlow states that by 2015 Facebook will have become the largest economic bank in the world as the amount of money there will be larger than in any other world bank. Furthermore, Peter Ludlow thinks that sometimes journalists don’t take Facebook as serious as they should. Therefore, he thinks it’s important that journalists focus and report on what’s going on in Facebook the same as what’s going on the world.
The question of constitutional law for Facebook was discussed further on. A.Giliolo added here that some countries, like Scandinavian and Baltic States already have gone ahead with including the rights of Internet.
Peter Ludlow concluded the discussion with the follow-up ideas: firstly, we have to admit that there is a problem with the governance on Internet, particulary Facebook, secondly, we have to educate people about the problem and explain it and further on, we have to search for solutions.
Citizen and graphic journalism: the power of comics meets grassroots information
Sala dei Notari, 10.00, 16.04.
The panel discussion introduced the audience with four different cartoonists and their work experience as well as informed about the first Italian magazine of graphic journalism 'Mamma!'.
James Burns (USA) was the first speaker to go through his cartoonist's career. The topics of his cartoons are different: financial crises, politics, elections and others. He also captures people and situations that make him angry: consumerism, people who drive slowly or wear baseball caps backwards, intolerance, homophobia. The cartoonist also shared his experience on a personal frightening event as for a visual artist – eyes operation – what inspired him to create a comic story called “Detached”.
Dan Perkins (USA) was the next to take the floor. He said he has focused on political cartoons for 20 years, mostly run in alternative newsweeklies. He also said that creating cartoons takes a lot more time than writing articles as for cartoons the cartoonist needs to have well thought jokes.
Maurizio Boscarol has been drawing cartoons for more than four years. His work has been published in some political websites, as well as Mamma.am. The cartoonist stresses that he is not a journalist. 'The kind of journalism I practise is describing events,' he explained. Moreover, he thinks that the cartoons themselves is not journalism. 'You need something more than drawing, like commentary, facts – this is what we are trying to do in Mamma,' the cartoonist explained. He also added that the cartoonist has to find the balance between pictures and text. M. Boscarol went on elaborating on the case of Italy. 'There is increasing interest towards graphic narration called infographics,' he said.
Flaviano Armentaro was the last and the youngest cartoonist to be introduced in the panel. He explained how his hobby – satir, comic and cartoons – has turned him now into storyborder and an animation cartoonist. The cartoonist talked about the working process of the cartoonist and said it's important to be honest and sincere. 'If someone wants to take up cartoonist's career, you should be as honest as possible so that after the years you can say: I said what I said,' the cartoonist stresses. He also said it's important not to just describe facts in order to capture the readers' interest. Moreover, he stressed that cartoonists should bring their own experience when drawing cartoons, something that concerns them and what readers cannot find in news.
The discussion was wrapped up by Carlo Gubitosa, the editor of Mamma!. He said that nowadays when journalism is not just text anymore, it's impossible to think about it without pictures, infographics, little boxes with texts. The panel discussion ended with a video presentation of Mamma!, magazine which offers satirical strips, powered interviews, photo reportages and other visual ways of telling the story.
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