Folle del piccolo schermo. Crowdsourcing e crowdfunding sulla televisione italiana

Abstract

In recent years, the global diffusion of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding has influenced widely Italian broadcasters and media industries. During the last TV seasons, various projects have been developed, trying to collect (textual, video, economic) audience contributions and to organize them into programs and schedules. However, such strategies have often been flawed by some weaknesses, for structural reasons as well as a consequence of web logics partially misunderstood by mainstream media. The essay traces ways, goals and reasons of the “partial adoption” of these techniques by Italian television, focusing in particular on three different case histories: the One Million Eyes, Baby video experiment during the traditional music concert of 1st May, 2013; Italia 2 channel’s crowdsourcing platform (16mm) and various programs across the schedule; anchor Michele Santoro’s pledge for viewers’ subscriptions for his political talk show Servizio Pubblico. In recent years, the global diffusion of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding has influenced widely Italian broadcasters and media industries. During the last TV seasons, various projects have been developed, trying to collect (textual, video, economic) audience contributions and to organize them into programs and schedules. However, such strategies have often been flawed by some weaknesses, for structural reasons as well as a consequence of web logics partially misunderstood by mainstream media. The essay traces ways, goals and reasons of the “partial adoption” of these techniques by Italian television, focusing in particular on three different case histories: the One Million Eyes, Baby video experiment during the traditional music concert of 1st May, 2013; Italia 2 channel’s crowdsourcing platform (16mm) and various programs across the schedule; anchor Michele Santoro’s pledge for viewers’ subscriptions for his political talk show Servizio Pubblico