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Politics and Internet
Italian elections and the web 2.0
Italian
politic do 2.0? Web strategies of Berlusconi's Partito del Popolo looks
less innovative than the Veltroni 'Partito Democratico' but both ignore
Second Life
By
MARCO RICIPUTI
from Ravenna, ITALY
Antonio Di Pietro is the
leader of the 'Italia dei Valori' party and a pioneer of the on-line
political communication. Is the first who bought a land in SL and did
there a conference as minister. He said that the web 2.0 would be an
important battle filed for the electoral campaign. But this time he
wasn't a good prophet.
Web 2.what?
Whatever will be the outcome of the electoral campaign in Italy, it
seems that the web is considered more important than the last pool in
2006. The main parties, 'Il Popolo della libertà (Pdl)' on the centre-right,
and the 'Partito Democratico (Pd)' for the centre-left have both new
websites that try to deal with the last opportunities offered by the
web 2.0.
Most of all the Pd is more focused on the generated content user strategy
and have a complete section of the website for the comments, webTV as
well a google map that show the members - more than 21.000 - of the
Pd network. Then, also on YouTube and Google the Pd is more spread than
the opponent.
Sound strange that the Pdl is less into the new media for the electoral
campaign because its leader Berlusconi is considered a sort of 'wizard'
in the field of communication. The Pdl website looks like a directory
of website linked to the centre-right and focused mainly on the profile
of the political leaders than the e-community.
If the two big ones spend little energy in the web 2.0 communication
the other small parties are not more innovative. The communist- green
left of the 'Sinistra Arcobaleno', the Socialist Party, and the radical
right of 'La Destra' bring all few news about the on line communication
even if their political banner on the streets have all the web address.
On SL
20th January 2006 the French newspaper Liberation open with the debut
of the presidential candidates in Second Life. On the first page a girl
- an avatar of Second Life - with a dressed in red and the symbol of
the socialist behind her.
The photo was taken by Marco 'Manray' Cadioli, special correspondent
for Liberation in Second Life. What was happening in the virtual world
of SL was something related to the French home policy, not anymore to
entertainment or videogame.
This photo dossier can be considered a sort of turning point. After
that Reuters, the leading news provider, opened the SL headquarters
in October 2006, the attention of the mainstream media grew up as well
the number of the residents. The virtual world created by the Linden
Lab became more attractive for politicians who begun to use it in the
electoral campaign.
Well, at least in countries like USA, French and Spain. Few weeks ago
avatars of Zapatero, Gaspar Llaamzares (Izquierda Unida) and Mariano
Rajoy (Partido Popular) had a face-to-face debate on SL, still available
on YouTube.
Was the first political debate between the candidates for the election
in Spain and was made on SL first and then on television. And we don't
need to mention the USA scenario, where Hilary Clinton and Obama battled
also in the virtual world.
But what about Italy? Nothing. There are some spot but no event. The
'italianieuropei' sim of the centre left leader Massimo D'Alema as well
the 'Never Land' sim of Antonio Di Pietro look like desert. The latter
has a SL based group but they decided to do something only after the
election due the lack of interest of the political leader.
The only Italian political group active on SL is the 'friends of Grillo',
supporters of Beppe Grillo, a well know Italian comedian and owner the
one blog considered one of the most influent of the world according
to the British newspaper Guardian. Right now he is organizing the' VDay2'
- it means Fuck Off Day 2', a mass demonstration against the political
Italian system accused to be deeply corrupt.
But in this case we are looking after the electoral campaign.
(Published: 10.04.2008.)
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