‘Women in the history of the media’, an essay talks about authors, artists and influencers

The history of the media is male history. Women, in roles ‘above and below the lines’, contributed substantially but were ‘forgotten’ in official historical accounts. Reconstructing profiles of women in the media, yesterday and today, is a challenge for sociological research and the first step towards a history of female media. The essay, “Women in the history of the media. Authors, artists, influencers, between the foreground and behind the scenes has just been published by Franco Angeli and is written by Anna Lucia Natale and Paola Panarese.

1924 marked the hundredth anniversary of Radio and the seventieth anniversary of TV in our country. This volume celebrates them by enhancing some of the many protagonists, yesterday and today, who contributed to making the history of the ‘old’ means of communication. And without losing sight of digital media. Created by the GeMMa (Gender and Media Matters) research unit of the Department of Communication and Social Research of Sapienza University of Rome, the book is part of that international trend of ‘gender and media studies’ which, by highlighting the marginalization of women in official stories of broadcasting, aims to highlight its creative contribution to the evolution of communication languages ​​and the media industry.

From this perspective, unprecedented in Italian research in the sector, the texts collected in the essay concern television and radio authors such as Laura Toscano, Lidia Motta or Serena Dandini, performers such as Raffaella Carrà, comedians such as Luciana Littizzetto and Lella Costa, presenters of ‘crime’ programs like Donatella Raffai. And, with a look at social media and new forms of female agency, activists and virtual influencers. What emerges is a varied picture of competent and creative women who, ranging from television fiction to radio narratives and online activism, from entertainment to social commitment, have opened new paths in the narrative of women.

Radio-TV authors in an unprecedented perspective in Italian research in the sector

What is essentially being evoked here is “a history of the media which is attentive not only to the institutional and technological aspects of the media, but also which studies the media in relation to ‘broader economic, social and cultural phenomena’ – the authors explain – A history which in itself implies and requires the contribution of different disciplines, calling into question methods, suggestions and interests of media studies, media history and women’s history, gender studies or the media industry”.

Anna Lucia Natale was associate professor of History of radio and television at the Faculty of Political Science, Sociology and Communication at Sapienza University of Rome. She was director of the GeMMa Research Unit. Among his most recent publications: Radio programming by and for women in Italy in the 1970s (‘Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies’, 2023).

Paola Panarese is full professor of Sociology of cultural and communicative processes at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Sociology, Communication of the Sapienza University of Rome. She is president of the Master’s Degree Course in Gender Studies, Cultures and Policies for Media and Communication and director of the Mediamonitor Minors Research Observatory and of the GeMMa Research Unit. Among his latest publications: Advertising in the digital age. Models, techniques and scenarios (with C. De Luca, Carocci 2024).