After the Earthquake: Italians Recover Their Pets

There is an article on the front page of ANSA.com that caught my attention today about pets that have been found alive and well in the rubble a full week after the tragic earthquake. The local authorities are having difficulty locating the owners of the fortunate animals because the citizens are so dispersed because of the disaster. Dog collars or even implanted tracking microchips don't really help when the address and phone number provided no longer exists.

The article ended with a first hand story told by a couple from Rome who lost their dog on the day of the earthquake and were just reunited with him. It really is a touching story. Here is the portion of the article:

"One such story emerged on Easter Sunday, when a tiny grey dog was pulled alive and well from the remains of a hotel after spending eight days trapped beneath rubble. Nicknamed "Pasqualina", meaning Little Easter, by rescue workers, the dog was staying in a L'Aquila hotel with her owners from Rome when the quake struck. The couple only realized their beloved pet was trapped inside after fleeing the hotel. "At that point it was too late - the stairs had collapsed and when I tried to get back in, the floor gave way as well," explained Marcello Luciolimoli, who had to be held back by firefighters as he struggled to get in. The couple eventually gave up and returned to Rome. But on Easter Sunday, they rushed back to L'Aquila for an emotional reunion with Pasqualina, after rescue workers tracked them down through her microchip."

In all of the journalism classes I have taken so far, I have been taught to write "people stories." This term means to lead the article with a news worthy individual and their particular situation or perspective on a broad issue. The purpose is write with the intention to immediately relate to the reader and hook them in with the first paragraph and then explain the broader perspective and end off with the technical aspect. This article did the exact opposite. I thought that was interesting to see; maybe it shows a different way that Italian news consumers read information or what journalists deem as most crucial to their article.

Russell Peters on Italy

Russell Peters is a stand-up comedian from Canada. This is part of his latest DVD called Red, White, and Brown. It was released in Canada in September 2008 and in the U.S. on January 27, 2009. He talks about his visit to Italy and the language and people there. It's pretty funny. Check it out!

Guess I probably should warn you that he says the "F" word a couple of times towards the end.. but it is for a good joke!

Adnkronos International as a "bridge" to the Arab World

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/hp/#

This link connects to the main page of the AKI website. There is a video there titled "Adnkronos Multimedia Platform" that is about how the reporters for AKI cover news and information in the Arab world. The founder of AKI is in the video and he explains why he feels it is important for Italy to be connected to their neighbors in the Middle East. Very interesting video clip that explains why this site offers news in Arabic over many other languages and goes into detail about how and why they cover the issues and geographic locations that they do.

Culture of Romance

Rome - February 10, 2009 - You can take inspiration from the 'country of romance' by learning some lovely Italian phrases to say to your sweetheart on Valentine's Day. This will cost you nothing but a bit of time and effort and will sound sexy when whispered into your lover's ear.

Italians are in love with love and romance. They revel in the news of any engagement, marriage or birth of a baby. As you stroll through any town in Italy, you will see lovers intertwined and oblivious to anything going on around them. Romance and passion are a necessity for Italians.

This has always been true in Italy: think of Romeo and Juliet, Casanova, Marcello Mastroianni, and Sofia Loren or Raoul Bova and Diane Lane in "Under the Tuscan Sun ".

Consider the songs of Andrea Bocelli; while the music is beautiful, so much of the emotion has to do with the passionate words he is emoting.

What of the many romantic movies filmed in Italy such as Room With a View, Under The Tuscan Sun, Respiro, Summertime and many, many more?

You can be as romantic as any Italian by using a few simple phrases listed below:

Ti amo-I love you
Ti adoro-I adore you
Mi manchi-I miss you
Ti penso sempre-I always think about you
Sei sempre nel mio cuore- You are always in my heart
Voglio baciarti-I want to kiss you
Sei molto bella/bello-You are very beautiful/handsome
Mi manchi come l'aria che respiro-I miss you like the air that I breathe
Vaffanculo!-Happy Valentine's Day!

This is an article taken from OnlyInItaly.com. I know Valentine's Day was a while ago but I was in a romantic mood when I saw this article and I thought it was sweet! Italian is such a beautiful language, it only seems fit that the culture is one that values love and romance.

April Fools Day!!!!!

This video is absolutely hilarious. Prank #3 is what I did to my mom for about seven consecutive years. Had to put it on here.

Happy April Fools!!

Italy: Human Trafficking gang busted

Italian police in the northeastern city of Udine carried out a successful operation titled "Goldfish-2" dismantling a major human trafficking gang in the area.This criminal gang has allegedly trafficked hundreds of illegal immigrants from India and Pakistan into Europe. A majority of the illegal immigrants end up in Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, via countries such as the Ukraine and Russia.

For another assignment in this class, I am looking into human trafficking issues in the United States and abroad. I found an article today on AKI website about the gang bust and after reading it I can see how big of a problem human trafficking is. There is the obvious problem of illegal immigrants entering countries and the effects on the security of their borders. But an additional issue is the standard of living of the immigrants during and after they are illegally transported. This article discussed immigrants entering the European Union coming particularly from Pakistan and India. This issue seems to be on a larger scale than most people realize.

Could their living situation really be so horrible in their homeland that they subject themselves to these dangerous gang members?
Where would the international community even begin to minimize this problem?

In this article, it was mentioned that this gang had headquarters in Moscow, Italy and Slovakia and people working together between the three locations. This is scary to me because this issue is on an international scale. Criminals in different regions, with different laws and different governments, are collaborating to move these people illegally in and out of countries. When I look further into this issue for my project I'm sure I will discover that human trafficking is even worse and bigger than what I can see now.

SOCCER: Impossible Goal of Mascara from Center Field

ZENIT- The World seen from Perspective of Rome

This outlet provides information on the activities of the Pope, interviews with men and women from the Catholic Church, international news and current social, political and religious topics that are under debate. Many professionals and volunteers that work for ZENIT also work for the church or their work is closely related to the church.
The article that I read today was essentially a summary of the U.S. State Department 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practice published on February 25th. It highlighted different countries and areas of concern that were mentioned in the report. The article opened with the news that the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The leader of Sudan is accused of being responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of people in the Dafur region during the recent conflicts.
This article contained a separate section at the end that discussed religious rights in the world, or lack there of. This section, along with the fact that the writer of this article is Father John Flynn, could be considered the distinguishing characteristics of news distributed from ZENIT. Choosing to include religious discrimination, and the persecution of Christians may not have been the same choice made by other news outlets.
ZENIT has a defined intended audience and while the news seems varied, current, and valuable, it certainly has a focus- the social and political issues in relation to the Catholic Church.

A look at Adnkronos International

Adnkronos International (AKI) is an independent news agency that is focused on information exchange, research and dialogue between Italy, Europe and the emerging areas of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

Today I looked over the headlines to discover exactly what this statement means...

The first feature I noticed was the fact that the site is available is three languages- Italian, English and Arabic. This shows a focus on a European target auidence more so than Asian or Spanish speaking countries.

The previously noted fact is related to the second thing I noticed upon opening the web page- the headlines!
-Mideast: Donors pledge new aid for Gaza recovery
-Mideast: Italian premier pledges $100 mln for Gaza reconstruction
-US: Italian bank may face charges over illegal Iranian payments
-Indonesia: Men may be jailed for multiple marriages
-Iraq: Saddam's cousin sentenced to death for third time
I couldn't find the photographer's name for this photo of
Ali Hassan al-Majid but here is the link back to where I found this picture included with the article from AKI...http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3063449209

The headlines I just listed were in that same order down the home web page of the English version of Adnkronos International. I think that the languages included in addition to the Italian option says a lot about this news service. There is English, which statistically makes sense because English is the most commonly read language on the world wide web, and then the third option is Arabic. I have been hearing now for about the past four years of my education that learning Arabic would be extremely valuable to my career in media.

As a journalism student, I am in fact studying a second language, Spanish. Currently, Spanish-speakers are nearing the same number of English speakers in America and therefore it the most valuable second language for me.

It is interesting that this particular Italian media outlet offers Arabic over any other Asian, European or Latin American languages. This fact must be based on what news they cover, what issues, and who they believe will be consuming their reports.

Then, the first two headlines began "Mideast:..." So I believe that there is probably a high number of Italian reporters in the Middle Eastern countries, reporting on the issues that maybe not all media outlets cover.

Also, I really liked browsing this web site for my news. In addition to the initial scroll down of headlines, the page is divided into a number of sub menus that covered more international and cultural topics than most sites I am used to. There is very sophisticated media available as well, including audio, videos and pictures. All of these elements reflects a certain credibility that I look for when I put my trust in a website to provide me without unbias, important, timely information.

I will probably write more about AKI in the future.

Italy as head of the G8

As of January, Italy has been the new head of the Group of Eight ministerial conference. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini says that the main goal of the G8 this term will be to make moves towards a new "global governance" for economic and security issues.
Italy has included additional countries in the meetings regarding the approach to Afghanistan security. They plan to include Iran as a crucial regional addition to the discussion as well as China, India, Russia, central Asia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The main issue on the agenda is to defuse the Islamist terrorist threat ''which has its roots and bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan.''
(I read this account in an article found at ANSA.com)

Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata is based and distributed in Italy and it's main auidence are Italians. I took note of today's headlines on ANSA.com and they were for the most part regarding international news. This media outlet focuses more on Italy's involvement in world affairs rather than local politics, government and issues. It is Italian news on a larger scale.

Also ranked among the "top news" category were headlines about soccer, France, Sarah Palin's visit to Rome and additional stories of what to expect from Italy as the new head of the G8.

Internet Censorship in Italy

This is an article that I found on OnlyinItaly.com.
Although this site compiles humerous articles, this topic is pretty serious.
How much freedom on the internet are Italians permitted if this law gets passed?
Would this type of vague restriction on freedom of expression ever be allowed to pass in America?
How will international internet service providers respond; particularly American providers?

Internet Censorship Crash Lands in Italy

Rome - February 11, 2009 - Italy may be able to force Internet providers to block access to Web sites including Facebook, the world's largest social-networking site, if they incite or justify criminal behavior, according to an amendment to a bill passed by the Senate.

Italian prosecutors began looking into Facebook groups dedicated to convicted Sicilian Mafia bosses Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Riina last month to verify whether they were used to send coded messages to mobsters. No official investigation was opened, according to Palermo prosecutor Maurizio De Lucia.

"The Internet must be free, but it can't be a jungle where good people and murderers are indistinguishable," Senator Gianpiero D'Alia, the lawmaker in Rome who introduced the amendment, said referring to Facebook fan clubs dedicated to the convicted mafia bosses.
"It's indecent that Facebook said that it won't allow pictures of mothers breastfeeding while there are no rules about removing groups of delinquents," D'Alia said in an interview today.
The aim isn't to block sites like Facebook or YouTube totally if they contain criminal content. Instead, the law is intended to force them to remove pages dedicated to groups inciting or justifying crimes, D'Alia said. The language of the bill doesn't distinguish between blacking out pages or entire Web sites.

The bill says the Interior Ministry will be able to order the blocking of Web sites if prosecutors first verify the criminal content of the sites. The bill would also make it illegal to incite others to commit crimes on the Internet, D'Alia said. It would be a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, he said. It's already illegal to do so in the printed press in Italy.

Should Internet providers including Fastweb SpA, Telecom Italia SpA or Tiscali SpA fail to follow the ministry's order to black out the pages or sites, they may face a fine of as much as 250,000 euros ($322,338), the proposed law says.

"This creates a precedent for the preventive censure of unwanted opinions," Marco Pancini, YouTube's European policy consultant, said in an interview. "Because it's aimed at service providers, this law won't allow the filtering of single content pages, but will lead to entire platforms being blacked out."

Internet providers aren't able to eliminate single elements from Web sites, Pancini said. YouTube has the ability to eliminate potentially criminal or offensive material in collaboration with the Italian postal police, Pancini said, adding that laws regulating criminal content already exist. D'Alia said that current laws cover only pedophilia. An April 2003 law says that once a Web site is informed of illicit material in its domain, then that material must be removed immediately.

One of the Facebook groups that first sparked controversy last month with 481 fans proposes making Provenzano, who has been convicted of ordering more than a dozen murders, a saint. A group for Riina, who was known as "the Beast" for his penchant for violence and murder, has 945 members whose comments include, "You're my idol," and, "You're the best."

While there are groups for mobsters and even for accused Italian rapists, Facebook also has a group hailing as heroes Palermo prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who were assassinated on the orders of Riina after successfully prosecuting hundreds of mobsters. That group has 369,463 fans.

The measure was inserted as an amendment to a bill aimed at cracking down on crime that the Senate passed on Feb. 5. The measure must pass in the Chamber of Deputies without being changed to become law.

Here is a list of the Italian news outlets that I will be focusing on for this project. I picked out a few that cover a variety of issues from different perspectives. I plan to use these media outlets as my main source for analysis and comparison about current events in Italy and around the world.

-Andkronos International (AKI) is an independent news agency that is focused on information exchange, research and dialogue between Italy, Europe and the emerging areas of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/hp/

-Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) is a national news agency that is made up of 36 members who are editors of major Italian newspapers who share the common goal to publish and distribute the news.
http://www.ansa.it/site/index.html

-LaSpecula.com is a multilingual online newspaper that provides news from all over the world. The website is divided up by region, covering events in Africa, America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
http://www.laspecula.com/

-Football Italia is an offifial website for English-speaking fans of Italian football. It includes coverage of the players and the games as well as statistics and programming information.
http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/index.html

-Only in Italy.com is a compilement of news stories from Italian publications that are funny and/or ironic. The makers of this website do not exploit outrageous stories from tabloids or sensational broadcasts. They cite that they only translate stories from mainstream daily newspapers.
http://www.onlyinitaly.com/index.html

-ZENIT News Agnecy is an outlet that attemps to view current events through the messages of the pope and the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. Their purpose is to inform the public about the topics, debates and events that are especially interesting to Christians worldwide.
http://www.zenit.org/index.php?l=english

As you can see, some of the sites I picked are just for fun. I have an interest in soccer and it will be fun for me to follow an Italian football news outlet. Also, I like seeing some humor in everything I do, and I think that reading some ridicuous real published articles will be fun.

The other news services I listed are for comparison purposes. I will utilize them to see how different view points determine what story is the lead, or what adjectives are used or if there is any obvious bias among the outlets. It will be interesting to see which outlets decide what events to include and focus on or to leave out of their publication entirely.