Diasporic and Local Mainstream Media as a Tool for Intercultural Integration? The Case of Latin American Communities in Italy

In Italy, communication research on the impact of media on immigrants’ integration dynamics has up until now privileged the sphere of national mainstream media. This paper takes into consideration the role of diasporic media as complimentary to the latter perspective. In an attempt to assess whether there is in fact an intercultural media integration process occurring in both the mainstream media and the diasporic media players in Italy, this paper focuses on gathering evidence from the media pertaining to the majoritarian society and from those created by and for immigrant communities, in this instance the Latin-American. This evaluation aims to establish the degree to which the two media poles take an interest in each other as well as the story telling they deploy of one another. Interculturalism and intercultural media integration are the main theoretical frameworks used to understand how intercultural dialogue is operationalized at the media level, namely through the production of contents and trends of media consumption. Preliminary findings suggest a local mainstream media scene out of step with the de facto multicultural society, whereas only in some cases do Latin-American diasporic media demonstrate integrative potential capable of” bridging the gap” with the host society rather than merely fulfilling its ingroup “bonding” role.