EXPERTS DURING THE PANDEMIC: NEW CELEBRITIES?

The seriousness and the diffusion of the Covid-19 pandemic led media to refer to scientists, hosted in most TV talk shows and rapidly become familiar to the Italian public. The article intends to explore if at least some of these experts underwent a process of celebrification, analogous to what happens to members of the entertainment industry. Previous studies highlighted the emergence of celebrity scientists in the media environment (Fahy 2015). The article discusses if this concept applies to the Italian experts involved in the media coverage of the pandemic. It assesses their visibility basing on different datasets on press, television and social media. Then it analyses the celebrification process along some dimensions, included intimization and pop-ization of the pandemic communication. The article concludes that the transformation of experts into new celebrities depends either on the characteristics of the Italian media system or in the communication strategies of the political institutions. © 2022, Comunicazione Politica. All Rights Reserved.

EXPERTS DURING THE PANDEMIC: NEW CELEBRITIES?

The seriousness and the diffusion of the Covid-19 pandemic led media to refer to scientists, hosted in most TV talk shows and rapidly become familiar to the Italian public. The article intends to explore if at least some of these experts underwent a process of celebrification, analogous to what happens to members of the entertainment industry. Previous studies highlighted the emergence of celebrity scientists in the media environment (Fahy 2015). The article discusses if this concept applies to the Italian experts involved in the media coverage of the pandemic. It assesses their visibility basing on different datasets on press, television and social media. Then it analyses the celebrification process along some dimensions, included intimization and pop-ization of the pandemic communication. The article concludes that the transformation of experts into new celebrities depends either on the characteristics of the Italian media system or in the communication strategies of the political institutions. © 2022, Comunicazione Politica. All Rights Reserved.

Inside the Italian Covid-19 task forces

In the year of the pandemic, an unprecedented number of temporary advisory units (consisting of a wide range of experts) emerged in the Italian policy-making landscape to advise the government on ‘crisis management’ in different policy areas–attracting vast media attention. And yet, to date, very little is known about the actual role and composition of these bodies. Our article bridges this gap, mapping these ‘task forces’ so as to understand: i) their functions within policy-making during the pandemic;and ii) who are the experts sitting on these bodies and what expertise they bring to them. The analysis shows that the new advisory units were scarcely formalized, visible or transparent, and that (with some exceptions) they lacked influence. As for their components, a two-step cluster analysis allowed us to identify three ideal-types of experts–the mediator, the interpreter and the scientific expert–ultimately bringing a mix of skills to these exceptional advisory boards. ©, The Founding Editors, Contemporary Italian Politics.