Strong images, alarmed tones, effective juxtapositions. Tailor-made cut and sew. And again: disturbing suggestions, allusions, subjective deductions. A video questions and dismantles, step by step, the investigation “Melonian Youth“, made by Fanpage and passed off as a major scoop capable of shaking up the Brothers of Italy. On Youtube, the independent channel VisualRevolverdedicated to the themes of visual culture and current events, analyzed the video in question from a strictly communicative point of view, trying to highlight its most controversial and least convincing aspects. There was no shortage of material on the subject: in a concentrated nine-minute period, in fact, the media strategies and directorial work of what is critically defined as a “manipulative and propagandistic“.
The counterpoint to the investigation of Fanpage starts first with some observations on the assemblywhich from the beginning combines goliardic chants and fascist salutes, superimposing them on images and phrases by Giorgia Meloni, which however come from a completely different context. The sequence seems to suggest an approval of those actions by the leader of Fratelli d’Italia, although there is no correlation between the two things. The film then secretly films some young people singing a song: the meeting is introduced by the guide voice with alarmed words. In reality the passage chanted by the militants is nothing other than “Come on guys from Buda“, written in October 1966 by the TV author Pier Francesco Pingitore, the father of Bagalino, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. “Although it belongs to the right-wing repertoire, it has no subversive message but celebrates the struggle of the Hungarian people against the Soviets.“, remember those of VisualRevolver.
“Everything is designed to elevate a anxiety-inducing climax in the spectator“, comments the independent web channel in reference to the first frames of the investigation. Fanpagelater, infiltrates another concert of identity music, presented however as a gathering of extremists. The presence, in the same building, of some parliamentarians of Brothers of Italy who greet each other by shaking their forearms: what a scandal. Always with hidden cameras, the newspaper records some slogans of fascist origin pronounced by some boys, without however dwelling on the mocking tone and joking that seems to emerge from those exclamations. Even the apparently strongest sentences, in fact, are always accompanied by laughter that should at least make one doubt their real seriousness.
Fanpagehowever, does not even hint at the possibility that it is a joke (perhaps in very bad taste and not at all shareable, but still such) and otherwise overdoes it. Moreover, in the investigation they are never shown the faces of the militants and also this – according to VisualRevolver – it would also be a very specific communication strategy.”By preventing the viewer from seeing their faces, he fills the gap with prejudicial images and will tend to imagine these boys with astereotypical idea“, they explain. It is then remembered that in a party it is the public speeches that have value and not the phrases uttered by individuals in contexts that are anything but official. “Focusing on the private speeches of individual members, presenting them as the real substance, is therefore an act of bad faithbecause it exposes the vision of a single individual not mediated as a collective“, analysts contest, pointing out how – in the videos – it is the young militants themselves who complain about this modus operandi.
The investigation then turns its sights on Flaminia Peaceformer leader of National Youth who resigned just a few days ago, also due to some of her statements on the funds received by the movement. “From next year we will have another type of income that will come from the civil service“, says the girl, explaining that the volunteers will probably be asked to donate part of the 500 euros received as a donation. Here too, there is no scandal: in addition to not being illegal, the idea is entirely theoretical as it was thought up in perspective but not implemented. But it is still about jokes and jokes nostalgic slogans That VisualRevolver he dwells: “The boundary between joke and seriousness, in a context of this type, is very thin, especially when you find yourself in an informal situation. The directorial approach of the video, however, makes everything very serious and threatening, in this way the viewer struggles to recognize the context and is thus led to take every word seriously and to be scandalized by jokes about the Duce or abortion, as if they were confessions.“.
The icing on the cake is a video in which Roberto Saviano “explains,” in an extremely alarmed tone, how the entire investigation should be interpreted. “We should all be anxious, because democracy is being progressively manipulated, compromised“, says the writer.
But the construction of the investigation, in light of the critical observations proposed, falters right from the basic thesis, making the alleged scoop appear as a media operation assembled with wisdom but overall really unconvincing.
