Ethereal Shadows : Communications and Power in Contemporary Italy

Focusing on the recent Italian "videocracy," this book documents the emergence of the first Italian media mogul, Silvio Berlusconi, and his rise to and recent fall from political power.

It also explores Italian media activism through three case studies: a discussion of the first autonomous free radio station, Radio Alice (which broadcasted in Bologna between 1977 and 1979); a review of Italian Internet activism focusing on a political site, Rekombinant.org (created in 2000); and finally, a chronicle of the emergence in 2002 of OrfeoTV, the first Italian example of an illegal micro-TV station.